Bad Foods: How to Make Real Homemade Tater Tot Casserole With Hamburger

The last two recipes I've posted were in anticipation of this one. The tater tots and cream of onion soup are delicious by themselves but there was a method to that madness and here it is. Real, homemade not home assembled, tater tot casserole.

Granted I have nothing to compare the taste of this too because I've never had the home assembled variety because I won't eat a lot of what's in it. I don't eat canned soup and I'm sure as hell not going to eat processed tater tots. Yuck. I eat soup and obviously, I eat tater tots but I like the real thing not the crap out of a can or a bag.

I saw many versions of the original when I started looking at this casserole to see exactly what's in it. Everyone seems to add their own ingredients so there were no real guidelines to follow. I found it interesting that one guy even topped his with crumbled bacon. Different types of canned creamed soups were used and mentioned. Cream of Chicken, Cream of Mushroom and Cream of Celery. For some reason that boggled my mind, no one mentioned Cream of Onion. I know Campbells makes it because I used to buy it.

I decided to keep it simple. Hamburger, soup, veggies, tater tots and cheese. Granted it has been a LONG time since I've made any type of casserole, this one lived up to the challenge to take a popular casserole and make it healthier and better.

Anyway, if you decide to make this, please let me know what you thought. It is worth going the extra mile to put together a real homemade casserole instead of just assembling one out of crap ingredients at home. After all, your food is only as good as the ingredients you use in it.

Ingredients

Approximately 40 tater tots, recipe HERE

1 pound of hamburger

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 large onion, diced

2 cups cream of onion soup, recipe HERE

1/2 pound fresh green beans

1 cup fresh diced green pepper

1 to 1 1/2 cups cheese (more if you like it really cheesy)

Prep time: 10 minutes Cook time: 55 minutes Ready in: 1 hr., 5 min Yields: 8 servings with sides or 4 servings without a side

How to Make a Real Homemade Tater Tot Casserole

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.

Choose a large baking dish, approximately 8" by 12".

Brown your hamburger. Add the onion and garlic to your browned hamburger and cook until the onions are soft and the garlic is fragrant. Drain off the oil. Spread the hamburger mixture in the bottom of your pan.

Take your 2 cups of homemade cream of onion soup and spread it evenly on top of the hamburger.

Wash the green beans and green pepper in cold water. Snap the beans into pieces approximately 1 inch long. Cut the top of the green pepper out and take all of the seeds out. Chop the green pepper into a dice.

Spread the fresh green beans and fresh green pepper on top of the onion soup.

You could also add in other fresh veggies of your choice like corn or mushrooms.

. Top with your homemade tater tots. I used 42 of them for this pan.

Bake for 30 minutes.

After the 30 minutes are up, pull the pan out and put your cheese over the top. Return the pan to the oven for an additional 20 minutes.

After the 20 minutes is up, remove the pan from the oven and set your oven to broil. Put the pan back in the oven under the broiler for 5 minutes to brown up the cheese and ensure that your tots are crispy/crunchy as hell.