Tater Tot Hot Dish

My Midwest comfort food goes by three names (that I know of): Casserole, Hot Dish and Bake. Many families use one of these names, I am happy to say I use all three depending on the dish. For the purpose of this post I will use "Hot Dish."

Hot Dish can really be made from anything but does have some basic components.
1. Meat - ground beef and chicken are the top two
2. Vegetable
3. Starch - pasta, potatoes or rice
4. Cream of ________ soup
5. Salt/seasoning - Garlic salt or Lawry's Seasoning Salt
6. Topping - usually something crunchy

Cheese isn't always necessary but is always a welcome addition.

My all-time favorite Hot Dish is Tater Tot Hot Dish. Nothing about this says healthy, but everything about it says comfort to me. My parents came over for dinner last night. Dad brought over a Tater Tot Hot Dish that he made earlier in the day. I wasn't my mom's recipe, but it was good! That is the lovely thing about the Hot Dish - even if it's not your mom's recipe there is a very good chance that it will still be yummy. I've had many different variations of Tater Tot Hot Dish and while they aren't my mom's recipe very few have failed to be yummy.

Lesa's Tater Tot Hot Dish
1 ½ lb. ground beef
1 small onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, diced
8 oz. canned mushrooms
10 oz. cream of mushroom soup
1 bag tater tots
Season to taste - garlic salt, Lawry’s, parsley, pepper
 
Sauté ground beef, onions and celery until beef is browned and onions are translucent. Drain oil from hbeef, return to pan and heat. Stir in one cup of tater tots, mushrooms and soup. Add seasonings to taste. Pour mixture into a well-greased casserole. Top with remaining tater tots. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until mixture is well heated and tater tots are crispy and golden.