I love to feed my family a homemade meal made with fresh and healthy ingredients. Some days though…I just want something quick to make. I’m sure you can relate to a busy day during the run-up to the holidays. Today was just such a day for me. I decided to make Tater Tot Casserole. It may not be the healthiest but it’s stick-to-your-ribs fulfilling and it’s tasty. It’s not something I make often but it was perfect for today. 10 minutes of assembly and I’m back to work.
You’ll need the following ingredients:
1 pound of hamburger (you will not have a chance to drain the fat so don’t use the cheap stuff, get the least % of fat available!)
2 cans cream of XXX soup – you can totally change the flavor profile by which soups you use – cream of celery, mushroom, chicken, chicken with flavorings… Today I used Cream of Mushroom with Roasted Garlic and Cream of Chicken with Mushroom
1 container of French Fried Onions – the kind you use in the famous green bean casserole. It used to come in a small cardboard “can” but I can’t find those anymore. It would use the whole container. Now I get them in the salad fixings sections but it’s in a bigger bag so there will be leftovers. Side note: super tasty on a salad!
1 package of Tater Tots – I used the store brand, it was a two pound bag and there were still some left over
Salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder
Layer it up!
1.Spread the raw hamburger evenly in a 9X13 pan and pat down.
2. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder. I don’t measure, just sprinkle. Easy on the salt though, the other ingredients have salt too.
3. Crush the fried onions in your hands and spread over the hamburger. )
4. Place dollops of the cream soups on top of the onions. Spread into an even layer making sure not to move all the onions to one end!
5. Place frozen tater tots on top. I line them up like little soldiers. If you wanted to take a little more time maybe you could come up with a cute quilt pattern for them!
6. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes until soup is bubbly and the tater tots are browned. Let it rest for about 5-10 minutes before slicing into squares and serving. If you don’t let it rest, it will be a big pile of mush. Still tasty, just not very pretty.
Today I served it with steamed broccoli. Depending on your appetite you can get about 6-8 servings. Bonus – we have enough leftover for lunch tomorrow!