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.







Comfort Food... part 2

This was Wednesday night's dinner.  We went to the farmer's market last night and I didn't have the energy to blog afterwards. So you get a midday blog!  (Thank heavens for nap time!)

I made Chicken Divan, another dish from my childhood.  I don't have an actual recipe, I just kind of know how to make it.  My measurements are approximates, but I'm pretty sure they're close enough.  :)  As I've gotten older, I've discovered there are many different versions of Chicken Divan.  This is my mom's version.

Chicken Divan
Prep time: 30 mins
Cook time: 30 mins
Serves: 4

4 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
2lbs Frozen Broccoli
1 Can Cream of Chicken Soup
1/2 Cup Mayonnaise
1 tsp Curry powder
Shredded Cheddar Cheese
1-2 Tbsp Butter
1/4-1/2 Cup Breadcrumbs

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil.  Add the chicken breasts and cook until the internal temperature reads 165 degrees.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

2. While the chicken is cooking, microwave the frozen broccoli until it is no longer frozen.  You don't want it pipping hot, just not frozen.

3.  In  a small bowl, mix the cream of chicken soup, mayonnaise and curry powder.

4.  Once the broccoli and chicken are cooked assemble the dish.  In a 9x13 baking dish, put the broccoli on the bottom, the chicken on top of the broccoli and then cover the chicken and broccoli with the soup mixture.

5.  Cover the dish with the cheese.  You can put as much or as little cheese are you would like. Just make sure there is a layer covering all the chicken and broccoli.

6.  Melt the butter in a bowl or small dish in the microwave.  Add bread crumbs until they are the texture of wet sand.  (Sorry, bad analogy, but that's all I could think of!) Once again, use as little or as much butter and bread crumbs as you want.  Sprinkle the bread crumb mixture on top of the cheese.

7.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until the bread crumbs and cheese start to brown.

Enjoy!

My mom always used left over turkey from Thanksgiving for this dish.  So growing up I always had shredded turkey in this dish.  It was just as good.  You could even use a store bought rotisserie chicken to save time.

You could also use fresh broccoli and steam it before adding it to the dish, but that just takes more time.  Plus I've found the yummiest frozen broccoli at Trader Joe's.

Jon doesn't like curry, so I end up splitting the soup mixture in half and putting curry in my half and cumin in Jon's half.  He says it tastes better with the cumin, I think he's crazy.

Speaking of Jon, his favorite part of the whole dish is the butter/breadcrumb mixture.  He would have me double to amount of breadcrumbs and butter but I have to make this dish somewhat healthy, right? ;)

I didn't take any pictures, I completely forgot, please forgive me.  I will take pictures of tonight's dinner... meatloaf!