Fast Easy Chow

Goulash For Dinner

June 18th, 2008

Well, tonight should be a night you - the non-cook of the family gets dinner to the hungry masses. Give the “real” cook a break tonight!

When I cook stuff I like it to be fast and only require a little effort - I don’t want to be burning all the calories on cooking the meal I plan to intake before I sit and eat it. Reminds me of what my Grandfather told me long ago, “God only gave you so many heart beats, don’t waste them.” This meal will not use any of your extra heart beats and it tastes great too.

Traditional Goulash is a Hungarian dish - my recipe is neither traditional nor Hungarian. Why do we call it goulash? No idea, it is what my Mom called it - feel free to call it whatever you feel comfortable with if the name is already used on a different recipe in your kitchen.

So, here we go. You will need about two pounds of ground beef, an onion, large can of whole tomatoes, some elbow noodles, hot sauce and salt and pepper.

Start to brown the ground beef, at the same time bring a few cups of water to boil (enough to cook a handful of elbow noodles). When the water comes to a boil put the noodles in, add a little salt (just a couple shakes) - stir occasionally so they don’t stick together.

Chop up the onion, I do big chunks and put in with the ground beef when it is about one quarter cooked (if I have any I also put in a clove of garlic, minced, your call - not a requirement).

Now that the ground beef is cooked (ain’t no red, its all brown) put it into a strainer/culinder (the dang thing you drain spaghetti in) in the sink - let it drain.

In the same pan - oops, should have mentioned that in the beginning - when you cook the ground beef do it in a pot, one with the two hand holders, not the one with the single stick-like holder. Anyway in that pot pour in the whole tomatoes and the juice, let them heat up a bit (this is a good time to slice them up a little, just don’t scratch the bottom of the pot - the wife will get aggravated if you do and you will lose any bonus points gained by cooking the meal in the first place).

Pour the ground beef/onion into the pot with the tomatoes, stir - make sure we are now on low heat, a “simmer” if you will.

The noodles should be about done by now - take one out without burning yourself and taste it, if it don’t seem crunchy its good. Use the same strainer in the same sink, drain.

Pour the noodles in the pot with the ground beef/onion/tomato mixture, stir - season to taste with a little hot sauce, salt and pepper and you have just made dinner.

Bone-app-E-tit!