Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Tater Tot Casserole

The first time I ate Tater Tot Casserole was almost 4 years ago right after Carter was born.  Our wonderful neighbors made us dinner for the first two weeks after Carter was born and on the first night we got Tater Tot Casserole.  You would have thought it was Christmas morning Jon was so excited.  :)

Apparently, Jon had this type of dish while he was growing up.  The only casserole my mom ever made was tuna casserole-- yuck!  I wasn't a big fan of this dish at first but I've grown to love this recipe.  It's one of the those meals that has to sound good to me to make it on our menu.  It also makes great leftovers.  My favorite part is it's quick and easy to throw together and then pop in the oven.

Tater Tot Casserole
Prep time 15 mins
Cook time 1 hour
Serves 8+

Ingredients
2 pounds ground beef
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1lb frozen mixed vegetables
Shredded cheese
1lb tater tots
Johnny's seasoning salt

1  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cook the ground beef in a large skillet until browned.  Season the meat with seasoning salt when browned.
3. While the ground beef is cooking, microwave the frozen vegetables until warm, but not hot.  Just enough to unfreeze them and get some of the moisture out.
4. Combine the ground beef, vegetables and cream of mushroom soup in a 13x9 baking dish. Mix together well.


5. Sprinkle the mixture with seasoning salt.
6. Add a layer of cheese.  (I use the Mexican blend of cheese, any cheddar type cheese works fine.)


7. Top with Tater Tots.



8. And more Tater Tots.


9. Bake for 1 hour or until the Tater Tots are slightly brown and crispy.


10. After removing from the oven, sprinkle seasoning salt on the Tater Tots.  Eat and enjoy!

There are tons of versions of this recipe online.  Please just learn two things from me- don't put the ground beef in the dish raw (to bake in the oven) you'll end up with all the fat from the meat still in the pan.  By browning the meat first you can drain off most of the fat.  And don't put the veggies in the dish frozen, you'll end up with a watery mess.

Spaghetti and meatballs are what's cooking tonight.  I've already blogged about my Spaghetti Sauce so tomorrow you'll read about my meatballs.




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