Tater Tot Nachos ~ For Real

Back in January, I was perusing BuzzFeed.com and came across a video of Chef Dale Talde preparing his Fully Load Tater Tots.
{UDATE: Unfortunately, the video has been removed from the source I used to post it here.}

Of course, Chef Dale makes his own nacho cheese sauce, chili, pulled pork and pickled Jalapeños, but when we made these for Super Bowl Sunday in February, we opted for an easier way.

First of all, we didn't fry our tater tots. We probably should have. They would have held up better to the chili and cheese sauce, but they tasted just fine. And since we didn't fry our tater tots, we didn't use the bacon either.

I made my own nacho cheese sauce, a cheesy queso sauce my son, Chris, developed when he worked at a Mexican restaurant in Colorado. It's made with homemade salsa and it's delicious. I'll post the recipe for that at another time.

We didn't make our own chili. We used Hormel chili without beans, only because that's our preference. You can make your own chili or used canned, with or without beans.

We opted out of the pulled pork altogether.

We added a simple guacamole, some chopped cilantro and I also used my own candied Jalapeños.

We topped it off with sour cream flavored lightly with lime juice.


This is how we put it together.

First get your nacho cheese sauce ready. You can use the velveeta and Rotel type or make your own. Keep it warm.

Chop up some tomato, onion and cilantro and set them aside. Drain the Jalapeños and set them aside in a small bowl.

Put the canned chili in a pot, get it hot and keep it warm.

If you're going to use guacamole or chopped avocado, make that and set aside.

Pull out a bag of grated cheddar cheese or grate your own.

Finally, whisk together about 1/2 cup of sour cream (or Greek yogurt is good, too) with the juice of a half of a lime and set aside.

Now you'll be ready when your tater tots come out of the oven.


To prepare the tater tots, preheat your oven according to package directions. This where we deviate from the instructions on the package. First put the frozen tater tots in large bowl and drizzle them with about 1/4 cup of oil. This will help make them crispier than normal, although not quite as crispy as frying. Mix the tater tots and oil up with your hands or a large spoon and make sure they are all covered. Now spread them out in a single layer on a baking sheet bake according to package directions, however, add about 10 minutes extra to the baking time to make sure they were good and crispy.


When you take the tater tots out of the oven, you can leave them on the baking sheet as we did, or transfer them to a large platter. While the tater tots are hot, put the nachos together.

Sprinkle the tater tots with a generous amount of grated cheddar cheese.

Spoon hot nacho cheese sauce evenly over the cheese and tots.

Now, spoon the chili evenly over the cheese sauce.

Sprinkle the tomatoes, onions, cilantro and jalapeños over the chili.

Drop spoons of guacamole over all.

Now drizzle on the lime flavored sour cream.

Voilà!! You have March Madness Munchies!

Jalapeño Popper Crescents

Super Bowl is coming February 3rd. It's time to start thinking about what yummy nibbles I can whip up quickly and pop into my mouth in between plays.

Okay, you caught me in a lie. I probably won't watch the Super Bowl. I'm just not a football fan. I know. I'm a bit of an outlier.

But that doesn't mean I can't help you figure out what to make. These little morsels could easily fit the bill. A buttery crescent roll slathered with creaminess from the cheeses, some heat from the jalapeño and a dash of sugar to balance it all out. Yes, I said sugar. Just a little though, and you won't be sorry.


There are tons of recipes for these out on the internet, but this is my version.

Jalapeño Popper Crescents

• 1 tube crescent rolls
• 1 - 4 ounce can of diced jalapeños
• 1 - 8 ounce package cream cheese, room temperature (I use "lite" but full fat works fine, too)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 cup finely grated cheddar cheese, sharp or mild

Preheat your oven to 375˚F.

In a medium sized bowl, mix together the cream cheese and sugar. Add the cheddar cheese and stir to completely combine. To add the jalapeños, start with half of the can. Stir to combine and taste for heat. If you like more heat, add more jalapeños. Set aside.

Open the tube of crescent rolls and gently unroll the contents into  4 rectangles. Place two rectangles end to end and gently pinch the perforated seams together. It should look like this...


With a rubber or silicone spatula, spread half of the cheese mixture evenly over the crescent roll rectangle, like this...


Starting with the long side, begin to gently roll the rectangle into a fairly tight log...


...until it looks like this...


