Tator Tot Casserole

This is mostly my mom's recipe. It has adjustments for the things we (by this, I mean Andy) don't like much.
Tator Tot Casserole
Ingredients:
1 pound Ground Beef (or less or more, whichever you like more)
Spices (salt, pepper, dried onions, garlic, red pepper, parsley-I just add a little-less than 1/2 teaspoon-of each of these in when the hamburger is almost done.)
1 can Spaghetti Sauce or Tomato Soup
1 bag Tator Tots, divided
2 cups Mixed Vegetables (or whatever veggies you like)
1 can Cream of Chicken Soup (you could use mushroom or celery if you prefer those.)
1/2 cup Cheddar Cheese

Instructions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Brown ground beef in large frying pan. Add spices when it is almost cooked. Drain. Put back in pan and add spaghetti sauce. Heat. Spray casserole dish with cooking non-stick spray. Add ground beef/spaghetti sauce to casserole dish. Sprinkle a layer of tator tots on top of it. Add mixed vegetables in a layer. Put cream of chicken on top of vegetables. Add another layer of tator tots. Sprinkle top with cheddar cheese. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until it's bubbly goodness shows around the edges. Let it set for about 10 minutes before serving so that it doesn't become soup.

Example from top to bottom:
Cheddar Cheese
Tator Tots
Cream of Chicken
Mixed Vegetables
Tator Tots
Hamburger/Spaghetti Sauce

I love this meal. I love cream of chicken. I wish I could find a really good and easy recipe to make it from scratch. Maybe I will someday, but it's so good from the can and I use it in so many things.
(I hope posting things helps you not be too bored Trish.)
This is what my one year old looked like after eating/spilling his. He is almost in his "food coma".

Crockpot Pasta Fagioli

This is like the soup from Olive Garden. We ate it on Halloween night before the big trick-or-treating festivities. It is very good. It was posted on the Year of Crockpotting Meals blog on Halloween last year.

Ingredients:
1 pound lean ground beef, browned and drained
1/2 large red onion, chopped, or not
1 cup carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks, sliced, or not
2 cans (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes (and juice), one works too.
1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
4 cups beef broth
1 jar (16.5 oz) pasta sauce
2 tsp oregano
1 T Tabasco sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup dry pasta, to add at end of cooking time

Instructions:
Use a 6 quart or larger crockpot, or cut the recipe in half. This makes a lot.

Brown the meat on the stovetop, and drain well. Let it cool a bit.

Chop up the carrots, onion, and celery. (If you or someone in your house doesn't like all of the vegetables, you can add less or none of onion and celery.) Add it to the empty crockpot.

Drain and rinse the beans, and add them. Add the whole cans of tomatoes, and the pasta sauce. Add the beef broth. Add the salt, pepper, oregano, and Tabasco sauce. Stir in your meat.

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or high for 4. When the vegetables are tender, stir in the 1/2 cup of dry pasta.

Cover and cook for another hour on low, or until the pasta is tender. It will swell quite a bit.

Serve with a bit of Parmesan cheese if you have it.

Corn Bread Taco Bake

One of my old friends said that I'm an amazing cook (and also posted his own recipe for TACO SOUP), so I guess I'd better put something extra yummy on here.

I made this and everyone enjoyed it. The Chili and Ground Beef are on the bottom of a 9x13 pan and then the corn bread goes on top to soak up all the goodness. It's so good. I just wish I could make corn bread like Famous Daves! Now that was some DELICIOUS corn bread!

Corn Bread Taco Bake

Ingredients:
1 pound Lean Ground Beef
1 Envelope Taco Seasoning Mix
1 can Chili
2 cups Cheese, divided (any kind you have or like)
2 Packages (8.5 oz each) Corn Muffin Mix
1 can (11 oz) Mexican-Style Corn, drained
Chopped Tomatoes
Sliced Olives
Sour Cream

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375°. In large skillet, cook ground beef over medium heat until beef is no longer pink; drain. Add taco seasoning mix and prepare according to package instructions. Stir in chili and 1 cup of the cheese. In large bowl, prepare corn muffin mix according to package instructions. Stir in corn and remaining 1 cup of the cheese. Spoon ground beef mixture evenly onto bottom of 9x13 pan. Top with cornbread mixture spreading evenly to edges of pan. Bake 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Cut into squares. Top with tomatoes, olives, and sour cream.

Easy Cheesy Lasagna

NaDell’s Easy Cheesy Lasagna

Ingredients:
2 cups Ragu or other Spaghetti Sauce
2 cans (10 ¾ oz.) Campbell’s Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup
(may substitute Cream of Celery or Mushroom)
2 ½ cups Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
¼ cup Milk
1 lb. Ground Beef
10 dry lasagna noodles

Instructions:
The best part about this is that you don’t have to cook the noodles before baking.
Mix Chicken Soup, Mozzarella Cheese, and Milk. Set aside. Cook Beef until browned. Pour off fat. Stir in Spaghetti sauce. Heat thorough. Add spices as you wish. Spoon half the Meat Mixture into a 9x13 pan. Top with 5 dry Lasagna Noodles and Chicken Soup Mixture. Top with the remaining 5 Dry Lasagna Noodles and the remaining meat mixture. Add more cheese, olives, etc. if desired. Bake at 400° F covered for 30 minutes, or until it starts to bubble up a little. Let stand 10 minutes to set up. Eat and enjoy!!!