Kendi's Kitchen: Crock Pot Potato Soup

I tried a crock pot potato soup recipe I found on pinterest once before.  It did not go well.  It actually killed my stick blender, well, Kevin's stick blender.  So when my BFF, Kimmy, posted a picture of the soup she had just made on IG, I immediately sent her a message asking for the recipe.  She sent it to me and I set out making it for dinner Sunday night.  It. was. FABULOUS!  Just like the kind you buy in the restaurant.  And it was super easy.  Be warned, it's not healthy.  But its nice comfort food.  Now if I can just make a bread bowl...


Crock Pot Potato Soup (original recipe here)

1 bag frozen hash browns (30oz)
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 cans chicken broth (I use the powdered bouillon)
1 diced onion
1 pkg softened cream cheese (8oz)
1/2 tbsp of pepper 

Optional:  green onions, bacon, shredded cheese

In your crock pot, mix cream of chicken soup, chicken broth, onion, pepper and hash browns (use the whole bag!).  Cook on low for 5hrs.  

Here's what I used.  I'm a "no-name brand" girl

It should look like this when you start to cook

After 5hrs, stir in the whole block of cream cheese.  Stir it enough to see it melt pretty well.  Continue cooking on low for another 30 minutes.  Here's a Kendi tip: I only added the equivelent of one can of broth for the 5 hrs by mistake, so I had to quickly add the second.  Since it was bowling hot when I poured it in, I think it helped melt the cream cheese and really make the consistency what you see in the picture.  I will probably keep making it that way.

It should look like this when you are finished cooking.  Nice and creamy!

Now, you can eat it just like this, which is very good.  Or you can get restaurant fancy with green onions, shredded cheese and bacon and make it "loaded baked potato soup".  :-D

Mmmm...fancy...

Cheers!

Stats:
Time: 6 hrs
Cost:  around $7
Servings:  4+
Leftovers:  yes

Pan-Roasted Chicken w Lemon Garlic veggies

We have another winner!!  The Kendi Haus has been on quite a streak when it comes to finding good recipes for dinner.  Kevin has gotten so good at cooking, I can honestly say I don't really miss eating out.  :) 

Last night was Pan-Roasted Chicken with Lemon Garlic green beans and potatoes from Real Simple, found here.  I chose this recipe because everything is made in one pan.  I thought it would be nice to pull the entire meal out of the oven in one shot.  We ended up using regular potatoes instead of red because that is what we had.  The green beans ended up getting a lot of lemon taste so next time, we will either use less lemons in the pan or try and put the potatoes between the lemons and beans.  All in all, this is a keeper!  Cheers!

Stats:
Cost:  less than $5
Servings:  4 (because that's what fit nicely in our dish)
Leftovers:  yes
Time:  1.75 hours