Crockpot Potato Soup

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Monday morning I woke up with the intent to go out to the barn and run 8 miles on the treadmill before work. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve done a long run before work. I won’t say I like it, but I do it in hopes that I’ll be prepared for my first marathon come April.

I knew it was going to be cold, but honestly, cold temps have stopped fazing me at this point. I’ve had a lot of cold outdoor runs in the last two months, with the lowest being 6° a couple of weeks ago. I officially hit my limit on Monday, however.

 

 

I’m sorry, but I put my foot down when the temperature has a negative sign in front of it. That was our 13th or 14th day below zero this year, and I’ve been good at being able to avoid the negative digit runs so far by switching out my run days. That wasn’t an option for this run, but I just couldn’t bring myself to go outside and run in the negative temperatures. So I went back upstairs and slept for another 40 minutes, and by the time I woke up again, it was all the way up to 2°! Woo hoo!

The reason I tell you the story is to help you understand why I love this new recipe so much. I got it from Kitchen Meets Girl, and while my version didn’t turn out nearly as pretty as hers, it was damn tasty. (Hers was a lot whiter than mine, but she’s clearly a better food photographer than me.)

I made this recipe originally for a potluck at church on Sunday night. Since we had a full day of hockey, I thought that this crockpot potato soup recipe would work well. The recipe says you can cook it on high for four hours, or on low for eight hours, so I chose to put it together in the morning and cook it on low for eight hours.

It seemed like a good idea, but when my husband got home after the first hockey event, he called and told me that it was not cooking very quickly. That was after about six hours, I’d say. So he turned it up to high in hopes that the potatoes would soften up enough to mash. It cooked on high for about an hour and a half and then the potatoes were just fine. Well, as fine as I needed them to be anyway. They were still kind of lumpy, but I don’t mind lumpy.   The folks at my church didn’t seem to mind either, because it was a big hit!

The recipe calls for six potatoes, and when I pulled out the potatoes I had bought, I was rather surprised.

 

 

Dude, those are some big potatoes! Then I looked at the bag, and I realize why they were so big.

 

 

Leave it to me to buy the biggest potatoes you can find. 😉 I cut them up pretty well, but I suppose that I probably could’ve cut them up a little smaller, and maybe they would’ve cooked faster.

In the recipe, she suggested using fat-free half-and-half, and it worked just fine. I also used reduced fat cheddar cheese. I made sure to actually weigh the potatoes, because they were so big, and when I put it into the weight watchers calculator, I accounted for the correct weight in ounces.

The recipe made a lot, and even though it was very popular at the church potluck, I still had plenty leftover at home. In the recipe below, I put that it was 10 servings, but I’ll be honest, it might’ve been more. Next time I’ll make sure to actually measure the servings to give a more accurate representation, but I figured I’d better err on the side of caution.

After splitting it into 10 servings, it turned out to be five points per serving. Not bad! I sprinkled a little bit of reduced fat cheddar and a little bit of bacon bits on top, and I was so excited, because I actually had green onions in the house to add some nice color. 🙂

 

 

One serving was quite big, and extremely filling. (Not that that stopped me from having two.)

 

 

I’m not sure yet what to do about the cooking time, so I’ll probably make it again and update this post to give you a better idea. But in the meantime, if you want to give it a try on one of those days when the temperature is down below zero, or whatever “cold” may be in your area of the world, this is a great, hearty, delicious soup to fill you up and keep you warm. I hope you enjoy it!

Crockpot Potato Soup




Ingredients

6 Potatoes (peeled and cubed)
1 Onion (diced)
4 cups Chicken Broth
3 Garlic Cloves (minced)
1/4 cup Butter
1 1/2 teaspoons Herbes de Provence (found with the “fancier” herbs, I discovered)
1 teaspoon Parsley
1 teaspoon Marjoram
Salt (if desired; I omitted)
Ground Pepper (as desired)
1 cup Fat Free Half and Half
1 cup Reduced Fat Cheddar Cheese

Directions

Combine all ingredients except for the half-and-half and cheese in the bowl of your crockpot.
Cook on high for 4 hours, or on low for 8 hours. (In my case, it was low for 6 hours, high for about an hour and a half, but my potatoes were really large!)  Mash the potatoes with a potato masher until they are coarsely chopped and the soup is slightly thickened. (Mine was very thickened!)
Stir in half-and-half and cheese, and garnish with a little more cheddar cheese, some bacon bits, and chopped green onions.

Serves: 10
Points: 5 per serving, not including toppings (though those don’t add much as long as you don’t go overboard)

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