From my kitchen: Soup's on!

Happy wintery Wednesday! In my part of the country, we woke up this morning to everything being covered in ice! The trees and bushes look beautiful as they shimmer with ice, but I am very thankful I get to stay home where it's nice and cozy, and look at the ice-covered world without actually having to venture outside!

This time of year I love spending time in the kitchen, and I really love making a pot of soup for us to enjoy. In fact, I have so many good soup recipes it was difficult for me to narrow it down to which ones to share here with you! Recently at church we had a soup fellowship, and I brought one of my favorites: cheeseburger soup. It proved to be very popular and since I had a lot of requests for the recipe, I decided I would post it here for my readers. The recipe originally comes from Taste of Home and I have modified it just a bit.

Cheeseburger Soup
1/2 lb. ground beef
1/2 c. chopped onion
1/2 c. shredded carrots
1 tsp each basil and parsley
5 T butter, divided
3 cups chicken broth
4 cups peeled, diced potatoes
1/2 c. flour
8 oz. Velveeta cheese, cubed
1 1/2 cups milk
                                                              1/4 c. sour cream
(Hey, I never promised that this was a healthy soup!) This soup does go together fairly quickly - the thing that takes the longest is to peel and dice the potatoes. I do that first. Then brown the ground beef in a large pot. Drain it and set it aside. In the same pot, melt 1 T. of the butter and sauté the onion, carrots, and seasonings. Add chicken broth, diced potatoes, and ground beef. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer 10 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. In the meantime, in a small pan melt the remaining butter, whisk in the flour and add mixture to soup. Cook and stir for about 2 minutes or until soup is thickened. Reduce heat to low and stir in cheese and milk. Stir over low heat until cheese melts. Salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat. Stir in sour cream. At this point you can serve it, or keep it warm in a slow cooker until ready to eat.

In case you would like a recipe that is easier, I have another favorite for you. Cheesy Tex-Mex soup is made in a slow cooker and besides browning ground beef, you simply open cans and toss everything into the slow cooker! I got this recipe from a friend who is an amazing cook, and while I don't have a picture of it, it is a regular at our house this time of year! I doubled this and made it for our family in 2 slow cookers on Christmas Eve.

Slow Cooker Cheesy Tex-Mex Soup
1 lb. ground beef, browned and drained
1 can corn, undrained
1 can kidney beans, undrained
1 can diced tomatoes with green chiles, undrained
1 can stewed tomatoes, undrained
2 T. dry taco seasoning
1 lb. Velveeta cheese, cubed
tortilla chips for topping

(Note: this recipe does not call for any additional liquid.) Brown the ground beef and combine all ingredients except the chips in a slow cooker. Cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours. Stir well and serve with tortilla chips broken on top. Bonus: this is one of those soups that tastes even better re-heated the next day! If you want to make this soup healthier, you could probably leave out or reduce the cheese (it is very cheesy) or just garnish with shredded cheese.

This is a great time of year to pull out your cookbooks and make some of those recipes that you haven't made in a long time, or some new ones that you have been wanting to try. Or how about making some of those wonderful-looking recipes you have saved to your Pinterest boards? Have fun cooking and baking!

Til next time,
Kathi