Soups on! and a cheap treat

It's COLD outside! Temps on Friday here were -29 with wind chills in the -40's! Needless to say I'm ready for spring to come. The only thing that warms me up on those days is a nice bowl of soup. One of my favorites is potato bacon soup. Delicious, creamy goodness in a bowl! Does it look wonderful! Serve it up with a nice warm biscuit and you've got dinner.

Like my last soup post, it's defiantly a meal Mr. Bacon and I liked the.. ahem... older we get. But even our picky eaters will gobble this one up. Bacon Jr. is actually quite the soup lover and will request it from time to time, right after asking for tacos!

Like all great recipes I was happy when this one was passed on to me, and I want to pass it on to you. One of my favorite things about this recipe besides being a cheap meal, it goes in the slow cooker!

Potato Bacon Soup:
8 cups course peeled potatoes chopped (I use reds and leave the skins on instead of peeling)
1 small onion chopped (about 1/3 cup)
1/2lb crisp bacon- crumbled
1-8oz cream cheese
3 cans (14.5 oz) chicken broth
1/4 tsp pepper
1 can (10 oz) cream of chicken soup

In 4qt or larger crock pot, combine cream cheese, soup, broth and pepper. Add in onion, bacon and potatoes. Cook 4-5 hrs on high or 7-8hrs on low. When done, mash with potato masher until desired consistency, a little for more liquid soup, mash lots for more of a 'chowder'.

Like always, I make my own broth from bouillon, I put in 5 cups hot water and enough bouillon to match cups worth according to directions. I love to top mine with some shredded cheese and a little more crumbled bacon.

Yesterday we treated the kids to pizza at our local dine in pizza place. We love this little restaurant. It's warm and cozy and run by some wonderful people. Of course the kids thought after they had pizza in their tummies, they needed some ice cream to go with. Little Miss Bacon suggested her favorite Dairy Queen as the place of choice! Lucky for my pocket book, DQ is closed in the frozen tundra of MN by us during the winter. Instead we made our own fun treats at home. The kids had a blast making their own sundaes. A few years ago I was at Goodwill and found these dessert cups (6 of them for under $2!), they are perfect for making a treat extra special. A sundae cup + ice cream +chocolate sauce + whip cream + sprinkles = Happy kids for under $1. SUCCESS!

Soup inproves with age

Hanging in my kitchen is a little sign that says "wine improves with age, the older I get the more I like it". This also applies to soup in our case. When Mr. Bacon and I were younger we didn't care much for soup. But as we grew older and had more kids, it turned into one of our favorite meals. Especially on days like today. Do you want to know the weather report for central Minnesota? It's a blustery rainy 44 degrees, with wind gusts up to 60 MPH today! Defiantly soup weather here.

Today I happened to make one of my favorites, Veggie beef soup. It seems like a lot of ingredients (remember I like to make simple ingredient meals) but this is more of a dump soup, just measure out stuff, dump it in and let it go. And trust me it's well worth the extra 'stuff' in there because this soup is delicious! Another thing I like about this soup, it goes right in my slow cooker! I talked about how much I love my slow cooker here if you missed it.

Here is what you need.

Veggie Beef Soup
1.5 lbs stew meat cut into cubes and browned or ground hamburger browned
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp oregano (Italian seasoning works too in a pinch)
1/2 tsp basil
1 bay leaf
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp seasoning salt
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1- 16 oz bag (or 2 cups) frozen mixed veggies
1- 15oz can diced tomatoes undrained (I like the Italian kind)
1 package dry onion soup mix
5 cups hot water
1- 14 oz can beef broth
1- 8oz can tomato sauce
2-3 stalks celery chopped
4-5 medium potatoes - chopped

Mix it all together in a large slow cooker. I use my 7 quart slow cooker for this (it's one of my 4 slow cookers I have! I told you I love to use them). Cook on high for 5-6 hours or low for 7-8 hours until all veggies are soft and your house smells wonderful!

A few adjustments: Make sure to season your stew meat if you use it. I put a little salt & pepper on it when I saute it in olive oil. Also I use beef bullion instead of broth, it's just easy to store in at our house. Two cups water to 2 tsp bullion granules to replace the can of beef broth. I was out of just plan oregano today too, so I replaced it with Italian seasoning which works too.

This soup tastes great with some fresh Italian bread or some crunchy garlic toast. I have to say I've very excited for dinner tonight!

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As you can see it turned out wonderful. Mr Bacon said he approves! One thing I forgot to mention, make sure you take out the bay leaf when it's done cooking and throw it away, they are not meant to be eaten!