Quick & Easy Meaty Mushroom Cream Sauce: For Those Days When You Need Good Food With Minimal Effort

As anybody who knows me knows, noodles with cream-based sauce is pretty much one of the staples of my existence. However, I kind of have a love-hate relationship with it. Said food always makes me feel better, but cream sauces are rather temperamental and can be quite a pain to make after coming home from a long day. Which is, you guessed it, right when they're needed the most.

After a bit of trial and error, I finally found a way to expedite the process and end up with satisfactory results. I mean, in all honesty, nothing ever beats a fully made from scratch cream sauce, but this comes in at a **really** close second.

In the spirit of keeping this on the "quick & easy" train, I'll try to keep the banter to a minimum, because there's a good chance that if you're reading this bit, you're hungry now and don't want to worm through a bunch of blabbering to get to the edible results part.

Equipment

• Skillets 
• Whisk
• Spatula
• Measuring Equipment

Ingredients

• 1 can of Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup
  • Do yourself a favor and get the good stuff... not the super cheap bland stuff. If you get the kind with roasted garlic, omit additional garlic.
• 1/2 lb Ground Meat
  • As usual, I broke out the wonderful beef-pork blend, otherwise known as Boston Burger
• 4oz Cream Cheese, Softened
  • For those of you that aren't wanting to plan ahead, cream cheese can totally be softened in the microwave on reduced power.
• 1/4c Sour Cream
• 2oz Milk
• 1/2 pkg Angel Hair Noodles, Cooked to Al Dente
• Spaghetti-type noodles are one of the few things that actually survives in a good enough state to be used again, if made the night previous and stored in the fridge in a sealed container. Nothing quite like getting assaulted by a poorly-perched gallon baggie of pasta. Just warm it up before eating.
• 3tsp Garlic Powder
• 1 1/2tsp Onion Powder
• Pinch of salt

You'll want to try and run the skillets simultaneously. In the event that you can't do so, make the meat first, and make the sauce, because the meat will be okay if it sets out for a bit, but if the cream sauce is made first, it'll do that weird thing that cream sauce does and get all thickened up and covered in skin. Blegh.

Skillet 1:

This is your meat pan. So, obviously, this is where you put the meat. Medium heat, and scramble fry like you're making tacos.  Season with 1tsp garlic powder, and 1/2 tsp onion powder. Drain once it's cooked all the way.

Skillet 2:

This is going to be your designated sauce skillet. Medium heat, turning down as needed to prevent boiling. Add the soup, and fully whisk in the milk. Melt in the cream cheese. It helps if you cut it into little blocks first. Add the sour cream, salt, and remaining powders of onion and garlic. Once it's all mixed in and hot, stir in the meat.

Put the sauce on the noodles and boom! Best quick-dinner you've made in a while.