Tater Tot Casserole with a Kick

 

Hi friends! It's been a little while since I last posted, and a lot has recently been happening in my life! I recently got married (three weeks ago) and have been enjoying married life. We spent a week in Florida for our honeymoon where we took Harry Potter World and Universal Studios by storm (I plan on writing about some hacks for Universal Studios later) and had an absolute blast. But, that's not why I'm writing this post! I'm writing this post because I wanted to share a recipe I put together. My husband has been busy working two jobs (I know...isn't he such a hard worker?!), and I've had the privilege of getting to stay home and keep up house and hang out with our dog Bentley. So, naturally, I've been making him homemade dinners and lunches and breakfasts, and today, I wanted to share with you my new favorite recipe - and my husband's too - tater tot casserole with a kick! 

I want to start out by saying that I did steal the general tater tot casserole from the Duggar Family, but since both my husband and I are addicted to anything spicy, I thought I would add some new stuff to the recipe and make it more of my own. To quote Rosanna Pansino...let's get started!

You will need:

- 2 lbs of ground beef

- 3-2 lb bag of frozen tater tots

- 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup

- 2 cans of cream of chicken soup 

- 2 cans of evaporated milk

- 1 jar of tamed jalapenos 

- 1 packet of taco seasoning

- Salt and pepper to taste

- A small bag of Fritos

- An 11 cup casserole dish 

- Grated cheddar cheese

Instructions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 360 degrees

2. Brown meat in a pan; once browned, add taco seasoning, salt and pepper and stir

3. Pour meat into the bottom of the casserole dish

4. Cover the meat with the tots - feel free to go ham on the amount of tots you put in

5. In a large bowl, mix together the soups and milk

6. Pour the soups and milk over the tots and spread around to make sure all of the tots are covered

7. Sprinkle jalapenos over the top - feel free to add as many or as little jalapenos as you want; my husband and I LOVE spicy food so I added the entire jar

8. Bake in the oven at 360 degrees for one hour

9. Once the casserole is finished baking, take it out of the oven and sprinkle on as many Fritos as you want

10. Next, sprinkle on as much cheese as you like - feel free to grate the whole block and put it on there if you want!

11. Place back in the oven for 5 minutes, just to let the cheese melt

12. Let cool and enjoy!

This dish is super easy and delicious, and it takes hardly any effort to make...and even less effort to enjoy...trust me, my husband and I ate every last bit of that casserole over the last few days. Let me know what your experience is after you've made this dish and what you think about it. I know my brother suggested putting spicy Cheetos on top instead of Fritos, so maybe I'll have to try that next time.