Where I cook with tater tots, sausage, and cheese

Sausage & Spinach Tater Tot Casserole

Not too long ago, Natalie, of Mommy of a Monster posted tater tot casserole recipe over on her blog. And, of course, I was intrigued, because, well, I like food, and she was including some of my favorites.

Then, a few days ago, Duffy & I were playing the “what the hell should we do for dinner” game that all parents play. We wanted something tasty. We wanted something that was cheap. We wanted something easy. And, since it was cold outside, we wanted something hot. And, for whatever reason, I thought about tater tots.

So, I looked up Natalie’s recipe and decided to change it, just a little bit . . . I was certain I could sneak a few extra veggies in there, and we had just finished an English pie with ground beef, so I wanted a different meat.

Sausage & Spinach Dinner Tater-Tot Casserole

Ingredients

  • 1 – 1½ pounds of loose sausage1
  • 1 large onion
  • 1 bag (16 oz) of tater-tots
  • A bunch of spinach (the more the better)
  • 1 can of cream of mushroom soup
  • 1/2 cup skim milk
  • A shitton of shredded cheddar
  • Enough olive oil to cook the sausage & onion

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C for my metric readers)
  2. Saute the onion while cooking the sausage — this should take 5-10 minutes. Make sure the onion is thoroughly soft (if the sausage isn’t cooked through, don’t worry, that will happen in the baking)
  3. Add spinach to the sausage/onion mixture until it’s wilted down.
  4. Spread sausage / veggie mixture on the bottom of a casserole dish.
  5. Place tater tots, still frozen, in a single layer, on top of the sausage / veggie mixture.
  6. Mix the condensed soup and milk thoroughly (I added some garlic powder here, too)
  7. Pour milk/soup over the tater tots
  8. Cover the entire thing with shredded cheddar
  9. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the tater tots appear done & things are bubbling up the sides
  10. Let cook for 10 minutes before serving

Ta da!


1 I live in an area where people make their own sausage . . . if you can’t get “loose sausage” where you are, just buy links & chop them up very finely
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Categorized as Recipes

26 comments

  1. I also love shitton as a measurement!!

    I gotta be honest…yours sounds better than mine 😉 I just stumbled and pinned this…I can’t wait to try it!

    Off to tweet it now too 😉

    1. Let me know if it turned out for you . . . I’m striking on on other vegetables that might work, but, when asparagus is in season, I think adding some, along with the spinach, and using cream of asparagus soup might add to this a little more.

    1. I made a casserole dish — usually, when I make that volume of food, it’s a 3-4 day affair between the meal & leftovers. This lasted, exactly, a meal & a half.

    1. No – it’s not necessary – it just acts to bind the tater tots to the meat layer a little bit . . . is it cream soups that you’re looking to avoid? Because I’m thinking, next time, of using cream of asparagus.

  2. OK, this does sound heavenly, and I’m not a fan of tater tots. But I think I can be persuaded. And when did you start eating beef?

    1. I started eating meat again not too long ago . . . I’m still, mostly, vegetarian, but I realized that I wasn’t being overly careful about what I was eating, and I may have been far-less-good of a vegetarian than I had ever given myself credit for.

      So I reverted, fully.

  3. I thought he went with tater tots because we have a shitton in the freezer, yet he bought a whole new bag. Anyone got other tater tot recipes?

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