Friday, February 14, 2014

Thanksgiving Sweet Tater Tot Casserole

It's been a deep clean of the food in the house sort of week.  I've gone through cabinets, the refrigerator and freezer and been tossing and using up all the processed food in the house.  It's been very successful and I only have a few things left that are shelf stable that I'll hold on to (cake mix for example).

This recipe is inspired by the deep clean and the tv show Chopped.  This recipe was originally going to be made with my homemade sloppy joe sauce, but I discovered a jar of turkey gravy and thus the recipe was born!  This was amazingly delicious and I really couldn't stop eating it.  This has the perfect combination of spice with some cayenne pepper, it's comforting because of the turkey gravy, and who doesn't like tater tots?  This was very easy to put together and if you had a pan that is oven safe, it would be a one-dish wonder!  This recipe could also be made gluten free if you made your own homemade gravy without flour. Have fun with this and add your own veggies! This is a keeper and heats up well for leftovers.

Thanksgiving Sweet Tater Tot Casserole
Little butter
1 onion chopped
1 lb ground turkey
2 cloves of garlic
Salt and pepper
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp all spice
1/4 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute (if desired)
1/2 cup green beans (that's all I had leftover in the bag, use as much as you want!)
1 jar of turkey gravy or homemade
Tater Tots (Sweet potato or other)  I had about 15 tater tots topping mine and the top wasn't covered.  Certainly you may use enough to cover the top of your turkey mixture.

Preheat the oven to 400F

Heat a non stick pan over medium low heat and toss a little bit of butter in there to melt.  Add the onion and sautee until soft.

Add the ground turkey and all the spices and cook the turkey through.  Add the frozen green beans, the jar of turkey gravy and let everything come together and simmer.

Transfer your mixture to a casserole dish sprayed with non-stick cooking spray and then sprinkle (or carefully arrange) the tots over the top.

Pop in the oven and cook for the time determined by your package of tots.

Let cool and enjoy!

I began to artfully arrange the tots...

...then realized I didn't have enough tots, so I sprinkled them on.