TOTcho Night

You read right. Not Nacho, TOTcho!

Earlier this week we were discussing a post on easy Fourth of July sides, easy Fourth of July meals, and just plain easy entertaining ideas. Then LO said the magic words that will never be forgotten. TOTchos. We couldn’t shake the strong desire to try this delicacy out so we rounded up the troops (our families) and necessary supplies and got to work.

CO originally set up the cutest outdoor table for dinner and the water toys for the kids to play with but once again rain decided to sabotage a backyard dinner so we moved everything inside.

When this idea first struck us on Tuesday night, CO thought it would be so fun to use these paper food trays from Amazon.  But even with the incredible Prime (can we talk about how obsessed we are with Prime?!) these would not get here in time for a Wednesday evening dinner.

With her quick thinking, CO ran out to the dollar store on Wednesday morning and was able to improvise and find all necessary paper goods, which honestly would look great for any July 4th BBQ.  She grabbed a checkered tablecloth, checkered napkins, blue plasticwear, blue dessert plates, and white takeout containers (because tots are so much better when served lunch lady style :)).

LO ran to the grocery strore and grabbed everything we needed food wise.  Our grocery list included:

• Large Bag of Taters Tots (we went with good ole Idaho Potatoes but you can definitely choose the healthier route and try the Sweet Potato Tots)
• Bacon
• Shredded Cheddar Cheese
• Shredded Lettuce  (obviously we needed a veggie 🙂 )
• Canned Black Beans
• Jalapeños (make sure you get the sandwich rings so they don’t catch your mouth on fire)
• Sour Cream
• Salsa
• Disposable baking sheets – If you’re really feeling lazy like we were! They round out a completely dish free dinner.

CO picked up 1.5 lbs of Caritas from the local Tijuana Flats, which ended up being the perfect amount for two young families of four. We put all of the toppings into serving bowls and scooped taters into each “takeout box” so every individual could choose their own fixings to add on.

TOTcho Night was a huge hit. It was SO easy to prep, being that the only thing we had to cook were the tots. We also opened up two cans of baked beans and heated them on the stovetop. But come on, compared to most group dinners for entertaining this was a cinch. When dinner was over we threw away the plates and tablecloth leaving a mess free table and moved on to the next course…

These adorable, festive mini ice cream sandwiches:

This is yet another treat that looks WAY more impressive than it actually was to make. To make these we grabbed CO’s smallest cookie sheet. Then we spilled Red, White and Blue sprinkles into a corner of it, had to be festive! We used a box of regular, nothing special ice cream sandwiches and cut them in half. Then we pressed each side of the ice cream sandwhiches into the sprinkles, threw them back into the freezer and VOILA, they were done!

It was a good thing these didn’t take long at all to set, because once the kids had a peek they were on a mission to finish dinner and move on to dessert. Once the plate was emptied it was confirmed you just cannot go wrong with ice cream, chocolate and sprinkles.

We hope you can use these simple and stress-free cuisine ideas in the future! We definitely see the TOTchos making a comeback during tailgate season 😉

-CO + LO