Sloppy Joe Tater Tot Casserole, Freeze Dried and Reconstituted

 

This recipe comes out great in the freeze Dryer. It is easy to do. I will write the recipe as I did it in the video, which yeilds 3 casseroles and enough sloppy joe mix left over for dinner. You may want to reduce the amount of sauce and meat if you don't want to have leftovers after preparing the freeze dry mix.

Ingredients:

5lbs Ground Beef
2 24oz cans plus 1 15oz Manwich Original Sloppy Joe Sauce
1 large onion
1 bell pepper
1 5lb bag of frozen tater tots
1 lb shredded sharp chedder cheese

Procedure:

Brown Beef drain and rinse then set aside
dice onions and bell peppers and saute until onions are translucent
Add the to 24 oz cans of Manwich
Add ground beef and mix well
Add remaining small can of Manwich
mix well and simmer for about 20 minutes

Bake tater tots according to bag directions

Line your Harvest Right Freeze Dryer trays with paper towel. Put half of the tater tots on each tray. you will end up with two trays of tater tots. Cover trays with another layer of paper towel. On one tray sprinkle half of your cheese over paper towel. On the other use something to hold paper towel down, I used Frozen Rights grates that can be purchased at frozenright.com place in freezer and freeze until solid

In the other two trays fill until they each have 2.5 lbs of sauce mix. Top one tray with remaining cheese. Freeze until frozen solid.

Package:

In foil tray line bottom with some of your fd tater tots
put one layer of sauce (without the cheese) then add another layer of sauce (the one with cheese). Top with a layer of tater tots and sprinkle cheese over tater tots. Seal foil pan and seal in mylar bag

Reconstitute and Bake:

Pre heat oven to 425F add 3.5 cups of water to one pan of the fd sloppy joe casserole. Cover with foil and place in oven. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake uncovered for a further 15 minutes.

Thats it. Let me know if you try this and tell me what you think