How to Prepare Your Own Hamburger Seasonings to Avoid Using Products Like Hamburger Helper, Asian Helper and other Chemical-filled Packaged Products

We recommend organic ingredients whenever possible to reduce salt, fat, cholesterol, MSG and avoid the consequences of factory farmed meats including the use of growth hormones, excessive antibiotics and pesticide residues and other dangerous chemical contents such as ammonia.

Organic hamburger is also more flavorful and makes any hamburger dish taste better. If you eat a typical amount of beef (66.5 pounds a year), switching to lean grassfed organic beef will save you 17,733 calories a year – without requiring any willpower or change in your eating habits. If everything else in your diet remains constant, you'll lose about six pounds a year. If all Americans switched to grassfed organic meat, our national epidemic of obesity might diminish.

There are 750 mgs of salt and 22 grams of carbohydrates per cup (8 ounces) of Hamburger helper. But the package only contains 6.2 ounces which is deceptive because it is supposed to be for five people. Adjusting the numbers, there is approximately 925 mgs of salt and 28 grams of carbohydrates per each package of Hamburger helper. Two pounds of hamburger would require two packages of your choice of Hamburger Helper increasing the amounts to approximately 1,850 mgs of salt and 56 grams of carbohydrates.

Ingredients.

2 pounds organic hamburger

Alternative Additions.
1 Jalapeno or Italian pepper (or pepper of your choice)
2 fresh sprigs of rosemary
1 onion
1 fresh garlic clove
Organic white pepper
Organic Brown Curry
Cajun-style seasoning
Dijon Mustard
Carolina Honey BBQ Sauce (or your personal favorite)
Cheddar cheese (or your personal favorite)

Hamburger meat can be made into many different meals from meat loaf to the common hamburger with all its “fixings”. Much like computers, garbage hamburger meat makes garbage hamburger dishes. We recommend organic whenever possible because of its flavor adds so much to any meal, even a simple cheese hamburger.

This is the first fundamental approach to making hamburger meat for any recipe. It can be altered using any of the above “alternative additives” to change the flavor.

Take a paper plate (or your favorite cooking plate) and use a poultry scissors to cut the rosemary sprigs (no part of the branch) over the plate into small pieces. The purpose is to cut or chop the rosemary until it is so small it is not noticeable in the meat nor sticks between the teeth of your family. You want the flavor to blend in not dominate the hamburger.

Sprinkle white pepper, curry and a touch spicy Cajun-style seasoning onto the paper plate. Open the hamburger package and place two pounds of hamburger onto the plate. Sprinkle more of the same seasonings on top of the hamburger and kneed the meat much like you would a meat loaf.

This basic combination can be used as a base to make cheeseburgers or use in the same manner as Hamburger Helper. All of Hamburger Helper’s flavors are artificial and contain several different forms of salt, MSG, high fructose corn syrup and carcinogenic food dyes. There is nothing healthy, nutritious nor tasty about any dish made with factory farmed hamburger meat and artificial flavors. This is especially true when it is so easy to buy organic hamburger at Costco and many other outlets.

Cheeseburgers: Make hamburger patties in varying sizes dependent upon the ages of your children. But make the burgers in shapes larger than the size of the buns or slices of bread you intend to use. That way, the burgers will shrink just enough to fit the bread perfectly. In the case of young children, make a patty that fits ½ slice of bread. Then, use 1 slice of bread and cut it in half after grilling. For active teenagers and adults, 2 pounds will make four eight-ounce burgers or five 6-ounce patties.

Cut slices of cheese as needed for the number of people eating. For a traditional cheeseburger, you can either place the cheese on top of the hamburger about two minutes before taking them off the grill. For variety, you can take two slices of cheese and wrap the hamburger around the cheese (completely engulfing it in the meat) and cook it until the cheese melts in the center of the hamburger. A white cheese will melt much quicker than a yellow cheese such as Gouda or cheddar. Try a Blue Cheese in the center from time to time. The Blue Cheese melts much quicker than any other cheese so be careful.

You can also serve this as hamburger loaf with melted cheese in it with French fries or other potatoes and garlic bread instead of serving as traditional hamburgers.

Spicy Hamburger Variations: Slice and core the Jalapeno pepper. Lightly saute is in a little butter. Chop into as small or fine pieces before mixing it into the hamburger base above.

You can also add additional Cajun-style seasonings according to taste or a small amount of either Dijon mustard, Carolina Honey BBQ Sauce or other flavor to vary the hamburger experience.

When the hamburger is ready to go, throw a handful of wood chips and a few rosemary branches on the grill. Place the burgers on the grill. If the chips catch fire, dose the flame with water as it will create even more smoke. The hamburger should be turned over when they turn grey on top and are firm enough to turn without them falling apart.

Ingredients in Hamburger Helper ($2.79 per package):

By comparison, Hamburger Helper contains wheat flower, niacin, ferrous sulphate, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid, sugar, Maltodextrin, Ricotta cheese (whey, milkfat, lactic acid, salt), tomato (dried), Hydrated Vegetable Protein (corn and wheat), Monosodium Glutamate, Cheddar Cheese (milk, cheese cultures), salt, enzymes, citric acid, Modified Corn Starch, Corn Syrup, Partial Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Modified Corn Starch, beef stock, natural flavor, Paprika, spice, artificial color (yellows 5&6, RED 40 lake, yellows 5&6, Calcium Lactate, Monoglycerides, Whey, Yeast Extract, Silicon Dioxide (anticaking agent), Disodium Inosinate, Disodium Guanylate, Egg, Soy Flour. Approximately 45 ingredients.

There are at least ten different types of Hamburger Helper. They all contain basically the same toxic chemical ingredients. Compare labels yourself. The only variation was the result of a change in flavoring.

Basically, a consumer is paying $2.79 for a chemical mixture of dangerous additives that costs about 10 cents to make. The cost of printing the box and shipping far outweigh the cost of the contents. Using the ingredients above costs about 20 cents per meal.

For those who complain that organic meats cost more, if you add one package of Hamburger Helper to two pounds of hamburger, then the cost of the hamburger increases by $1.29 per pound. Hardly a bargain without considering the likelihood that a meal containing Hamburger Helper will lead to weight gain, obesity, illness and disease over time.