Tatertot Casserole

I decided that I'm going to only be posting when I have something to share that I want to share. I don't really like the pressure of posting frequently just to have posts up. It makes me feel like I have to post whatever I make, even if I don't completely love the recipe. Plus I'm only cooking 50% of the time since I'm living with my in-laws. So sorry if posts are a bit more sparatic.

Anyways, this recipe comes from my MIL Schenk Family cookbook. I never had tatertot casserole before I lived with my inlaws, but when my MIL cooked it for dinner one night, I fell in love! (In fact I had a craving for it during the last couple of weeks, so I finally made it for dinner last night!) In the cookbook it was titled "Finicky Kids Casserole", so obviously this was someone's solution to getting their kids to actually eat their dinner. It can be a little on the saltier side (but not super bad) so I would use low sodium soup to help cut the salt. Something that I'll try next time is instead of layering the ground beef, tatertots and soups, I am going to mix them up together and then add the cheese on top. The reason being just that when I made it, the cream of chicken soup didn't go all the way to the meat and so the meat didn't really "stick" to the rest of the casserole (Plus it would make it less noticeable if I were to reduce the ground beef to 1 lb.). Also, you could probably use whatever cream soups you have on hand. I was thinking it might be fun to try a cream of celery with a cream of mushroom. However you make it, I hope you enjoy this too!

Tatertot Casserole

1-1/2 pounds ground beef

1 medium onion, chopped

1 large pkg. tatertots (My package was 32 oz.)

2 cans cream of chicken soup, undiluted

1-1/2 c. cheddar cheese, grated

1 pkg. Lipton Onion Soup

Brown beef and chopped onion; drain well. Spread in a 9X13" pan. Sprinkle onion soup mix over beef. Evenly distribute tatertots over onion. Spoon soup over potatoes. Sprinkle cheese over top and bake for 35-45 minutes at 350* F (I baked mine for a little more than 45 minutes and it was perfect. Just make sure the casserole is warm all the way through and that the tatertots aren't raw.)