Tater Tot Casserole (lightened up!)

 

I think today's recipe counts as a "Throwback Thursday" - I haven't done those in a while, I need to resurrect my old cookbooks. This is a good old fashioned casserole that everyone loves and is very easy to make. I have a couple different recipes for tater tot casserole, for this one I pretty much followed Tesha's recipe with a twist - I'll show you the other versions at another time. 

So my twist is to make a couple changes and lighten the dish up a bit - use lean ground beef, reduced fat soup and cheese, skim milk, and replace the traditional potato tater tots with cauliflower veggie tots (find them in the frozen section at the grocery store). I wasn't sure if the veggie tots would hold their shape after baking them on top of the casserole mixture and I'm happy to say they were perfect. This is SO good! You can change up the vegetables if you want, I like frozen mixed veggies but you could go all corn, carrots, or green beans. I also didn't really measure the vegetables or cheese, just add the amount to your liking. 

Here's the original recipe, make the above changes if you want to also try the lightened up version:

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 can (10 3/4oz) cream of mushroom soup
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 cup frozen mixed vegetables
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 lb. frozen tater tots

1. Heat oven to 375'. Brown meat with onions in skillet, stirring occasionally, drain. Spoon into an 8" square baking dish.

2. Mix soup and milk; pour over meat mixture. Top with layers of mixed vegetables, cheese, and tater tots. 

3. Bake 45 minutes or until tater tots are golden brown and casserole is heated through.

makes 6 servings

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