This actually happened a few days ago but I haven’t had 2 seconds to stop and post. Sunday night my boyfriend had a horrendous night at work, like teared up talking about it. He even got off an hour late, which was 1am. I picked him up from work and drove him home. Even though I had to start work at 8:30am, I’m remote so I decided to make dinner to calm him down and because we were both starving.
We desperately needed to grocery shop so I looked thru everything and decided on stroganoff hamburger helper. Obviously not the best meal, but it works and he has a nostalgia for it. I browned the meat and when it was ready to add stuff in I remember we’re completely out of regular milk and have very little of my almond milk. Instead of just putting the meat in a Tupperware for later use, my exhausted brain decides we have to find some way to make this work because we’re trying so hard to save money.
The box says you need 2 1/4 cups of milk and I have about 3/4 of almond milk. Instead of just watering it down, or again, putting it away and going to McDonald’s, I decide I should try using coffee creamer.
The creamer I use isn’t that fake oil based stuff, but it is almond milk based AND pre sweetened. I did NOT use enough to equal 2 1/4 cups cause obviously creamer is more condensed than milk, and I was worried about the sweetness. I don’t think I even used 1/2 cup so I was very far off from the 2 1/4 the box calls for, but I figured that was fine.
Used enough water to ensure the full amount of liquid was correct and finished dinner. I tried it and it had a good amount of creaminess, but it was sweet. I added salt and pepper, but still.
I called my boyfriend in to try it without telling him what I did and he agreed it was a good level of creamy, but that it was sweet. He added more salt and pepper but it still didn’t do the trick.
I finally told him what I did and he busted out laughing. Said I tried to feed him strog-achino. We talked about it and he didn’t want to throw food away, but it was just too much so we did and went to McDonald’s anyway.
Worst part is I realized later that I had some proper milk based creamer that is NOT sweet, which I got when instacart couldn’t find my almond creamer, so yeah. Multiple fuck ups all around. 🤣
TL;DR: don’t use coffee creamer in hamburger helper (unless maybe proper half and half), even if it’s late and your boyfriend is sad.
Trying to save money by avoiding fast food just resulted in spending the money anyway AND wasting food in the process.
Comments
Fuck now I”m craving a Strogacino
I’ve made the same mistake once. Was out of milk.
I recently used French Vanilla creamer when I ran out of milk for my instant strawberries and cream oatmeal. I cut it with water since it is so thick. The first few bites were amazing, but after that even in a dish that is supposed to be sweet it was too much. I can imagine it would not work well with a savory dish.
Coffee creamer in Hamburger Helper? That’s not just a culinary fail, that’s a full-on catastrophe waiting to happen.
I was a chef in ahosp dietary dept. We made our cream soups with coffee creamer[1970s]. This way they did not curdle sitting in the steam table like milk based can. We had big gal jugs of powdered creamer for this
I once made a chicken Alfredo with sweet vanilla almond milk. I was devastated. Absolutely destroyed. Ate the whole thing over a week because I grew up poor and hate wasting food but man was that rough.
We’ve been lied to when they call Almond milk…milk. I’ve done it too. Don’t try to replace milk with it
almond milk is water and almond essence. Creamer is hydrogenated vegetable oil and water. neither one has any dairy in it.
This kind of thing is why I always keep a box of powdered milk in my pantry! Strogachino is diabolical.
I keep some powdered milk in my pantry for baking/cooking emergencies. I don’t use milk often enough to finish a whole container without wasting most of it, so having powdered milk ready when I just need it for one thing is a game-changer.
Coffee creamer hamburger – the secret menu item McDonald’s doesn’t want us to know about
I always keep a couple cans of evaporated milk in the pantry for emergencies like this.
I did this with mac and cheese once and it threw me off even properly made mac and cheese for months 😂
I did this with scrambled eggs once. I never lived down sweet eggs……