Five Ingredient Ground Beef Recipes

It's time for more five ingredient recipes. Ground beef is a staple in many family's food budgets. It's cheap and delicious and almost everyone likes it. If you are avoiding ground beef because of food safety concerns, try finding a source for organic, locally grown beef. You can also grind your own beef, using round steak, sirloin, and top and bottom round. I prefer to purchase lean ground beef (between 89 to 90 percent lean): this type has lots of flavor but is still tender, with not much excess fat.

There are a few rules you need to know when working with ground beef. First, make sure that you carefully and thoroughly wash all surfaces, utensils, plates, and containers that come in contact with the raw beef. And that includes your hands! If you wash your hands in warm soapy water while silently singing 'Happy Birthday to You', you will have cleaned your hands sufficiently. That amount of time is necessary to kill bacteria left on your hands by the raw meat. Second, don't handle the meat too much. If you've ever eaten a really dense, tough hamburger, that beef has been worked too much, compressing the fibers and squeezing the water and juices out of the meat. And finally, cook every bit of the meat to well done, or 160 degrees F on an instant read food thermometer. You can't tell if beef is done or not by the color or the texture; a thermometer is the only way to be sure your food is safe.

Try a few of these easy recipes this week, and enjoy.

Five Ingredient Ground Beef Recipes

• Five Ingredient Crockpot Chili
  This delicious chili simmers all day while you're at work. Serve it with some chopped avocados and a dollop of sour cream for the perfect finishing touch.
• Old Fashioned Goulash
  This recipe will bring back memories of Mom's home cooking. Serve with cooked carrots, a gelatin salad, and an ice cream pie for dessert.
• Giant Cheeseburger
  If you're watching carbs, this is a great way to get a cheeseburger without the bun! It's fun to make for a gathering too.
• Shepherd's Pie
  Convenience foods make this recipe so quick to put together; and the flavor is wonderful.
• Crockpot Cheeseburgers
  Cheeseburgers in your crockpot? Well, kind of - this is like a sloppy joe with cheese. Yum.
• Juicy Onion Burgers
  Use your own onion soup mix in this easy recipe to help control the sodium content. And they are juicy!
• Pesto Burgers
  Dry pesto mix adds wonderful flavor to these easy burgers. If you can't find it in your grocery store, just use refrigerated pesto instead.
• Grilled Burger Dinner Packets
  For an easy one dish meal that yes, uses just five ingredients, this recipe can't be beat.
• Grilled Nacho Cheeseburgers
  You can make your own ground beef patties instead of purchasing frozen patties for this great recipe.
• Beef Mushroom Burgers
  Sauteed mushrooms add lots of flavor and moistness to these tender burgers served on split, toasted English muffins.
• All-American Burgers
  Adding Worcestershire sauce and a bit of water to hamburger will result in the juiciest, tastiest hamburgers you ever made.
• Blue Cheese Burgers
  If you love blue cheese, this is the recipe for you. The melting chunks of cheese are studded through the burger.