Cheeseburger Casserole in Paradise...

So I know I know I"ve been meaning to get this up for a bit. Sorry, but it makes this all that much better yes?

My mother bought me one of those "Five ingredient recipe" books a while ago, and I finally pulled it out for ideas. What did my eyes see revealed to them but a "Cheeseburger and fry casserole." I knew I had to try it, but not in it's book incarnation because they use mushrooms and I hate those blech.

So here we have our victims:

We have two lbs of lean ground beef, one 10 and 3/4 oz can of cheddar cheese soup, one 10 and 3/4 can of cream-o-tater soup, a bag (32 oz) of frozen fries, a lb of low sodium bacon. Garlic powder, Onion powder, and Olive oil.

Now please please please be a SMART person and make absolute sure that your BIG skillet is clean and ready for use. If you don't, you'll be like I was, scrambling to find an easy way to cook 3 pounds of meat without splitting it into a hundred tinier portions.

As it were, please please please do not cook two lbs of ground beef and 1 lb of bacon all at one in a medium sized skillet. It works... but it is just a frustrating ;)

Any who cook your bacon until it's nice and crispy. I usually cut mine into pieces first for things like this, but it you prefer cooking them first and then breaking them apart by all means go ahead. Remember cooking is a fun thing to do, so make yourself happy.

When the bacon is cooked to your liking, drain off the fat and brown your beef. Once again drain the meat (you can leave a little bit in there for flavor if you're naughty like I am)

So far it's easy yeah? Don't worry it's staying that way.

Find a fairly large baking dish (The books recommends a 13 in x 9 in 2 in baking pan) Now if you don't have a 13x9x2 inc dish, or if (like me) none of your dishes have size markings, you can always split this into smaller portions and just make "more" individual-ish casseroles. As it were, I made two.

Pour in your Beef and Bacon. Then pour on your Two Cans-o-Soup and mix it all together so they can make sweet sweet food harmony. Now I also added some onion powder into that whole mix (Burgers have onions yeah?!) and it came out great...

Next take your (still frozen) French Fries and arrange them on top of your casserole. Or just dump them on top and then spread them around into a semi neat presentation like yours truly.

I drizzled mine with olive oil and some garlic powder for flavor and to help give them that "out of the fryer look"

Pop your casserole into your oven (Heated at 350 degrees) for 55-65 minutes or until the fries are brown and crispy like they should ALWAYS be. none of those limp bending over from gravity fries in my house...


Take your lovely easy half store bought but still home made with love dinner out and serve!


YUM!