Simple Potato Soup

A friend of mine posted on Facebook the other night that she was in dire need of a good potato soup recipe. Of course, I love my own potato soup and Colt always eats every last morsel, so I figured I should share with the blogosphere. {No, I’m not vain enough to think that my recipe is anything special; I am, after all, only opening cans and mixing them together-- which makes this recipe so. very. easy!}

                   

I cook dinner 5 days a week {eating leftovers or out the other two days}, so I’m pretty comfortable whipping things together in the kitchen, but not everyone is as comfortable. Some people don’t cook anymore. Some never started. Some were simply never taught. I can’t imagine, it feels like I started cooking at a really young age {9?} and I have simply always been a home cook.

So, without getting too complicated—here’s the ingredient list, with amounts, calories:

 45 oz.  (roughly 6 potatoes) Yukon Gold Potatoes, 1051

 1 can Campbell’s Cream of Potato Soup, 225

 3 cups Skim Milk, 270

 1 jar Hormel Real Bacon Bits, 307

 1 bundle of green onions, Spring Or Scallions, 15ish

 1 tsp Garlic, 11ish

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If you split this up into 4 portions, that’s 470 calories per person— which is pretty good for a comfort food! As a matter of fact: after I completed the entire pot tonight, I weighed it using my handy kitchen scale and found that the above recipe yields 85 oz of soup! Split 4 ways, that's 21.25 oz for 1/4 of the yield. I don't know about you, but for my dishware that meant 2 bowls of soup for me. As someone who has been weighing food for a month now: that is a HUGE portion for 470 calories!

*Note: I used to add in cheddar from Campbell's Soup also, but since I’m trying to be a tad more frugal with calories, I've omitted it—but if you love a cheesy potato soup, most definitely add it in! It makes the potato soup absolutely to die for!

Directions:

1. Chop your potatoes. It doesn't matter how. The smaller the piece the faster they cook through. The bigger the piece the chunkier your soup will be. Boil until tender. Make sure you don't over boil them or you'll end up with mashed potatoes.
2. Reduce heat to medium and drain potatoes. 
3. Add cream of potato and milk. Stir thoroughly, until mixture looks homogenous.
4. Stir in garlic and bacon bits. When you look at the entire jar of bacon bits being poured over your hot pot of soup, you might start thinking, "Are you sure you want me to add all of it? That seems like an insane amount of bacon for one pot of soup? Was that a typo?" Trust me. Pour it ALL in. After you stir it, you will thank me.
5. Chop green onions/scallions and stir into soup. 
6. Salt and pepper to taste at this point.
7. Stir until you get the consistency you desire {it will thicken the longer you let it simmer, but be careful not to let it burn on bottom, as once you've stirred in the cream, milk, etc it can easily burn it not stirred continuously}. Enjoy!

  If you try it, let me know! I’d love to know what you think of it. It is super simple and can be thrown together super-quick, which is great for someone who is busy chasing a certain 16 mo. old around the house! And also great for someone who might not be comfortable cooking. Seriously, people, anyone can boil some water and dump a few cans of stuff in it. It is that easy.

|MrsG