Today marked the first day this season that the high temperature remained below 50 degrees, and as a result, I felt some special cold-weather comfort food was in order. Add the temperature to the rainy day, and I knew I had to get in the kitchen and get to work!
The end result? A new recipe I stumbled upon over at Cooks.com, while I was looking for an apple pie recipe, of all things! It’s called a “Tater-Tot Hotdish,” and it is pure comfort-food heaven. While I was initially concerned that the fat content would be much too high and the nutrition content much too low, that fear was assuaged when I put everything together in the baking dish. The dish teemed with mixed vegetables – a whole bag full! Add that to the protein in the ground “beef” (we used Quorn grounds today) and the creaminess of the soups, and you’ve got a good, hearty meal that just so happens to be topped with tater tots.
And so easy! This recipe took five minutes, max, to prepare, and about an hour to cook. And the results were great. We’ll definitely give this one another try – I can already tell it’s going to become a cold-weather favorite!
The stats:
Tater tots: $2.50 ($0.83/person)
Mixed vegetables: $1.67 ($0.84/person)
Ground “beef”: $4.99 ($2.50/person)
Cream of celery soup: $0.99 ($0.50/person)
Cream of mushroom soup: $1.49 ($0.75/person)
Onion: $0.72 ($0.36/person)
GRAND TOTAL: $12.36 … or $5.78 per person.
BUT WAIT! This recipe makes two additional servings. So the per-person price goes down even more!
:)