Recipe: Meat-and-Tater Bake

I was looking in my freezer, and I realized I had TWO big bags of frozen French fries in there. So I started looking up recipes for how I could use the fries other than just by themselves (which of course is delicious, but).

Taste of Home had several recipes that were quite similar: Beef & Tater Bake; Ham 'n' Tater Bake; Broccoli Beef Supper. I mostly followed the instructions for the last one, but I took into account the other two to think about what I needed, what I could leave out, etc. 

Ingredients

• 4 cups frozen cottage fries
• 1 pound ground beef
• 3 cups frozen chopped broccoli, thawed
• 1 can (2.8 ounces) french-fried onions, divided
• 1 medium tomato, chopped
• 1 can (10-3/4 ounces) condensed cream of celery soup, undiluted
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided
• 1/2 cup 2% milk
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400°. Line bottom and sides of a greased 13x9-in. baking dish with cottage fries. Bake, uncovered, at 400° for 10 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink; crumble beef; drain. Layer the beef, broccoli, half of the onions and the tomato over fries. In a small bowl, combine the soup, 1/2 cup cheese, milk, garlic powder and pepper; pour over top.

 

3. Cover and bake at 20 minutes. Uncover; sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup cheese and onions. Bake 2 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.

As per usual, I did a few things my own way. I actually didn't look up what cottage fries are until after I had already made the recipe, but all fries are kinda the same, right? I don't eat mammals, so instead of using ground beef or ham, I used ground turkey (although I did get the 85% lean kind just in case a little extra fat would make it taste better). The first recipe called for a whole bag of frozen broccoli, but when I was adding that layer to the casserole, that seemed like a lot. I stopped at what I thought looked like a good amount in proportion to the rest of the dish; the other two recipes call for three cups of broccoli, and I think I did about that (though I did not measure; I also did not drain it, but it didn't seem too wet from being thawed...). I didn't bother with the onion, and I just sprinkled the spices in there rather than measuring them out. I also topped the dish with Chao, a plant-based cheese that Safeway was giving away for free. I figured it was worth trying, seeing as I didn't risk paying for it! As you can see from the photo, it didn't melt very well, and I had it in the oven for five minutes! So maybe not the best cheese for this recipe (although, seeing as most shredded cheese recipes involve melting it, what is this cheese good for...?). 

All in all, I thought this recipe was pretty good, and very easy to make! Would definitely recommend!