Hamburger Joes

An unlikely crowd pleaser created out of exhaustion!

My family has been sick. The up-all-night, get-another-set-of-clean-sheets, do-I-have-to-clean-THAT-up kind of sick. It started with my husband and me a few days ago, and then this bug started picking on our kids, one by one. So when dinner time rolled around last night, I was unprepared to say the least. I was tempted to head out and buy some food, but our budgeted amount for dining out has already been exhausted, and my miscellaneous money got spent on ginger ale and bananas for the sickly crew in our house. I had to make something at home. Ugh.

We like to buy our beef from some farmer family friends who raise their cattle in a big beautiful pasture just a few miles from our home, so our freezer is stocked with beef. Frozen beef. Very frozen. By the time I remembered I was responsible for making dinner, it was too late to thaw anything the way RESPONSIBLE people do. 

My husband requested a hamburger, but I told him that was out of the question because I had not planned to thaw meat while I was washing yet another load of soiled clothes and sheets. So I went to the freezer and grabbed a pound of super solid frozen beef. I decided I would try to make some kind of Sloppy Joe without a recipe, so I plinked the solid mass of beef in a skillet with a little water, a fair amount of black pepper and some Lawry's seasoned salt, and put the lid on and turned it down low. But when I got partway through browning it, a delusional thought struck me: maybe I could just make a Sloppy Burger or a Hamburger Joe.

The concept that struck my sleep-deprived mind was that even though I can't form these into patties, I will cook, drain, and season the meat, put it on some bread and top it however each family member likes. Guess what? It worked! My super picky daughter LOVED it! She said it was better than a McDonald's hamburger with ketchup only (which is essentially a five-star rating from a picky four-year-old).

Of course, I didn't have any sandwich buns in the house, so I used plain, old wheat bread.

I like cheese on mine, especially cheddar, so I added a good sprinkling of shredded cheddar. Sliced Swiss or American would be good. Or Muenster. Mmmm, Muenster.

I am a bit of a plain-Jane as far as hamburgers go, so I topped mine with ketchup and called it quits for toppings. My husband added mustard and pickle to his, but you could top yours off with some sliced tomato, onion, avocado, bacon (mmm, bacon) or anything your heart desires.

This is how mine turned out, and it was delish! I thought about griddling these delights in the skillet with some butter to make them a combo of a grilled cheese and patty melt, but I was too tired. And the clothes dryer was ready for me.

What crazy concoctions have you created out of necessity? This one worked well!