Recipe: Potato Comfort Soup

If I haven't told you before... I am a soup-lover.  I could eat soup all winter long.  In fact, that's about the only redeeming part of winter for me.  I've shared Gram's Chili, Jill's Taco Soup, my Vegetable-Beef Soup, and Chicken Noodle Crock Pot recipes previously.  Here's another favorite of ours: Potato Soup -- except, I like to call it Potato Comfort Soup since it truly is a comfort food!  I've had this recipe around for ages, and don't recall it's source -- only that we love it.

Potato Comfort Soup

6 medium potatoes, peeled & sliced

2 carrots, diced

6 celery stalks, diced

8 cups water

1 onion, chopped [or 1 T. dehydrated onion]

6 T. margarine

6 T. flour

1 tsp. salt

½ tsp. pepper

1½ cups milk

[NOTE 1:  I usually leave our carrots and celery on the chunky side, so that there is a little more "color" to the soup, and they don't just disappear.]

In a large kettle, cook potatoes, carrots, & celery in the water until tender.  Drain, RESERVING LIQUID.  [This is important, as you will need the liquid to thin the soup later!]  Set vegetables aside.

In the same kettle, saute onion in butter until soft.  Stir in flour, salt, & pepper.  Gradually add milk, stirring constantly until thickened.  Gently stir in cooked vegetables.  Add 1 cup or more of reserved cooking liquid until soup is the consistency you desire.  Simmer until up to temperature, and serve!

[NOTE 2: Be sure to keep reserved liquid for any leftovers as well!]

Yields 8-10 servings (about 2½ quarts)

This soup is SOUP-er easy.  The hardest part, in fact, is not nibbling on all those veggies while you're cooking!

Recipe: Crock Pot Chicken Noodle

There's nothing like (any kind of) chicken soup made in the crockpot!  I've learned to NEVER hurry it, choosing to let it simmer away all day.  Chicken soup on the stovetop is just NOT the same thing!  There is something about the way the chicken falls apart in it's tenderness after a day in the crock pot simmering in broth.  There's nothing like it.  I would always choose crock pot soup over stovetop soup -- any day of the week!

(For those of you really paying attention, you might notice that this weekend's soup was NOT made in the crockpot.  I thought I was speeding up the process after a mid-day shopping trip to gather ingredients... but remembered the lesson that I have to be reminded of now and then... THE CROCK POT ROCKS!)

I  thought I'd share this recipe with you, as it's one of our favorites.  We like it because it's light on the broth (not too strong), and heavy on the chunky ingredients, making it almost more like a stew -- especially when I get carried away on the veggies!  This is also a great soup to make when you're ready to throw something in the crock pot first thing in the morning, but have forgotten to thaw the chicken!  Taa-Daa!  This can be your go-to recipe for those days.  (Please tell me you have them too!)

On Saturday, I doubled my recipe so that we would have dinner plus have leftovers for Sunday lunch.  I knew our Sunday would be crazy, so I needed a quick and hearty warm-up recipe for after church.  Nobody complains about eating this two days in a row!

Crock Pot Chicken Noodle

4 cups water

2 -3 chicken bouillon cubes

2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (can still be frozen, really!)

3 carrots sliced

2 celery stalks, chopped

1 T. dehydrated onion flakes

2 T. dried parsley

½ - 1 tsp.salt

¼ - ½ tsp. pepper

2-3 cups cooked noodles of your choice, cooked al dente

Combine all but noodles in crock pot.  Cook 6-8 hours on low.  About 15-30 minutes before you're ready to eat, prepare noodles to al dente.  While noodles are cooking, remove chicken from crock pot and shred, removing any fat.  Skim off visible grease in crock pot.  Add chicken back to the pot, as well as the cooked (drained) noodles and stir to combine ingredients.  Cover for a few minutes longer, and serve when you're ready.

I served up the Chicken Noodle with CHEESE-GARLIC BISCUITS, for a cozy and delicious dinner.

