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Dad’s Tato Taco Casserole

Ingredients:

1  or 2 pound(s) Ground Chuck or Ground Round

1 or 2 pound pouches of your favorite grated cheese (100% cheese)

3 C Mashed Potatoes (Use homemade mashed potatoes or Instant potatoes) 

2  Pounds of Sour Cream

1 Pound Corn Chips (Try unsalted chips if they can be found – there’s plenty of salt in this dish without adding more)

Taco Seasoning to add to cooked Ground Beef (add according to your personal taste preference)

1 Pound +/- Spaghetti Sauce (Purchase a jar and you can store any you don’t use during preparation)

2 C Shredded Lettuce

2 C Diced Tomatoes

1 C Diced Onions

1 C Diced Scallions

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out this recipe.

There’s no need to plan on being exact with your measurements when making this dish.  Almost everyone wants enough to go around and they don’t mind leftovers when it comes to this dish.

Get out your favorite large casserole dish.  If you have a large family make sure you get 2 pounds of the cheese, beef, and sour cream. 

Start by browning the beef in a large skillet and drain any grease off this beef once it is cooked.  Drain it and rinse it placing it back on the stove to reheat it before you add just enough spaghetti sauce to make it be a little saucy without being too saucy and add your taco seasoning in it at this time.  Huh?  You may ask what is too saucy?  Too saucy is if the beef is dripping in sauce.  The sauce is there to help add a little flavor and to keep the beef from being too dry so you only need a little sauce.  If you’d like some onions cooked in it add that now and even though red or green peppers are not mentioned in the above recipes it would be a good time to add them here if you want the additional nutrients and flavor in this dish.  Just add anything you want in the beef in it at this time.

Have mashed potatoes ready.  Yes, the Instant Potatoes are fine.  If you want the flavor of a few chunks in your potatoes and if you have the extra time go ahead and make your own home cooked mashed potatoes and leave a few tiny chunks in it.  Don’t bother adding butter to your potatoes though.  You are going to be adding sour cream and cheese to this dish and there’s plenty of flavor in this casserole without adding more needless calories to it.  When the pototoes are cooked and sitting aside add 1 +/- pound of sour sream to the potatoes stirring the sour cream until the mixture is blended well.

Spread the mashed potatoes and sour cream mixture on the bottom of the casserole dish.  This mixture should completely line the bottom of the dish. Now layer the sticky coated taco seasoned beef on top of the potatoes.  Sprinkle some of the grated cheese on top of the ground beef.  Put a layer of  broken up corn chips across the top of the ground beef.  Now add some more grated cheese on top of the broken up corn chips. 

Everything should already be hot because you cooked the potatoes and the beef but now you will want to set your oven to be hot enough to melt that cheese on top of the chips and to make cheese melt on the beef while keeping the whole dish warm.  A 300 – 450  degree oven should handle this.  I don’t know how hot your oven gets so just put it in the oven watching it until it looks just right.  When is it just right?  It is just right when the cheese is melted looking just the way you like it.

Pull that dish out of the oven when it’s ready and be prepared to enjoy one of Dad’s favorite dinners.

Set the dishes of lettuce, onions, scallions, and tomatoes out with the other pound of sour cream there beside your casserole.  Family members will enjoy scooping their own portion of tato t casserole out and then they can add what they want on their personal size of this delicious dish.

ENJOY!!!

Okay, so how spiritual is it to add a recipe here anyhow? 

This is a way of sharing a family favorite recipe.  It’s got protein, calories, and fat in it. I just wanted to share an old time favorite recipe here.  It’s already August and I’m thinking about the upcoming Holidays. 

I can say that when I wrote this recipe down today in order to share it with my family and others I thought about how fun it is to share good things. 

I get more joy out of sharing good things, don’t you? 

That’s why I share things about God.  It gives me great joy to talk about God.  It’s food for my soul.  When I get fed I like to share what I’ve been eating especially if it’s real good.