Goulash

Background.

My mother, bless her heart, had 4 kids in 4 and 1/2 years.  (And no twins)

That meant, she had four teens in the house at the same time.  Bless. Her. Heart.

Meal times meant doubling or tripling recipes to feed the bottomless pits that we were.  Meals also needed to be easy to make.  Because of the constant "GO" lifestyle we led, it was difficult for her to have the time to find new recipes.  There was no Pinterest people. 

That meant that we had the same meals over and over again for quite a while.  No biggie, the rotation was big enough that we rarely had something too often.

Except for goulash.

For some reason (probably the ease of the meal) we had goulash twice as often as anything else.  That might be an exaggeration...but not much. 

One time there was still leftovers of the pasta/hamburger combo still in the refrigerator when she made another batch.  Not an exaggeration.

We give her a hard time about goulash.   She takes it good-naturedly

I lost my love of goulash well before graduating from high school.  It's been over 10 years since I have had it.

Back to present day.

While surfing Pinterest and looking for some new recipes to try, I came across this little gem.  Cheeseburger Skillet.  Different. Simple. And easy to make a healthy version. 

Pinned.

I made the dish this week, and even though it didn't look as pretty as the picture above, it hit all the things I wanted.  Low-sodium chicken broth, 93% lean beef, whole wheat noodles, no-salt added tomatoes.  This one is going in the rotation!

And then I took my first bite.

It's goulash.  It may have been 10 years since I last had it, but I know that taste anywhere.

It's a prettier version, but still goulash.

My mother will give me a hard time once she reads this post. 

And I will take it good-naturedly.