'13 Gratefulness

* grateful for headway made in the home-repair of our son's car, and for my sweet hubby's patient work in order to save our son some money

* grateful for a productive laundry day (hey, just keepin' it real)

* grateful for Sunday afternoon naps

* grateful for a small local airport that makes business trip drop-offs and pick-ups so much easier

* grateful for my hubby's safe arrival to this week's business trip destination

Feel free to chime in with a comment!  What are you grateful for today?

Recipe: Taco Soup

This is a crock-pot recipe from Jill.  She gets all the credit for this one.  I'm not sure where she found the recipe, but I got it from her, and oh, am I glad.  We love this stuff!  It's delicious and so, so easy!

Jill's Taco Soup 

32 oz. chicken broth

1- 16oz jar salsa 

1 envelope taco seasoning

2 boneless chicken breast halves

tortilla chips

shredded cheddar cheese

sour cream or other desired toppings 

In crock-pot, combine broth, salsa & taco seasoning.  Add chicken & cook on low for 8 hours, or on high for 4 hours.  Shred chicken before serving.  Serve with chips, cheese, sour cream, or other desired toppings.

My favorite way to eat it?  Fill your bowl with soup. Crush tortilla chips on top, and sprinkle with shredded cheese.  The cheese will start to melt on top of the chips, and it's oh-so-good.

I'm linking up with Gooseberry Patch for their Hearty & Homestyle Recipe Round-Up.

Soup Season!

Rejoice!  For it is soup season!  Can you tell I ENJOY soup?  (It's possible that I have mentioned this in a previous post!)  I really do.  I could live on soup from fall (as soon as it gets cold) until early spring, when it is still cold!  If it weren't for my family asking me to make anything other than soup, I probably would do just that!  Seriously though, my family...good sports.  'Nuf said.




Today, I am making Vegetable Beef Soup.  It's a recipe that I concocted about two years ago (after looking at LOTS of others).  I make it in the crock-pot, but it is just as easily made in a big pot on the stove.

Vegetable Beef Soup
5 cups water
5 packets/cubes/tsp. low sodium beef bouillon
a dash of garlic salt
1 can of tomato sauce
1 lb. ground round, browned & drained
3 carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 potatoes, sliced/cut how you like 'em
1 can green beans, drained
salt and pepper to taste

We tend to like our broth on the light side (meaning: not too strong).  You could certainly adjust anything about this recipe to suit your tastes!  Enjoy -- and stay warm!

Gooseberry Patch

Frost on the Pumpkin!

Actually, there was a little more than frost on the pumpkin this morning...

Happy Saturday!  Today is definitely feeling fall-ish around here.  This morning we woke up to a yard filled with leaves, & each leaf was covered with a little snow - as were the rooftops!  I'm not sure I'm ready for this, are you?  Yesterday (yes, just yesterday) we finally broke down & turned the furnace on - so that is somewhat of a relief.  But, we still like to have lots of blankets around for snuggling.  We're big on snuggling around here.  During these fall/winter months, we're big on soup too.  So, I thought I'd share a recipe today.  It's basically my Gram's recipe for Chili.  Our family has altered it a little through the years, but I make it a LOT & always think of her when I do.

Gram's Chili
2 cups tomato juice (Gram used 1 med. can of tomatoes)
1 can tomato soup
1 T. dehydrated onion (Gram used 1 med. onion, chopped fine)
1 lb. ground round (cooked, & drained well)
1 tsp. chili powder
1 can kidney beans (drained & rinsed)
1 green pepper (chopped fine)
3 ribs of celery (chopped fine)
3 cups water
(Gram also used 1/4 lb bacon, cooked well & chopped fine)


I make this recipe in the crock pot so I can just forget about it and have a taa-daa! dinner.
  
Cook the ground round, drain well & combine w/ the rest of the ingredients.  Cover your crock pot, and cook on low all day, or on high for 1/2 the day.  I've been happiest with the all-day results.  The flavor is much better!  

Stay warm today... do some snuggling... eat soup (and think of my Gram if you make this recipe!)