Tater Tot Hot Dish II

I saw this recipe come through my email and thought of the times I had made Tater Tot Casserole when I had a young family. It was always a favorite. So I thought I'd make this one, since I haven't done dinners lately, and sometimes we just need ideas for dinner.

Well, I'll share the recipe but I think the original one would be better. This one has the soup mixture on top, which does not allow the tater tots to get crispy, which, in my opinion is what tater tots should be. It makes them more like hash browns on top. Speaking of crispy tater tots, I think Woody's made the best.

INGREDIENTS:

1 ½ pounds lean ground beef 1 onion

1 (32 oz) pkg tater tots, thawed ¾ tsp salt

1 (10.75 oz) can condensed cream of mushroom soup

1 (10.75 oz) can condensed cream of celery soup

1 pinch ground black pepper

1 6 oz) can French–fried onion rings

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a large skillet, cook ground beef with onion, salt, and pepper, drain and spread into the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish. Add tater tots, mix cream of mushroom and cream of celery soup together and pour over dish. Top with onion rings, if using. (Use foil if putting them all on top)

Bake in preheated oven for one hour

MY NOTES:

One of the pluses with this casserole, original or not, is that it is quick and easy. This recipe called for putting the soup mixture on top, which made it hard to spread. And since it doesn't add any liquid, it didn't really go anywhere. I put half the dried onion rings into the soup mixture and the other half in the last 10 minutes of baking, but you have to watch so they don't get too done.

I see in the original recipe it used only mushroom soup, a little ketchup and Worcestershire sauce mixed in the cooked hamburger mixture, then topped with the tater tots. I also found versions with cheese on top of the mixture, then the tater tots, and one that added green beans.

All in all, it still had a good flavor for a dish that didn't take a lot of ingredients.

If you have any quick and easy dinner recipes, please pass them on. I need to balance my recipe column with either main dishes or vegetable dishes ;-)

ENJOY THESE WARM FALL DAYS!