Homemade Hamburger Helper-Quick and Easy Pasta Dinners

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Convenience box meals are easy to recreate. You can have a healthy, one-pot, dinner on the table in no time with these homemade hamburger helper recipes. All the recipes start the same way, and you can change them up to fit what works for your family’s taste! Talk about easy dinner ideas!

Quick and easy dinner solutions for tonight

Start with any shape pasta you like, anything will work to make an easy dinner. Next brown up some meat. You can use a pound of ground beef, a couple of chicken breasts, a steak, whatever you like. You can even use canned tuna or chicken.

Here are a bunch of easy homemade hamburger helper meals for you to make for your family. You can change the combinations in any way you like, any of the sauces will work with any of the meat and vegetables, so experiment and find out what works.

Easy dinner recipes

Remember you can grate up the veggies if your family is not open to trying new things. If you have a red sauce, you can hide just about anything. If you have a white sauce you can hide grated cauliflower, yellow squash or any other white veggie. You can dehydrate greens, click here to see how, and hide them in most anything, they look like dried herbs.

You can also cook rice and use that instead of pasta if you cook rice well and prefer it. Do what works for you and your family. In addition to warm pasta easy dinner meals, you can also make many of these into pasta salad by leaving out the sauce and adding some vinegar and oil or mayonnaise to the dinner instead.

Once you learn the easy homemade hamburger helper dinner concept, you can get creative and make your own combinations! Knowing what to eat to save money is not as complicated as you might think. Like these other Cheap Lunch Ideas for Daycare.

Do you wish your kids ate healthier foods? Are you worried about them growing up healthy? Are you overwhelmed and need more hours in a day? Do you wish you could make healthy food delicious, but you don’t know how? You can do it. It’s not as hard as you think. “Zero to Hero Nutrition: How to Actually Get Kids to Eat Healthy Food” will show you how to transition your family’s diet in manageable steps.

These recipes and many others that will help you make an easy dinner for your family in no time are available in my new e-book: “Zero to Hero Nutrition: How to Actually Get Kids to Eat Healthy Food“

There is nothing like cheeseburger pasta to help get dinner on the table fast and please all the pickiest eaters. I love simple dinner ideas!

Chicken hamburger helper

Kids love these and for more kid-friendly chicken recipes, click here.

Garlic Butter Chicken and Peas Pasta (Hamburger Helper)

Chicken and veggie pasta with garlic butter sauce

Ingredients

• 1 pkg pasta, your choice
• 1 pound chicken breast
• 2 T. butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 tsp. dried thyme or dill
• 1 bag frozen peas
• 1/2 C. parmesan cheese, grated

Instructions

1. Cook pasta according to package directions and dump into colander to drain. 
2. Add butter to pan. 
3. Cook chicken on medium heat until no longer pink in center, or to 165 degrees. You can also poke chicken with a fork and if the juices run clear, it’s done. 
4. Remove cooked chicken from pan and set aside. 
5. Cut up onion and cook in pan on medium heat until tender and translucent. 
6. Add garlic, herbs of choice, salt, pepper and grated parmesan cheese. 
7. Stir and cook until well combined. 
8. Add peas and cook until just warmed through. 
9. Slice or shred chicken and add to pan. 
10. Add pasta. Stir until mixed well.   

Beef and Corn Pasta (Hamburger Helper)

Pasta with beef and corn.

Ingredients

• 1 pkg pasta of your choice
• 1 pound ground beef
• 2 T. butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 tsp. dried thyme or dill
• 1 bag frozen corn or 4 ears fresh corn with kernels cut off
• 1/2 C. grated parmesan cheese

Instructions

1. Cook pasta according to package directions and dump into colander to drain. 
2. Add butter to pan. 
3. Cook ground beef on medium heat until browned. 
4. Cut up onion and add to pan. 
5. Cook on medium heat until tender and translucent. 
6. Add garlic, herbs of choice, salt, pepper and grated parmesan cheese. 
7. Stir and cook until well combined. 
8. Add frozen corn and cook until just warmed through. 
9. Add pasta. Stir until mixed well.

Beef and Broccoli Pasta (Hamburger Helper)

Beef and broccoli pasta with garlic butter sauce

Ingredients

• 1 pkg pasta of your choice
• 1 pound steak, thinly sliced
• 2 T. butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 tsp. dried thyme or dill
• 1 pound fresh broccoli, cut into bite sized pieces

Instructions

1. Cook pasta according to package directions and dump into colander to drain. 
2. Add butter to pan. 
3. Cook steak on medium heat until browned. Remove steak and set aside. 
4. In same pan, add cut up onion to pan. Cook on medium heat until tender and translucent. 
5. Add garlic, herbs of choice, salt, pepper. Stir and cook until well combined.
6. Add broccoli and cook until it turns bright green. 
7. Add pasta and steak. Stir until mixed well.

Ground Beef and Squash Curry Pasta (Hamburger Helper)

Ground beef and squash pasta with curry sauce.

Ingredients

• 2 T. coconut oil
• 1 tsp. dried curry
• 1 pound zucchini or yellow squash sliced into thin slices
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 pkg pasta of your choice
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Cook pasta according to package directions and dump into colander to drain. 
2. Add coconut oil to pan. 
3. Cut up onion and cook in pan on medium heat until tender and translucent.
4. Add ground beef and cook on medium heat until browned. 
5. Add curry, coconut milk, squash and salt and pepper. 
6. Stir and cook until squash is tender. 
7. Return pasta to pan. Stir until mixed well.

Creamy Steak and Broccoli Pasta (Hamburger Helper)

Steak and broccoli pasta with cream sauce

Ingredients

• 1 pound steak, thinly sliced
• 1 pkg. pasta of your choice
• 2 T. butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 T. flour
• 1/2 C. milk (may need more)
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Cook pasta according to package directions and dump into colander to drain. 
2. Add butter to pan. Cook steak on medium heat until browned. 
3. Remove cooked steak from pan and set aside. 
4. Cut up onion and cook in pan on medium heat until tender and translucent. 
5. Add flour and cook until slightly browned. 
6. Add milk and cook until thick and bubbly. Add more milk if sauce is too thick. 
7. Add salt and pepper, cooked pasta and cooked steak. Mix well.

Turkey and Corn Pasta Salad

Pasta salad with turkey, corn, and creamy sauce

Ingredients

• 1 pkg. pasta of your choice
• 2 C. diced, cooked turkey breast pieces
• 1 bag frozen corn
• 2 T. ranch seasoning mix
• 1 C. sour cream or mayonnaise
• 1 C. shredded cheddar cheese
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain in colander. 
2. Dump back into pan. Add turkey, peas, cherry tomatoes, ranch mix, sour cream or mayonnaise, salt, pepper and shredded cheese. 
3. Mix well and refrigerate at least 2 hours for flavors to marry together and come together

Check out these easy dinner ideas too! Try these loaded burger bowls too!

And if you’re just looking for a quick dinner idea for kids, check this out.

For another favorite daycare meal, check out Pepperoni pizza pasta bake. Or this Super Easy Hamburger Casserole.

Food Program for Daycare Provider Helps

• How to Get Kids to Actually Eat Healthy Food
• Complete Guide to Planning Daycare Menus
• CACFP Meal Planning Template with Sample Menu and Shopping List
• Premade Daycare Monthly Menus
• 5 Minute Daycare Lunches
• Lunch Ideas for Picky Eaters
• Toddler Meals for Picky Eaters
• Dirt cheap meals for daycare
• Cheap Breakfast Ideas for Daycare
• Cheap Lunch Ideas for Daycare

For more help feeding kids, check out this picky eater food list.