Works For Me Wednesday

My post today is for Works For Me Wednesday. You can find wonderful tips and ideas over at Kristin's website We are THAT Family .

This quick and tasty dish was a favorite of my husband while growing up. I can get this on the table in less than 30 minutes, start to finish. It's very budget friendly.

They simply called it:

HotDish:

1 lb ground beef
1/4 cup dried chopped onion (or a pckg of beef onion soup mix for extra beef flavoring)
Lawreys Season Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
1 can condensed tomato soup, undiluted
1 can cut green beans
1 lb tater tots or 4-8 cups mashed potatoes

Brown ground beef, drain off fat with turkey baster, putting liquid into glass container. If you can see that alot of beef juice is without fat, return to pan and use to hydrate dried chopped onions. Season with seasoning salt and pepper to taste.

Transfer seasoned beef mix to casserole dish, add undiluted tomato soup and green beans.Top with either tater tots or mashed potatoes.

Be sure to use a deep enough casserole dish so you don't lose the sauce when the weight of the potatoes presses down on the saucy beef.

You can stretch this dish by making the mashed potato topping the main ingredient with a little saucy beef to dress. Or you can keep the saucy beef to pototo ratio even to make it more hardy. Serve with a green salad and french bread (or even plain toast) for a complete meal. Sliced canned peaches or apple sauce also make a nice companion side dish.

When in a hurry to get dinner on the table quickly after work, I'll microwave the casserole before adding the potato topping and then just brown the potatoes under the oven broiler. If not in a hurry, warm in oven at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes till tater tots are browned.

When using mashed potatoes, I will make lots of peaks to brown nicely. Will also sprinkle with a little seasoning salt or just paprika to add flavor and color garnish.

This recipe is easily doubled or tripled. Save time and effort by doubling recipe and freezing half for another meal next week. Just freeze the saucy beef and green bean mixture, add the potato topping on the day you serve it.