Tater Waffles

Recently I saw a video on Facebook with several things you can make in your waffle maker.  A lot of times videos like these make things look super easy, but when you try it at home, it just does not work. Since I have a pretty nice collection of appliances that I rarely use, I decided to break out my waffle maker,  and try out some of the ideas.   One that I knew my kids would really love was the first one I decided to try... Tater Tot Waffles 

When I bought my waffle maker I really thought I would use it frequently, whipping up healthy waffles for my kids.  Yea... that has not happened. Early in the morning, they only have a few minutes for breakfast.  When they do want to eat a waffle, they will grab an inexpensive frozen box waffle that takes a minute in the toaster.  I have even seen one of them be too impatient for the toaster, and eat them right out of the freezer. I know I could make batches ahead of time and freeze them, but that has not happened either.  I have only used my waffle maker a handful of times, so it will be fun to try out a few new ways to use it.  

In the video, the tater tots were randomly placed on a circle single size waffle maker.  Mine is rectangular,  and makes two waffles at a time. I sprayed on some cooking spray, and then placed the tater tots in some order, but they were not tightly placed.    It turns out that is not the best idea. I am not sure how the waffle in the video stayed together, but mine completely fell apart.  Not all was lost though, the tater tots still tasted great. 

The second time I lined the tater tots horizontally, and as close together as possible. 

This time it was a success!  There were  still a few places where the tots did not full touch, but the entire waffle stuck together.  I carefully removed them from the waffle maker with a spatula, and put them on the plate.  My waffle maker is just a basic model, so it does not have any fancy dials or timers.  I just watched the time for about 5 minutes, and checked them a few times to make sure they were not burning.   

We this experiment being a success, we will be making Tater Waffles again.