Dinners - Crock Pot Tator Tot Casserole

I try to make a somewhat healthy, warm meal for my family every day, on a budget and that two little kids will like.  Now, I don't make chicken fingers or frozen pizza on a regular basis - practically never, actually.  But I do make meals with ingredients that aren't too wild so that my family will enjoy it, it will be healthy and mostly from scratch, we can eat together and there will be little whining.   I'm all about 5 or less ingredients, and little to no prep time or skill - a lot to ask. I've figured out a few recipes though that qualify. 

This is a yummy, easy crockpot comfort meal I found on The Country Cook  via Pinterest. 

Ingredients:

• 1 (32 oz.) bag frozen tater tots
• 4-6 strips of bacon (original recipe calls for bacon bits, but I just cook up a pound of bacon at a time, freeze it and pull out a few strips as needed)
• 1-2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, diced, raw (again, original recipe is only 1lb, but I like our meals to be protein heavy, so I use ~2lbs and the tator/chix ratio is still good)
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 3/4 cup milk
• salt & pepper, to taste

 Instructions:

1. spray the crockpot with cooking spray (to make your life easier later with cleanup)
2. dump about 1/3 of the tators on the bottom - about enough to cover with one layer. 
3. cover those with 1/3 of the cheese and 1/3 of the bacon and all the chicken
4. add two more layers of tator tots, cheese, bacon  (honestly, I don't always layer this, I just dump the rest of the tators on, the rest of the cheese and the rest of the bacon)
5. poor in milk
6. cook for 4-6 hours on low with the lid on. 

Prep is done. Cleanup is done (which consisted of throwing a few bags away). Now, go to work, take the kids to soccer, swimming, dance, scouts, dentist, etc and come home to a warm dinner.   

Tonight, microwave some green vegetables, serve with a tall glass of water and you're all set!