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It had been a while since I made one of my cold-weather favs.
A few years ago, I got on a Tater Tot Casserole kick and it nearly took over my life.
That may be a tad dramatic, but I just kept making it over and over again, using different recipes each time. I even spent a while trying to figure out how to make it a “diet casserole”! I found ways to make it “healthier”, but that’s a long way from being diet food.
I’ve used lean ground beef, turkey, with veggies and without, regular cheese, low-fat cheese, no cheese, etc. (That last option was a HUGE mistake.) I’ve topped it with fewer tater tots, sweet potato tots, hash-browns, and those fried onion things that go on green bean casserole at Thanksgiving. None of them were terrible, so feel free to experiment and let me know how it goes!
Here’s the basics of what I did this weekend…
1 1/2 lb ground beef
1 can green beans
1 can corn
2 cans cream of mushroom soup (could try cream of chicken?)
onion
garlic
Worcestershire sauce
low fat shredded cheese
- Dice the onion and cook it and some garlic in (olive) oil in a skillet. Add the hamburger and brown it. Drain and add some drops of Worcestershire sauce.
- Spray cooking spray in a 13x9x2 baking dish. Spread the meat mixture evenly in the dish.
- If you want, sprinkle some of the cheese over the meat.
- Mix soup, beans and corn in a bowl. (Season it if you want, mine was a little bland this time.) Spread the mixture over the meat.
- Cover it all with tater tots. You can see I covered all the real estate, but I’ve seen it done with a lot less.
- Bake it at 350 for 20-25 minutes, or until tots are lightly browned.
- Take it out and sprinkle the cheese over the tots, and bake for 5-or-so more minutes. Take out and let cool on a wire rack(not sure why, that’s what my starter recipe said) for 5 minutes.
- Dig in friends!
