Make My Day Camp: MSIH: Taco-Tot Casserole

Thursday, April 14, 2022

MSIH: Taco-Tot Casserole

This week's "my sis is hungry" review is for Taco-Tot Casserole - here's what my sis had to say about it in her words, recipe and my notes to follow:

Wow its been a long time since my Sis has made me dinner! Ok that’s a lie - she makes dinner when she has me over but it's been a long time since she has spoiled me by making my dinner and giving it to me to heat up and try to pass off to the family as my own. Usually they see through my lies though as the food is generally better. By “better” I mean its edible. And didn’t come from a meal kit.

Anyway, last night I had a wonderful surprise, that my sister knew I was hungry.

The husband is out of town so it was only for me and the teen. First of all it had tater tots on the top. How can you go wrong with tater tots? This meal gave off Shepherds Pie vibes. Which is a good thing. But different. When I make shepherds pie I put cream of mushroom soup or some other kind of sauce in the burger/corn mix. In this case it was more dry than mine and had beans in it. It looked like it would be dry however it really wasn’t. The flavor of the meat mixture was really good. Really flavorful. Brooke doesn’t particularly like beans however in this she said she “didn’t mind them”. Which is pretty close to a compliment I think for a teenager. Jill also said they didn’t have regular tater tots at the store (when will all this covid/grocery madness stop? and what does covid have to do with tater tots?) So she used tater tot crowns instead which was delicious. They crisped up on top and were great. Lastly she gave me a sour cream/something mixture to “drizzle” on top. That was the only part I didn’t actually love. The team and I both preferred it with regular boring sour cream.

All in all this meal was delicious. I would make this again!! It was a great variation to my normal shepherds pie and I could add it to the rotation of dinners I often ruin and force my family to eat.

1 pound lean ground beef
1 medium yellow onion, chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 (1 oz.) packet original taco seasoning
1/2 t. salt
2 cups frozen corn, thawed
1 (15 oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (5 oz) can chopped mild green chiles, drained
8 oz. shredded Mexican cheese blend (about 2 cups), divided
1 (32oz) bag frozen tater tots (tater tot crowns and cauliflower tots also work)
1/2 cup sour cream
2 T. hot sauce
2 T. lime juice
1 avocado, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1 jalapeño, seeded and chopped
cilantro leaves

1. Preheat oven to 400'. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, cook ground beef, onion, taco seasoning, and salt until browned, stirring to crumble, about 8-10 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in corn, black beans, green chiles, and 1 cup of the cheese.

2. Spoon mixture into a lightly greased 9x13" baking dish. Place tater tots in an even layer on top of the mixture.

3. Bake, uncovered, in preheated oven until tots are golden brown and crispy, 35-40 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining 1 cup cheese, bake until melted, about 5 minutes more.

4. Whisk together sour cream, hot sauce, and lime juice. Drizzle casserole with sour cream mixture; top with avocado, tomato, jalapeño, and cilantro.

Jill here: I made this in 2 smaller pans so we could also have it for dinner (most of the time I make her meals that I want to try but don't necessarily want to serve - that usually means it has onions and peppers in it which Dave doesn't like, or it's spicy which I don't like). We also really like this recipe and will make it again for sure. I didn't make the sour cream mixture for us so can't comment on that part. I didn't have enough tater tot crowns to cover both pans so I supplemented with cauliflower tots. Delish.