Recipe Day - "Goulash" or "Throw Up"

I'll take a break from the 'first apartment' information to share a recipe! I fully intend this site to be a mix of information, including cleaning tips, recipes, tax/insurance information, and everything else a twenty-something needs to know. So today, we're doing a recipe!

 Now, I like to cook, and I like to get fancy while I cook. But for today, since I'm focusing on the crazy days of I-just-moved-out-by-myself-help, I will share the simplest, easiest, and most basic recipe on the planet. This was my mom's go-to on days when she literally did not have time to cook anything. She used to call it goulash, but if you know what goulash is, you'll know that this is not goulash. My grandma used to call it "throw up" - my mom changed the name since she didn't figure her kids would appreciate the name "throw up."

Ingredients:
Ground Beef
Cream of Mushroom Soup (other Cream of... soups will work, it'll just change the flavor slightly)
          1 can of soup per pound of meat.
Salt, Pepper, any spices you want
(optional) Additives - sauteed onions, cooked vegetables, whatever.
Mashed Potatoes (see instructions below).

Instructions:

1. Cook the ground beef in a skillet on medium heat. Stirring occasionally, wait until all of the pink has disappeared from the meat and everything looks kind of gray.
2. Meanwhile,make mashed potatoes (see instructions below)
3. Siphon off the grease from the meat. I usually use a turkey baster to do this because it makes the least mess of any other method, but my friends say that's weird; they just pour the grease off into a jar.
• ***DO NOT POUR GREASE DOWN THE DRAIN*** Pour it in an empty can or jar and throw it in the trash. You can keep the same grease jar until you fill it up, as long as it has a secure lid
4. Pour the soup over the ground beef and heat through until warm. Also add any seasonings (salt and pepper recommended) or additives that you want at this point (~2 minutes)
• I saute onions and garlic in a little olive oil, and add them in at this point. I find the plain beef a little bland; the onions and garlic add the perfect amount of flavor. However, you definitely don't have to do this.
• You can also throw random cooked vegetables, like peas and carrots, in at this point.
5. Serve over mashed potatoes. It looks weird, but I promise, it's delicious, especially considering that it takes about 15 minutes to make.

Instructions for Mashed Potatoes

1. Cut up potatoes into small chunks (for small red potatoes, this means cutting them up if roughly fourths). The smaller the chunks, the less time it will take for the potatoes to cook.
• If you use Yukon potatoes, peel them first. If you use red potatoes, you can leave the skin on.
2. Put the potatoes into pot, and fill with water until the water just covers the potatoes
3. Put lid on pot, and put pot on burner set to 'high'.
4. Boil the water until the potatoes are soft - about 10-12 minutes. Test the softness of the potatoes by piercing them with a fork.
5. Drain the water out of the pot and dump the potatoes in a big bowl.
6. Add a little butter - I use about 1 tbsp for ever two servings of potatoes (about 4 small red potatoes or 1-1.5 large yukon potatoes).
7. Mash the potatoes with a potato masher. If you don't have a potato masher, you can get creative with a fork or other random object - your potatoes might be a little lumpy though if you don't have a real masher. I say this because I've done this, when my masher broke.
8. Add a little milk as you're mashing until the potatoes reach the consistency you want. ONLY ADD A LITTLE TINY BIT AT A TIME. Remember, you can always add more, but once you pour milk in, you can't take it back out again.
9. Season with other stuff as desired. I like to add a little garlic powder and chives.

And that's it! Are there better recipes with similar ingredients (like pot pie or pastys)? Sure. But I challenge you to find any other recipe that creates a decent hot meal in 15 minutes.

Pro Tip: Buy ground beef in bulk and freeze it in single servings. Then, if you need a quick, cheap, easy dinner, you can just pull a serving out of the freezer and proceed to make this recipe. You can also freeze the leftover cream of mushroom soup if you don't use a whole can.