Tammy’s Meat & Potato Casserole

When Costco opened up in Barrie in 1999, I was hired as a "Caller". A "Caller" was basically a human scanner. We were required to transfer the Costco members' purchases from one cart to another and call out the item number of each product to the cashier we were assigned to work with that day.

One day, I was paired to work with Tammy and at break, we somehow got talking about recipes. Tammy gave me this favourite recipe of hers off the top of her head. Of course it was very basic with the quantities of the ingredients being very vague.

Tammy suggested it be made in an oven-proof casserole dish and then, as an afterthought, suggested I could also use the bottom of a roasting pan if I wanted to make a bigger casserole.

Although we are a household of just two, My Shirley and I love the convenience of, and never tire of eating left-overs, so I always make this jumbo size. If you prefer to make less, you’ll have to cut the ingredients accordingly.

Stuff You’ll Need:

• 1 kg ground beef

• 5 medium cooking onions, 2 chopped, 3 sliced

• 1 green pepper, coarsely chopped

• 2 tbsp salt

• 2 tbsp pepper

• 2 tbsp garlic salt

• 10 oz mushrooms, chopped or sliced (you can omit if your spaghetti sauce of choice has mushrooms in it)

• 2 ½ cups spaghetti sauce

• 3 large potatoes, peeled or unpeeled as desired, sliced

• 3 cups cheddar cheese, sliced thinly or shredded

• 1 litre milk

• 5 cups frozen mixed vegetables

Do This:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.

2. Begin frying the ground beef on medium high in a large frying pan.

3. Add chopped onions, green peppers, salt, pepper, garlic salt and mushrooms (if using).

4. Add in the spaghetti sauce and continue to cook, stirring occasionally.

5. While this is cooking, spray the bottom of a roasting pan with vegetable oil.

6. Layer sliced potatoes on the bottom of the roasting pan.

7. Add a layer of cheddar cheese on top of the sliced potatoes.

8. Add milk to cover the potatoes and cheese.

9. Add a layer of sliced onions on top of the cheese.

10. Cover the onions with the frozen mixed vegetables.

11. Pour the ground beef mixture over the vegetables.

12. Bake uncovered in the oven until the potatoes are cooked (about 1½ hours).

13. Serve and enjoy.

I’d love to hear what you think of this recipe and let me know if you made any changes to it.

If you have any questions or comments about this recipe, you can email me at Recipes@DogOnARoot.com