Southwest Tater Tot Casserole

I should have known that once I got the ol' blog up and running again and was enjoying writing posts that life would happen and get in the way.  At least I'm getting this post in under the two month mark from the last one!  I feel like we've just been swamped, although a good chunk of it was fun.  In the last two months my husband and I have taken a trip to Louisville, KY for a music festival and spent a weekend in NYC to see one of our favorite people get married.  Then I fractured my ankle hiking and came down with a cold.  Plus throw in there all the day-to-day stuff like working and managing kid activities and attending said kid activities, and life is just busy.  

Basically this meme is my life...

Anyway, my oldest is in Milwaukee, WI this weekend for a choral festival, so while he's gone I was trying to come up with meals he doesn't particularly like that the rest of us do.  This Southwest Tater Tot Casserole was the first one to pop in my head.  

In the summer of 2019 we were going to housesit for some friends in the Seattle area while they went on the trip of a lifetime to China.  My youngest and I made a road trip out of it on the way there and stopped in Boise to visit my lifelong BFF and her family for a few days.  We've been friends since our ages were single digits which is pretty incredible because we are both solidly in our 40s now.  We of course had a blast with them, and I loved that our kids played together like they've known each other forever.  Our last night at their house she made this for dinner.  I absolutely love tater tot casserole and have literally been eating it since I was a kid, and my kids love it, too, so Miles and I were super excited to try this version.  Once we were back home I made it for my family and was shocked when Will didn't like it.  What the heck, man?!  So now I make it if Will isn't going to be here for dinner, although sometimes he has to suck it up and have it because it's what I want to make for dinner.

The website where the recipe originally came from isn't up anymore, so luckily I had printed off the recipe at some point.  I've changed it up a little from the recipe I printed to adjust to how my family likes it.

Southwest Tater Tot Casserole

1 package ground turkey (I buy mine at Costco in packages of four)

1 can corn

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 packet taco seasoning

1 large can green enchilada sauce, heat level of your choice (we like medium heat)

1-2 cups shredded cheese of your choice (Mexican blend, colby jack, cheddar, pepper jack...whatever)

1 bag frozen tater tots

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425.  Brown ground turkey in an ovenproof skillet sprayed with nonstick spray, seasoned with salt and pepper.  

Once the turkey is no longer pink, add in corn, black beans, taco seasoning, and 1/2 to 2/3 of the can of enchilada sauce.  Sitr to combine and let simmer on medium heat for 10-12 minutes so the flavors combine.  This will also help the enchilada sauce cook down a little.  If it looks or gets too dry, add in more enchilada sauce.

Turn off the burner and top the mixture with shredded cheese.  Arrange tater tots on top of cheese.

Move the skillet into the oven and bake for 25 minutes or until cheese is melted and tots are crispy.

Note: if you don't have an ovenproof skillet, you can use a 9x13 or 11x7 casserole dish.  Spray dish with nonstick spray and transfer skillet mixture to the casserole dish before topping with cheese.  Top with cheese then tater tots and bake as directed.

Jefferson is keeping a close eye on the skillet mixture.

Topping with tots. My husband makes fun of my symmetrical tot placement, but how else are you supposed to do it?  Throw on tots all willy-nilly?!

Jen Hatmaker's Barbecue Braised Beans and Chicken

I have to say I'm kind of enjoying being back at this...although I also hesitate to say that in case the novelty wears off, and I stop with the updates!  

I just love Jen Hatmaker.  Her Facebook posts, podcast, books.  I kind of feel like we could be best friends if we actually knew each other.  Maybe that's an overstatement, but I adore her.  The last time we were in Austin, TX I secretly hoped I'd run into here somewhere.  Awhile back she posted a picture of a pot soaking in a sink from a dinner she had made, and it really resonated with me because a lot of times I also have a pot soaking the sink, but mostly because I'm lazy and don't like doing dishes.  Anyway, the recipe she posted with it sounded like something my family would like.  I was scrolling through my Instagram bookmarks this past weekend to meal plan for the week and saw that post.  Tonight I had to drive carpool after football practice, so I wanted something easy for dinner.  This fit the bill since it gets prepped early and then just sits in the oven for several hours.

Jen Hatmaker's Barbecue Braised Beans and Chicken

This was a big hit, but it was definitely spicy.  I ended up using about half the can of chipotles mostly because I didn't want to scrape the seeds out of all the peppers and was worried using all of them would make it way too spicy.  I'm not a big barbecue bean fan, but these were really good.  Would definitely make it again!

Before going in the oven...

The finished product...

Sous Chef Jeff hoping to get a serving...

Binging with Babish's Deluxe Grilled Cheese

 Wow, it has been a MINUTE since I've done this!  Thank you, Blogger, for simply having a "new post" link when I go to my blog to make it easy on me.

I recently created an Instagram account for our little dog because he is constantly hovering by anyone preparing food in our kitchen, so I decided to combine cooking and recipes with dog pics.  I'm still working on how to best provide links for the recipes I show, so while I get that figured out I thought the easiest way to start would be directing anyone interested here, and I can provide a link (or the recipe) to whatever the post is.

Interested in following along with this new endeavor?  Give us a follow on Insta at Sous Chef Jeff!

Here's Jefferson aka Sous Chef Jeff in all his cuteness...

So, with all of that being said and introduced, here we go!  My 16 year old son recently introduced me to a YouTube channel, Binging With Babish, and I've kind of been watching it incessantly, sometimes with my son and sometimes on my own.  He had seen this grilled cheese video and thought we should try it sometime.  He was going to make it with me, but high school life got in the way, so I was on my own.

Instead of copying and pasting, I'm just giving you the links.

Binging with Babish: Grilled Cheese Deluxe inspired by Regular Show on YouTube

Binging with Babish: Grilled Cheese Deluxe inspired by Regular Show on the Babish website

This was definitely a tasty grilled cheese and one I would make again for sure.  I did make a few mistakes I would change next time...

• On the video he puts the cheese into a ramekin to solidify and cool.  The recipe calls for spreading it on a cookie sheet to make slices.  I was having a struggle with plastic wrap for the cookie sheet, so I opted for a container.  I recommend using a cookie sheet if you want the cheese to set faster...basic science stuff here, but it took awhile for the big chunk o' cheese in the container to cool because it was so dense...which meant we actually had these the next night for dinner because the cheese wasn't set in time.  I would have prepped it earlier in the day to avoid this, but at the time I thought my son was going to help me with it, so I was waiting for him to get home from school and sports practice.
• Once the cheese was cool, and I took it out to slice it, I ended up slicing it way too thick.  Thinner is better if you want an epic cheese pull when you cut the sandwich.
• I used brioche bread because I thought that would be delicious, but I think next time I'd stick with a regular white sandwich bread, like Pepperidge Farm's.  That's my go-to white bread for sandwiches that require white bread (really white bread is the only option for things like pimento cheese and meatloaf sandwiches, don't you think?).  The brioche was still good, just not what I was looking for with this.  The end result actually reminded me a lot of a Sonic grilled cheese, which by no means was a bad thing.

Here's my cheese blob after I took it out of the container for slicing.  I cut it in half widthwise and then cut slices from the smaller pieces.

And the finished sandwich!