Casseroles are a fantastic way to feed a hungry family of four or serve at a potluck to feed a group of twenty, especially when one uses the Blend and Extend method.

Recipe and photo by The Brunette Baker.

Prep Time: 10 mins. | Cook Time: 20 mins.
Ingredients

1 pound lean ground beef
1 punnet white or crimini mushrooms, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 large green bell pepper, diced
1 teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 28-ounce can of diced tomatoes
2 15-ounce cans tomato sauce
1 tablespoon chili powder (Add more or less, depending on your heat tolerance)
1 pound cooked elbow macaroni
Directions

1. In a large saucepan, add olive oil and sauté onions and peppers for about 5 minutes. Add in ground beef, mushrooms, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until ground beef is thoroughly cooked.

2. Add in diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, worcestershire sauce, and sugar; stir well. Allow sauce to boil for about 5 minutes. Reduce heat and simmer.

3. Add cooked macaroni to meat and mushroom sauce and stir to combine. Adjust salt and pepper and add in chill powder. Give a good stir to ensure all flavours have come together.

4. Serve hot. Sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese and serve with garlic bread.

Redwood Shores, CA – This spring, the Mushroom Council® will use two turntables and a bunch of mushrooms to encourage home cooks to blend mushrooms with meat for their next burger.

The new “Remix Your Recipe” consumer ad campaign features YouTube ads with animated DJ turntables spinning burgers on the platters. Over pulsating electronic dance music (EDM), vocals declare “Ju-ju-ju-ju-just add ‘shrooms!” as criminis cascade down the screen. The ad closes with a call to action to visit the Mushroom Council’s site at Blenditarian.com, where a new campaign webpage – blenditarian.com/remix – guides followers to blended recipes and additional information.

“When it comes to The Blend™, our strategy to prioritize foodservice has been a success, as blended burgers are now fixtures on menus nationwide. This year, we’ve reached the point in our long-term strategy where we will shift our focus to direct-to-consumer marketing,” said Bart Minor, president of the Mushroom Council. “We wanted to kick it off with a bold, disruptive and targeted approach to earn consumer awareness and adoption.”

The Remix Your Recipe video ad airs through YouTube pre-roll, strategically targeting flexitarian consumers. Variations of the creative also will run as animated banner ads on targeted websites and sponsored posts on social channels.

“Whether it’s rock, R&B, country or pop, when a DJ remixes a tune, they make a song that’s already great even better, which is a great analogy for when a home cook blends meat with mushrooms,” Minor added. “We are eager to bring the benefits of The Blend to consumers with a fresh look.”

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