Gluten-Free Southwestern Tater Tots | The LaVere Altered Cookery

Even since I was little, my Mom swore potatoes would grow out of my ears because I loved them and ate them so much. Still do. Roasted, broiled, fried, mashed, scalloped, tot-ed, all of them. I would have absolutely been devastated if gluten were in potatoes. I'm a professed potato head. :) (You will likely see a ton of potato-related recipes on here in the future.)

Recently, I started seeing tater tot casserole recipes on Pinterest... everywhere. They kept popping up as if the state of Idaho were marketing just to me to eat their taters. And then I saw one last photo of some tater tots, and I started drooling. That's when I broke my cardinal rule of not buying any food item without a coupon. Because I NEEDED those tots. (Imagine Napoleon Dynamite with a ponytail. That'd be me. Get your own tots. haha!)



Gluten-Free Southwestern Tater Tots

INGREDIENTS:
* 1/2 bag of frozen Ore-Ida Tater Tots (if using another brand, check to make sure they are gluten-free)
* 1 can of black beans
* 1 can of whole kernel corn
* 1 8-oz. bag (approx. 1 cup) of shredded Cheddar Jack cheese
* 1/2 cup of sour cream (for baking)
* Dollops of sour cream (for topping)
* a few shakes of dried cilantro
* a few shakes of garlic powder
* a few shakes of homemade taco seasoning** (the store-bought packets are NOT gluten-free, please see bottom of this post.)



DIRECTIONS:
* Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x12 baking dish.
* Arrange frozen tater tots in the baking dish.
* In a mixing bowl, combine sour cream, half of shredded cheese, black beans, corn, and shakes of taco seasoning, cilantro, and garlic powder.
* Spread this mixture over the tater tots until covered.
* Bake for 45 minutes.
* Remove from oven and sprinkle remaining cheese on top. Place back into oven for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.
* Remove from oven, and when cooled off and ready to serve, scoop two small dollops of sour cream on top. (Tots will not be firm and do break apart.)
* Enjoy!

P.S. It's even better the next day reheated!



[** For homemade taco seasoning: My BFF Elaine makes this for me because I can't eat the store-bought stuff because it contains gluten/preservatives and unnecessary pepper flakes. ;) Her recipe is based off of this one on AllRecipes.com. Minus the chili powder and red pepper flakes, of course. ;)]