Awesome American Goulash

 This suburban-esque one-skillet recipe, which is a home-cooked and zestier twist on Hamburger Helper,  is flexible and easy to make. If you want, you can use ground chicken instead of ground beef, or even Beyond Beef though I haven't tried that yet. And you could use different kinds of pasta like elbow macaroni instead of egg noodles. But there are 2 ingredients that you shouldn't skip on: chopped black olives and the zesty Italian dressing mix. These two items give this dish an extra oomph. Also, you could use hot Rotel in place of regular Rotel if you want it hotter.

Note: you need a skillet with a tight-fitting lid for this to work.

Serves 6-8 servings

 Ingredients:

1 to 1.25 pound ground beef or chicken

1/2 yellow or white onion, diced

4+ oz can of chopped black olives

2 8 oz cans tomato sauce (plain or Italian flavored)

10 oz can diced tomatoes such as Rotel (no need to drain)

1 packet of Good Seasons Zesty Italian dressing mix

approx 1 cup of uncooked egg noodles (or other pasta of your choice)

few shakes of Worcestershire sauce (optional)

pepper to taste

Directories:

1) Brown the meat in the skillet over medium heat.

2) Add diced onions to meat and cook until tender.

3) Add olives, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and dressing mix, and blend all together. Add a litle Worcestershire sauce if desired. Cook for several minutes

4) Add pasta and make sure they are mixed in with the meat mixture. If it seems that there isn't enough liquid in the pan to cook the pasta, add a little water like 1/4 cup. (If you add too much, don't worry -- just add some more pasta. :-)  )

5) Cover the skillet and cok for about 10 minutes or until the pasta is soft.

6) At this point, you can season with pepper. (No need to add salt, as some of the other ingredients already contain salt.)

7) Serve in bowls, topped with grated cheese and if desired, bits of basil.