Despite the dainty, pastel-aesthetics of TikTok’s trad wife influencers, being a homemaker is so much more than just donning floral, puffed-sleeve dresses, creepy frozen smiles, and referring to your school-aged children by how many “months old” they are: For one down-to-earth midwestern mom, it's turning a ton of beef, garlic and tater tots into a hearty dinner capable of feeding a crowd.


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Jess — a Michigan-based lifestyle influencer better known by her TikTok username @applesauceandadhd — decided to offer her followers a candid look at what dinnertime looks like in her household, uploading an “aggressive” tutorial on how to craft her signature Tex Mex Tatertot Casserole.


Consisting of ground beef, “two metric tons'' of garlic, onion powder, taco seasoning, salsa, water, black beans, corn, shredded cheese, and, of course, an entire bag of frozen tater tots “arranged into a design” — “don’t just dump them on!” she admonished her viewers — the casserole is not only a midwestern masterpiece, but a practical meal.


“Here it is! this is dinner!” she said, presenting the dish, one that served as “one of the only ways” her husband “will eat tater tots,” a predicament she admitted was “a “weird problem to have.”



But it wasn’t just her hubby who appeared to appreciate her no-BS approach to dinner. Her clip quickly went viral on both TikTok and Twitter, where several heralded her midwestern sensibilities as real tradwife excellence.


“Ok A. she’s my new favorite person and B. this is what irl tradwives are but nobody is ready for that convo,” Twitter user @SaintQ92 captioned their upload of the clip. “Sorry bro she’s probably not some ethereal size 0 walking through a field of sunflowers.”


“I want to drink seagrams wine coolers with her while she interrupts the convo every 15 minutes to scream at her kids,” added @devouringfather, while @Katharine_Mckee complimented her pragmatic tips.


“Her personality is fantastic but also? This is maybe the most useful cooking tt I’ve seen?” they wrote. “Explains jarlic [sic], the condensation in the seasoning bottle? Chefs kiss.”


Midwestern moms — because someone has to keep the American tradition of the casserole alive … and the trad wife trope from falling into weird, vaguely racist territory.