I am definitely a foodie. My mother was a food columnist, my grandmother one of the first women to cook on television, both aunts were food stylists for major magazines and the Betty Crocker company, and my uncle and his wife had a very famous chefs store in NYC that catered to folks like Julia Childs and James Beard. I grew up cooking but whoa, in college I was poor and ate ten cents a pack ramen and forty cents a box of Hamburger Helper. Yeah, the meat cost extra but ground turkey had become a thing and was super cheap to add as a protein.

The Today Show recently reported on the ‘Hamburger Helper Index’ which basically says when the sales of the product go up that indicates our economy is in trouble. Well, Hamburger Helper, the cost-effective comfort food, is seeing a surge in popularity, highlighted by the economic pressures consumers are facing at the dinner table. A box of the stuff now costs around $2.50 and there are over 40 varieties of Hamburger Helper products, including beef, chicken, and tuna options, in a wide range of flavors and pasta or rice shapes (the exact numbers can vary as new flavors are introduced and others are discontinued).

It also got noticed recently on the TV series ‘The Bear’, when the chef Sydney helped a teenager elevate a box of the stuff by adding onions, heavy cream, freshly grated cheese and finished it with toasted panko breadcrumbs for texture. Yum! That show may have sparked more interest in the product as sales have increased this year by 14.9%. People are looking for cheaper food options-I know I am. Hell, every time I buy a single bag of groceries the charge is close to $100 or more!

There’s also an informal economic indicator called the “cardboard box index” which uses box production and shipments as a measure of consumer spending and overall economic health. According to the Monday Morning Economist, almost every product we buy spends time inside a box. Former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan even followed the index when he held the post from 1987 to 2006.  Over the past few months several U.S. box makers have announced closures or cutbacks, with an estimate of 9% of box production set to shut down, putting thousands of workers out of jobs. Fewer orders = weaker demand =leading to recession.

How to survive? Try more budget meats. I love the carniceria at Rancho Markets for deals. Split your ground beef with canned beans or lentils. Don’t add meat and instead break an egg or two over the pan of noodlely goodness, cover it and cook til done. Add cheap nutritional yeast for a savory flavor, cottage cheese for the lasagna box. Yeah, Hamburger Helper is not the healthiest alternative (have you read the ingredients?) but it’s cheap, done in 20 minutes and tastes okay! I’ll admit that I bought a box last week and I ate every bit of it. Dinner was under $8 for two of us. Winning!