Nanny Rues Cape Breton Goulash...

I don't consider myself a chef, I am ok with cooking...
I know how to make mashed potatoes which apparently is more than my mom knew how to do when she got married. 

I stick to the basics and repeat meals, I know I use too many pre-made, high in sodium, canned style ingredients. However, I always feel like our alternative is Mcdonalds or ordering pizza (again) so eating this homemade casserole that maybe has canned soup as a main component is the lesser of two evils.

Quick and easy meals make the cut, my main problem is defrosting.. I always forget to DEFROST.
Or I get everything ready and realize I forgot onions and onions are too big of a step to skip...

Long story short, I am trying to make more meals even if they're 'semi' homemade style and so far this week I've made Shepherds pie and my Nannys Cape Breton Goulash.

I posted them on Instagram and I am shocked the number of messages I received from people saying they have never heard of or never made them that way, shook!

I thought these were well known but if not, I thought I could type them up but really, really it's not a recipe as much as it's SO basic, I just eyeball everything.

NANNY RUES CAPE BRETON GOULASH 

- pack of lean ground beef
- one small onion
- box of macaroni
- 2 cans of tomato soup
- 2 cheese slices thin or 1-1.5 thick/regular (like grilled cheese style, Kraft, processed cheese)

Chop your onion into teeny, tiny pieces or risk my kids not liking it.. place in frying pan on low.
Brown onion until soft and then add ground beef and cook through.
Remove beef/onion mixture from heat, place on a napkin-lined plate for later.
Cook macaroni according to box directions.

Here is where I wing it, we like more macaroni than beef so I use about 75% of the box of noodles for a small/medium tray of ground beef but there are no right or wrong measurements. The sauce grabs both the meat and noodles equally so you don't have to worry about the final product as much as measuring it to your familys preference.

Once macaroni is almost done, add ground beef mixture back into frying pan, open soup cans and pour onto beef, then open cheese slices and tear into 4 pieces per slice add into mixture.

You just warm up the beef/soup/cheese until melted together, no more than a few minutes so it doesn't  dry out. Strain water from macaroni and I pour the whole pot of noodles into my frying pan, I use a really big pan on purpose.

Serve with rolls or bread and butter for comfort food style meal!

While I was busy this week cooking and cleaning, someone was WAY too quiet and when I checked in on him in the playroom... THIS is what he was up to ^

It was one of those moments where you think "my kid knows better".
Elliott is pretty serious and on the scale, I would say he's well behaved/obedient minus some outbursts when Nick was in charge.

I could count on one finger the number of times he's not listened when I've told him to do something, that's not counting the "mom please, please can I mom? Now, can I? When can I?" whining because he does that all the time. lol

For the most part, we keep his markers lying around, glue, glitter, play-doh, slime, anything messy is out in the open because he's always been responsible.

HOWEVER, this was one of those moments when I was reminded he's only 3 and it would be super tempting to color your play plate and hands if the stuff was just staring you in the face. LOL

I wasn't mad, I just explained he needs to keep the coloring on paper and when he wants to use glitter tell mom so I can prep a workspace. loling again.

I am always impressed with how good of an artist he is for being so little, he's really taken a liking to coloring/painting in the last few months.

As far as the goulash goes he LOVES it! He is such a pasta fan and anything with tomato based sauce gets a thumbs up from him.