Mexican Tater Tot® Casserole

Excellent casserole I followed the advice and added more cheese 3 cups was about right should have added some hot peppers but not everyone in my home enjoys them will make again

I loved the idea of this but it was just okay. I did make a couple of changes. I used fresh mushrooms instead of can because I had them and fresh is always better. My other change was with the ground beef. I was not comfortable putting it in the casserole raw. I bought lean beef but even it releases way too much grease. Also by cooking it first you are able to crumble it into smaller more even pieces. I would add some taco seasoning to the meat if I were to make this again. It needed it. It might have worked raw but in my opinion you really need to cook the beef first and then drain it. On that note, the bell peppers stayed crunchy. They probably would have gotten more done if sitting in a pool of grease but that isn't the way to go. Lastly, 1 cup of cheese was not nearly enough. I ended up using 2 cups and that still wasn't enough to get that nice brown bubbly finish on top like you want. This recipe has potential but needs some tweaking.