My Midwestern Roots Are Showing

[asphaltcowgrrl]

So, my parents were born and raised in a little town in Illinois and, although my palate has progressed past the meat and potato (both usually fried) staples we had growing up, sometimes I fall firmly back into those culinary wormholes my mother opened in my soul. It doesn't help that my husband's family is from Indiana and shares similar pitfalls in their diet, but I digress.

99.9% of the time, I make healthy, tasty food.  I'm no Emeril Lagasse, but I can make fancy meals, too, when the mood strikes me.  Last night was not one of those nights.  Indeed, it was quite the opposite.  I'm finally starting to feel better after approximately ten days of being sicker than all get out (and now my time in Texas is rearing its ugly head, I think...) and, despite having pulled a muscle in my back sneezing and coughing (I kid you not), dinner had to be made.  When my 14-year-old asked if she coud help me, I jumped on the offer.  I handed her the recipes I'd printed for the week and let her choose.  Why am I not surprised she chose the trashiest thing I've considered making in years?

There is nothing more satisfying when you're not feeling well than a hot, cheesy, horribly non-nutritious casserole. Well, for me anyway.  So, when I found this one on Pinterest a few weeks ago, I knew it needed to be made.  Even better that it's simple enough for my kid to make without any supervision.

"Cracked Out" Chicken Tater Tot Casserole

serves 8

3 cups chopped cooked chicken

16 oz sour cream

1 can Cream of Chicken soup

1 (1oz) package Ranch dressing mix

1 (3oz) bag real bacon pieces (Oscar Meyer)

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

2 lb bag frozen tater tots

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray a 9x13-inch pan with cooking spray. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together chicken, sour cream, soup, Ranch mix, bacon and cheese. Fold in frozen tater tots. Spoon mixture into prepared pan.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, until bubbly.

Pretty easy, eh?  I used a store bought rotisserie chicken because I'm weird and don't like chunks of chicken breast in my casseroles (or pasta, to be honest).  I also skipped the bacon because I'm not a big fan of store bought bacon bits and wasn't exactly in the mood to fry bacon last night.  My kid's a good cook, but she's as clumsy as I am so letting HER fry the bacon would have resulted in cat flambé, I'm sure.  Despite the lack of pork fat, sorry Emeril, this was the tastiest freaking thing I've had in weeks.  And I even resisted the urge to doctor it up with a little Worcestershire or Louisiana Hot Sauce.  The only alteration I might make next time is using the Mini-Tots that Ore-Ida makes.  Or, in a pinch, I might just pre-bake the tots for 10 minutes before dumping the sauce on them.

And now that I've just lost all culinary respectibility with this recipe, I'm going to go back and finish my leftover casserole I have in my lunchbox.

*no clue why this is 'cracked out' other than my husband and younger child were fighting over who got to get seconds first.

**as an aside, I'm making baked pork chops for dinner tonight, so my family is on the road to recovery from this meal, whether they like it or not.

Comments

[asphaltcowgrrl.livejournal.com]

I think I'd go nuts without the Food Network. I like watching cooking shows entirely too much. :D

You don't have packets of mix that you stir into sour cream to make ranch dressing? Or is that entirely an American thing? That's funny. And the 'real bacon pieces' are more like actual bacon than the hard, crunchy bacon bits you generally find. I generally don't buy them because of the price either!

Yes, the pre-shredded stuff. And I do both. If I need a large amount of cheese, like if I'm making pizza, I'll just buy a block and shred it myself (cheaper). But if I only need some to sprinkle on top of something, then I'll buy a bag. Great question though - it's called a grater although we don't grate the cheese, we shred it. You grate carrots, garlic, onions and other things, but unless it's Parmesan, it's shredded. Weird language we have, eh?

YES! Exactly like those croquettes, although from the looks of it, the tots are smaller. Same concept though.

Hee! Celsius doesn't bother me, it's easy enough to convert. It's when I find an older British cookbook that tells me to preheat to Gas Mark 4 that I'm like WTF? Hah! And really, metric IS so much easier. I don't know why the US is so against it (aside from the fact that our politicians are old and resist change).

That's usually what I'll do, too, but for some reason, it has a harder texture (I know I'm not explaining this well) than when it's been roasted and it puts me off whatever I'm eating (and you thought you had strange food issues LOL). I do agree though, I'm all for the meat!

It has taken a long time to get here with my kids. They've always liked to help, but never wanted to do the whole meal on their own until a year or two ago. Hey, even if they don't volunteer, at least the don't give you a load of garbage when it's their turn.

It definitely can be! Coyotes aren't a danger to humans for the most part, but small pets are too tempting, I guess. Yeah, even domesticated cats can be fierce predators, so it doesn't surprise me that they'll go for the local birds.

He's what's known as a Maine Coon and they're very large cats. Not just fat, but long and muscular too. But wow, 5.5kg is a good sized kitten too! When we adopted Buddy, one of my husband's friends asked if we chose the biggest cat we could find. I told him that he looked smaller in the cage. Hahaha.