Tater Tot Casserole

Tater Tot casserole was a pot-luck favorite when I was a kid. I don't think I've eaten it since I was a teenager, but when I saw it in the cookbook, I thought it sounded like a good idea. Here's my remake of the recipe I found.

One of the things I love and hate about old community cookbooks are items missing measurements. Tater tots don't come in a box, and I barely remember them being in a box in 1982 when this recipe book was printed. It was for the American Cancer Society.

To make it vegan, I made a couple of replacements:
                          Instead of the Cream of Chicken soup, I used Potato Leek soup. I could not find a vegan cream of anything soup at Whole Foods yesterday.
                          I replaced the ground beef with Carne de Soya. It was the textured soy protein that we got at the local market. This could just as easily been any other ground beef replacement or TVP.

I made two other replacement, but not to make it vegan. Because they were cheaper, I thought it might be interesting and healthier, I went with sweet potato puffs instead of white potato tots. I used a 20 ounce bag of puffs because that seemed to be the standard size packaging in the store. I also went with fresh mushrooms instead of canned. Canned mushrooms are just kinda gross to me.

Here's the final product. (I am clearly not a food stylist or photographer.)

 

I did add some salt to the onions and celery as I cooked them, but didn't measure, so that is not included in the nutritional facts below. Other than that, it should be accurate. I also calculated the Weight Watchers points value of the casserole without the zero point veggies and the entire 9x13 dish was 44 points, so 5 1/2 points per serving.  

Verdict:

It was tater tot casserole. I would have preferred if I had some garlic added to the celery and onions when I cooked it. I also should have added a bit more salt.

I had some leftovers for lunch today and still decent, and possibly improved.
Overall, I would give it a B+

A decent replication of my childhood memories, but could have been better with some minor tweaks.