Comfort Food: A Twist on an Old Favorite

One of my scrapbooking friends mentioned that she'd tried this recipe from the Betty Crocker website.

Can you guess what it is? It's Pizza Tater Tot Casserole!

Now we like Tater Tot Casserole at our house (Son doesn't like it for some reason though) and we like pizza so I thought I'd give it a go.

I made a few changes to the recipe because #1 I didn't have pizza sauce but I did have spaghetti sauce, #2 I didn't have an onion but I did have dried onions, #3 I prefer my green bell peppers to be cooked through so I browned them with the ground beef and dried onion, and #4 I wanted to have some leftovers so I doubled the recipe. 

Oh, there's a #5 too. I baked the casserole at 350 degrees F. because I was using a glass baking dish and I think I read somewhere when you do that you should lower the baking temperature by about 25 degrees. Whether that's true or not, my casserole came out perfect.

So here's the recipe as I made it:

Pizza Tater Tot Casserole
adapted from the Betty Crocker website

2 pounds lean ground beef
1 tablespoon dried onion
2 (10 3/4 ounce) cans condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
2 cups spaghetti sauce
4 ounces (approximately 56 slices) pepperoni
1 bell pepper, chopped
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 (32 ounce) bag of tater tots

Heat your oven to 375 degrees F (unless you're using a glass baking dish, then heat to 350 degrees F. like I did.) Spray a 13"x9" baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large skillet, brown the ground beef with the onion and green pepper over medium-high heat until beef is thoroughly cooked, stirring frequently. Drain any grease from the meat mixture.

Reduce the heat to medium and stir in the undiluted soup. Cook until mixture comes to a boil, stirring occasionally.

Spoon the beef mixture into the prepared baking dish. Spoon the spaghetti sauce evenly over the top. Arrange the slices of pepperoni over the sauce. Sprinkle with cheese. Arrange tater tots over the cheese. Cover the dish with aluminum foil.

Bake the casserole for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake an additional 20 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

AD and I both enjoyed the twist on an old familiar comfort food dish. I hope you will too.