Cut the log into 16 equal pieces, beginning by cutting the log in half, then cutting the two halves in half and so on. Place the pieces, cut side down, on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and sprayed with cooking spray or a Silpat.


Bake for 11 to 13 minutes, or until golden brown.

While the first roll is baking, make the second roll. (Note: My baking sheets are industrial size, so they hold the pieces for more than one roll.)

When each batch is done, remove them immediately from the baking sheet and serve.

Frito Snack Mix

I think it should be called "Frito Crack Mix." It's that addicting. I just made it yesterday and it's almost gone.

Tom loves Fritos. They are one of his favorite guilty pleasures. Pure processed faux chip food. He also loves movies. And when he watches movies he like to munch....nuts, pretzels, chips, Fritos...anything crunchy.

Tom worked in the yard all day Saturday and I knew he'd want to sit down in the evening and watch a movie and maybe even another at some point during the day on Sunday. I had seen this recipe guest posted on Recipe Girl by Shelly of Cookies and Cups. Fritos, pretzels, nuts, M&M's, all of Tom's favorite munchies in one very large bowl.

First thing Saturday morning we made a quick trip to the store to pick up the essentials and while Tom was slaving away in the backyard later in the morning, I made the snack mix. But you know me. For one reason or another, I can't seem to follow a recipe exactly as written. I always have to add my own twist.

The recipe called for a 10.5 ounce bag of Fritos. Check (although Tom really did want a bigger bag).



Then 2 cups of rice chex cereal. I used 3 cups. I think next time, instead of upping the amount of cereal, I will use the bigger bag of Fritos.

Next is 2 cups pretzel twists. What are pretzel twists? Turns out they are those regular pretzels, but that's not what Tom wanted. He likes those long, thick pretzel sticks, so that's what we bought and I measured them standing upright in a one cup measure. In the end, I thought the bigger pretzel sticks were too large for the mix and next time I will buy the smaller pretzels or maybe even the peanut butter pretzel nuggets.



The next ingredient is 1-1/2 cups of any kind of nut. Since a container of fancy mixed nuts is Tom's preference, that's what I used AND I increased the amount to 2 cups.

Finally, since I had increased the bulk ingredients significantly, I also increased the candy coating by half. It turned out to be the perfect amount to coat everything.

What didn't work out for me was mixing in the mini M&M's. The recipe says to wait until the mixture cools completely before adding the M&M's, however, they wound up at the bottom of the bowl and not throughout the mix. Next time, after I transfer the hot mixture to the wax paper to cool, I will sprinkle the M&M's on the mixture while it's still warm so they cling to the candy coated crunchies.



The recipe that follows contains my changes to the ingredients. If you'd like to follow the original recipe, you can do so HERE.



Frito Snack Mix
Adapted from the post at Recipe Girl by Shelly of Cookies and Cups

• 1 - 10.5-ounce bag of Fritos
• 3 cups rice chex cereal (as I said earlier, I think next time I will use 2 cups of the cereal and use the next larger bag of Fritos)
• 2 cups pretzel sticks or twists
• 2 cups fancy mixed nuts
• 1-1/2 cups light brown sugar, packed
• 3/4 cup butter
• 3/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1 cup mini M&M's (although I think the regular size would also be fine)

Preheat oven to 350˚F.

In a large bowl, combine the Fritos, rice chex cereal, pretzels and nuts and set aside while you make the coating.

Prepare a large roasting pan by spraying lightly with cooking spray.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the sugar, butter and corn syrup together. Turn the heat up a little to bring the mixture to a boil and boil without stirring for 4 minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat and pour over the Frito mixture, tossing well to coat the mix evenly. Pour the mixture into the prepared roasting pan, gently spreading the mixture to an even layer. Bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven, stir the mixture well and return to the oven to bake for an additional 8 minutes.

During the last 8 minutes baking time, lay 2 long pieces of wax paper down on your counter, overlapping the pieces slightly in the center. To keep the wax paper from moving around, I wiped the counter with a damp sponge, then partially dried the counter with a paper towel. It was just damp enough to hold the wax paper in place, but dry so as not to get the wax paper wet.

When the mixture is done, transfer it to the wax paper, laying it out as evenly as possible. This is the point where I would sprinkle the M&M's evenly over the warm mixture so they will adhere to the mixture as it cools.

Allow the mixture to cool completely before breaking into clumps. Store in an airtight container for up to a week. Trust me. It won't last that long.