If you’ve ever stood in the grocery store staring at a box of Hamburger Helper and thought “I wish I had something like this but without all the stuff I can’t pronounce,” this post is for you.
That’s exactly what this new series is all about.
We’re starting with something the whole family is going to love: a homemade cheeseburger pasta that comes together in one skillet, uses simple pantry ingredients, and takes almost no effort to put on the table.
Here’s how it works. You mix all the dry ingredients ahead of time and store them in a jar on your shelf.
When it’s time to eat, you brown some ground beef, dump in your jar mix and some water, simmer for 15 minutes, add cheese, and dinner is done.
Sound too good to be true? It’s not.
Let’s get into it.
Enter the Mix in Jars Volume 2 Cookbook Giveaway!
What You Need for the Jar Mix
You have two options for storing this mix. You can combine everything—including the pasta in a half-gallon mason jar.
Or, what I’ll do going forward, is keep a box of pasta on the shelf alongside a pint jar of all the dry seasonings and powders.
Either way works. The pint jar method is just a little more practical for everyday use.
Here’s what goes into the mix:
Pasta: 4 cups of pasta (elbow macaroni or small shells work great—use what you have)
Note: If you’re using a larger pasta shape, reduce by about 1/4 to 1/2 cup.
Dry Mix (for the pint jar):
- 1 tablespoon tomato powder
- 2 tablespoons beef broth powder
- 1/2 cup whole milk powder (whole milk powder makes a noticeable difference in flavor over non-fat)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
Add your dry mix ingredients to a pint jar, shake it up, and set it next to your pasta on the shelf.
You just made a pantry-ready one pot meal kit!
How to Turn It Into Dinner
What you’ll need:
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1/2 onion, chopped
- 1/2 tablespoon minced garlic (fresh, dried, or from the jar)
- 1 pound ground beef
- 4 cups water (possibly up to 5)
- Your jar mix + pasta
- Optional: 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 cups shredded cheese
Step 1: Sauté the aromatics. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chopped onion and cook for about a minute until golden. Add minced garlic and sauté another minute or so until fragrant.
Quick tip on garlic: If you grow your own garlic or buy it in bulk, try dehydrating or freeze-drying your minced garlic instead of keeping it in the fridge. When you need it, just add a tiny bit of water to rehydrate while your pan heats up. Works great and means no refrigeration needed.
Step 2: Brown the ground beef. Add one pound of ground beef and brown thoroughly. You are not draining the grease — that fat adds flavor and moisture to the dry ingredients, so you don’t end up with a watery dish.
Step 3: Add water and mix. Add 4 cups of water to the skillet. Dump in your entire jar mix (and the pasta if it was stored separately). Stir everything together well and bring to a boil.
Check that your pasta is fully submerged. If it’s not quite covered, that’s when you’d add a little more water. Four cups is usually exactly right.
Step 4: Simmer. Once boiling, reduce heat to a simmer, put the lid on, and let it cook for about 15 minutes. Peek under the lid every 5 minutes or so to check the liquid level — you want it absorbing into the pasta but not burning on the bottom.
About halfway through, if you want to add a splash of heavy whipping cream for extra richness, do it now. Around 1/4 cup does the trick. Completely optional, but good.
Step 5: Add cheese and rest. Turn off the heat. Stir in about 2 cups of shredded cheese — Fiesta Blend works great here. Put the lid back on and let it sit for 5 minutes. The residual heat will melt the cheese right in.
Give it a final stir and serve.
Once you have a few of these jars lined up on the shelf, dinner stops feeling like a scramble.
You always have a backup plan. And when you’re shopping on a tight budget, being able to pull a homemade “box meal” off the shelf that cost you a fraction of the store version? That’s a win worth repeating.
This is just the first recipe in our one pot meal series, so stay tuned, there’s a lot more coming. If you haven’t already, enter the giveaway to enter the upcoming cookbook! (If you’re reading this at a much later date, it may already be available.)
