Meat and Potato Casserole

I know the title of this post sounds so bland but this casserole was quite delicious! We are kind of a potato kick lately because we have over 30 pounds of potatoes to use. I know they last forever but we've also had them forever. We also love casseroles because you can fill them with whatever you want, including other vegetables lurking in your vegetable crisper.

This recipe is pretty easy to make but does require a bit of multi-tasking. We also used real potatoes (obviously) instead of frozen ones so the author recommended dicing them and soaking them in water for ten minutes first. We weren't sure the casserole would have enough liquid in it to cook the potatoes but they turned out so good! They were chewy instead of mushy. You could top this casserole with mashed potatoes or something of the like but the chewy fry-ness of this gives it a different taste. We baked it for 40 minutes because the cheese sauce was starting to burn but the potatoes were still pale.

I will admit the sour cream and onions in the ground beef makes it taste a tad like stroganoff so at first it tastes a little off with the mixed vegetables (we used green beans, corn, carrots, and broccoli). But the flavors come together and taste even better as leftovers (like most things). Next time, we will also add more cheese on top of the potatoes, probably within the last 5 minutes of cooking. 1/2 cup for a 9x13 pan really isn't that much. I'm not sure, even without the extra cheese, I would call this casserole healthy (or in the author's words, "Good for you") but it could be worse. I also wonder how this would taste with a cream of soup instead of the cheese sauce. Of course, that makes it even unhealthier but possibly tastier!

So the first night we had this, I would've rated it a 3.5 out of 5. As leftovers, I rate this a 4.5 out of 5. We will be making this again!