Stroganoff. So easy yet so tasty!

One of my favorite meals growing up was Beef Stroganoff.  My mom never understood why we loved it so much because she thought it was too simple. (She's an excellent cook so she likes more challenging things) Well the other day I was thinking about ideas of things to cook, and I realized I hadn't had stroganoff for at least 3 years. What a sad realization!  With this first attempt, I didn't get to ambitious because instead of making it with beef strips I used ground beef but it turned out amazing! And soooo easy. Oh and it didn't take that long, i think approximately 30 minutes. Which are three things i love in a recipe. (yummy, easy, and quick.) :)

Here is the actual recipe:

Ingredients:

1 (12 ounce) package egg noodles, cooked and drained 6 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced 1 onion, chopped 1/4 cup butter

2 pounds lean ground beef 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour 2 cups beef broth 1 cup sour cream salt and black pepper to taste

Directions:

1.	Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook egg noodles in boiling water until done, about 8 minutes. Drain.
2.	Meanwhile, prepare the sauce. In a large skillet, cook mushrooms and onions in 2 tablespoons of butter over medium heat until soft; remove from pan.
3.	Using the same pan, melt remaining butter. Cook ground beef in melted butter until browned. Mix in flour. Stir in beef broth, and cook until slightly thickened. Add mushroom and onion mixture; stir in sour cream. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Continue cooking until sauce is hot, but not boiling. Serve sauce over egg noodles. I did step 1 the same, but steps 2 and 3 I did slightly different because I didn't have any mushrooms on hand.  To be honest, i think the mushrooms would of made it even better but I didn't want to make a trip to the store.  So here is what I did differently...and it was also slightly healthier... I took 1/2 an onion, diced, and about 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil  and sauteed them in my saucepan.  Then I added about 1 lb of ground beef and cooked until browned and then added 1 can of Consomme soup. *Note- I have discovered that Consomme soup is more flavorful and healthy than beef broth.  It is located by all of the other soups in the store. Anyway, after adding the soup i added 1 cup of lite sour cream and 3 tablespoons of flour and then some salt and pepper. At this point I let the mixture simmer for a bit until it looked slighly thickened and I called it good. This is what it looked like: I poured it over the noodles, served with some green beans and me and Evan scarfed it all up. Another success! As a side note, I have started to realize that a good majority of the meals I make call for ground beef.  Buying ground beef by the pound each time can get a little pricey. And i find that using the whole pound is usually a little too much for us.  So... Helpful Hint #6: Buy your groundbeef in larger increments,(like 3 lbs.) divide it up into separate bags when you get home (I usually cut mine in 4ths) and call it good. It may not be an exact lb, but it will end up being perfect! I promise! And it is so much easier just defrosting the exact amount you need.