Cheddar Tator Tot Waffles

Recently, the Indian and I celebrated 19 years of unwedded bliss!  What a crazy ride! After 20 years of being with someone, what do you actually have left to buy them?

A WAFFLE IRON!

I think I pretty my much plan in making everything BUT waffles in it.  While researching waffle irons, I learned one thing:  holy wow some of these suckers are hella expensive. I only had two things I really wanted:

1) It had to flip/rotate.
2) I had to be able to store it upright.

I landed on a Presto version that was $30 bucks on Amazon.  There are others that are super fancy with different heat settings and removable plates and bells and whistles.  I'm not a fancy girl so Presto was fine with me.

Here's one of the first things I used it for:

Behold!  The tator tot waffle.

Bask in it's glory.

To make yourself one of these, you just need frozen tator tots and a waffle iron.

I used Ore-Ida brand tator tots (Did you know that Ore-Ida stands for Oregon Idaho?! The things you learn as you're standing there waiting for your tator tot waffle to crisp...)

You could also have the following things on hand in case you want to top your waffle:

cheddar cheese

bacon

poached or fried eggs

bacon

bacon

bacon...

You can prepare the eggs and bacon while your tator tot waffle is crisping in your waffle maker...kind of like a tanning bed for tator tots.

My waffle maker literally has one heat setting, so I just simply plug it in.  Boom.  Prep work, done!  Mine has a light indicator that tells me when the waffle maker is hot enough.

I load up the tator tots in a single layer to start.

Then, carefully press your waffle iron together to squish the pieces down.

Squish until your waffle maker closes and the two sides are flush.

Then, give it a peek.  You'll notice that there are gaps that need tator tot filling.  I add more to fill in the holes.  This ensures a more structually stable tator tot waffle.  Try to make sure there are no floating tator tots on the edges.  These floaters won't stick to the rest of the waffle.  They will get crunchy, but will be separated and you'll HAVE to eat them for the sake of the waffle.....

It took 8 -10 minutes to get my tator tot crisped the way I like it.  Depending on how fancy your waffle maker is, it might take less time. Or it could take more.  Just check it every few minutes.  

Then, because the tator tot waffle itself just isn't obscene enough, I like to top my with cheddar cheese.  You could just let it melt on top of yours if you wanted cheese, but I like to get my cheese crispy too.  

Simply add as much or as little cheese as you want.  I always have shredded cheese in my freezer in bulk...because well, I am a cheese head.   

I add enough to cover the waffle.   If you lose some off the side, don't worry, that cheese will crisp up for easy clean up (straight into my mouth).  At some point, I think I'll try to see if i can make a giant, crispy cheese waffle.  I promise to keep you posted.  These are important scientific inquires, you know.

Close it back up and wait another 2 minutes.  Viola!  Oh, wait...This pic has the cheese on the bottom side down....well, because it was stuck.

No  worries.  I used a handy, wooden chopstick to pop it up.  There!  Now you can see the crispy cheese!

I added some bacon.

Added a sunny side up egg, 

and my creation was complete! 

I actually drizzled it with my All Purpose Green Hulk Sauce, but I couldn't be bothered to take a picture and dug right in.  You can top with whatever you want or dip it in whatever you want.  They are divine and worth a try.  Better yet, make some and call me over!