What Can I Make With Ground Beef, Potatoes, and Cheese?

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When I got home today, I opened the fridge, and saw that I needed to use the ground deer burger that I had thawed out over the weekend.  I didn’t have stuff for spaghetti, we had already had tacos this week, so it was back to the drawing board.  Did I mention that I have about 5 minutes to make a decision, because I had to be somewhere in about 30 minutes from that time.  So, I googled, “What can I make with ground beef, potatoes, and cheese?”.  

Why did I ask the question, “What can I make with ground beef, potatoes, and cheese?” 

Have you ever been in this situation before? It happens to me at least twice a week.  I usually plan for four meals, but the rest of the time we are ALL  going to get a surprise for dinner.  You start to get to where you can take a few ingredients and create something.  It may not be a ten, but dinner is served. A friend of mine taught me years ago that you can simply look at what you have in your fridge, pantry, or freezer, and google, “What can I make with….”.  You fill in the blanks.   

Why is this an important question? 

This post is about this particular dinner, but it is more about encouraging you to create something and improvise when you need to.  When you live in the country like we do, you don’t go to the store when you need a few ingredients.  You get your groceries once a week and then you shop in your own pantry or freezer and figure out what you can make.  I have recipe books and a long history of cooking, but being able to google, “What can I make with…..?”, has saved me lots of time and brain power.   

What other types of questions can I ask?

A few weeks ago I asked, “What can I make with ground beef, Doritos, and cheese?”.  I might ask, “What soup can I make with diced tomatoes, cheese, and chicken?”.  The list goes on and on.  

Why did you ask about ground beef when you are cooking with ground deer?

I substitute all things ground beef with deer burger.  I am blessed to have a family of hunters who process their harvest.  We have a freezer full of deer burger, deer tenderloins, and deer roast.  We also have deer salami, deer sticks, and deer bologna that we send off to be processed for us.  It is a lean and healthy meat that we love and get to enjoy.  

What if I am new to cooking?

Don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s 10, 20, or 30 plus years.  We all began somewhere.  I remember looking at a glass deviled egg dish that I received as a wedding gift and not having a clue what it was.  Thank you to my cousin Sarah for leaning over and whispering what it was to me.  Cooking and baking consist of a lot of trial and error and it is ok to try new things, fail, succeed, try again, and change things.  I learned this early on primarily because of living in the country.  Like I mentioned earlier, you use what you have.   

What happened when you googled, “What can I make with ground burger, potatoes, and cheese?”

Well, similar recipes for a casserole came up.  I picked one and went with it.  Roadblock, I didn’t have cream of mushroom soup.  That’s ok, I just googled, “How do I make my own cream of mushroom soup?”.  I hit a second roadblock.  I didn’t have heavy cream or mushrooms.  I’ll preach it again.  Figure it out and don’t be afraid.  I just used more butter, more flour, regular milk, and no mushrooms.  I just assumed that the goal was to cover the potatoes with liquid and I knew that cream of mushroom soup was thick, so this makeshift cream of something soup, that happened to be very similar to gravy, would have to work.  And work it did! 

What ingredients did I need for this recipe?

I needed an onion, milk, butter, flour, ground deer (beef), potatoes, cheese, and salt and pepper. The recipe called for cream of mushroom soup, but I used flour, butter, and milk to make a thick like gravy substance to use instead.  I had cheddar cheese, but I knew if I needed more than one bag, I would just use the rest of the cheese blend that I had.  Again, just go with it.  

What steps did I take to make this potato, ground beef, and cheese recipe?

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  
• Brown one pound of ground beef and ½ of a diced onion.  I used one and a half pounds of deer burger because that is how much was in the package. 
• Slice the potatoes. I sliced them thin.  I don’t see why you couldn’t cut them into small chunks.  
• Melt three tablespoons of butter over medium heat.  Add 5 tablespoons of flour to the butter once it is melted and stir.  This is your roux.  Yes, I had to look up how to spell that. 
• Stir in one cup milk.  I added another ¼ of a cup because it was way too thick.  If it is too thick, just add a little milk at a time.  
• Spray a 9×9 or casserole dish.
• Dump in the ground beef and onion mixture, one cup milk, cream of gravy mixture, and potatoes.
• Season with 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper, and stir around.
• Make sure that the potatoes are covered with the liquid.
• Cover with foil and bake for 60 minutes.  
• Take out of the oven, remove the foil, cover with cheese, and bake for 2-5 more minutes or until the cheese is melted.

What did your family think of this meal?

I of course gave it a ten out of ten because I had a hot and cheap delicious meal all in the comfort of my own home.  To be honest, it wasn’t a family favorite, but I didn’t have any complainers.  Now, the one that I made with Doritos, ground deer, and cheese was a hit, and we only had a tiny bit of leftovers for that meal.  I actually need to make that one again. 

Would you make it again?

I know it is an option, but it will not be making my weekly or monthly rotation.  However, we still had a homemade, semi-healthy meal with meat and potatoes.