Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Its freezing here in Chicago. I love winter. I was married in the winter and we did outdoor pictures- 17 degrees, my bridesmaids weren't thrilled, but the pictures were beautiful. The best part about winter in Chicago, is staying in and enjoying a warm bowl of soup- even better if it's homemade soup.

This potato soup is easy, quick and tastes amazing. Perfect for a snowy, frigid evening!

Here is the recipe:

Homemade Chicken Stock Recipe

At work, we started leasing a new building for indoor programming space. Part of this building is a former Home Economics classroom featuring six cooking stations and a demonstration station. Angels started singing when I walked into the culinary classroom on a tour of the building during the start of the lease negotiations. I immediately volunteered to take over the culinary program. This room has a million possibilities and I'm so excited to start programming it in December.

Last month, we started interviewing chefs for the new classes. As part of the chef interview, we asked the candidates to teach a cooking class to our rec staff. One of the candidates decided to teach on carving a chicken. I've never done this before and I never understood why a person would until this class. Not only is purchasing a whole chicken cheaper than just buying a pound of chicken breasts, but you get a ton more food. For each chicken purchased, two breasts, thighs, tenders, wings and legs can be carved out. In addition, the carcasses can be used to make homemade chicken stock. 

If you're interested in learning how to cut up a whole raw chicken Pampered Chef has a great YouTube video detailing how to do this. 

I'm off work this week, so I had a little extra time to do this. I'm not sure if it will always fit into my life, but purchasing a few chickens a month and spending a few hours carving and cooking stock might be worth the savings. This is one of those things that I could do to save if I was ever lucky enough to stay home full time with my kids. 

Making your own stock is very easy. Just a few simple ingredients and a large stock pot ( I actually used my large pasta pot which made straining the vegetables easier) and you're done. Here is my chicken stock recipe...

Crock Pot Chicken Soup

January in Chicago means cold, windy, snow and darkness before I leave the office. For this reason, I use my slow cooker at least once a week. There is nothing better than coming home to a meal waiting for you. I have never really liked canned soups with meat in them because I think it already looks chewed (sorry for that visual, but it does). For that reason, I always take the meat out of the soup before I eat it. I have suffered through relentless teasing about this at work, but I'd rather deal with that than eat canned soup meat.

So...I try to make my own soup at home to bring to work. This is a simple chicken soup recipe that tastes great. It makes a lot, so you'll have enough for dinner and a few lunches through the week. I cook my noodles separately because I don't like to freeze soup with noodles in it, and if I don't eat it all, I like to freeze it for later- and without this noodles, this soup freezes well.

Chili Macaroni Soup

I love chili! I think there is nothing better than a big bowl of chili on a cold day. This soup is the next best thing, especially if you don't have a few hours to cook dinner. I have had this recipe for about five years and I get excited for the cold weather to come so I can make it.

Five Point Lasagna Soup

Its my mission to find easy, healthy dinners that taste great. This is one of them. I thought it tasted great last night, but for lunch today it was even better.  This recipe is modified from the the deen brother's website. It's a hearty soup that's also healthy. The recipe is 5 Weight Watcher's points for a one cup serving. This soup is a little time consuming, but its definitely worth the wait. Enjoy!

Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup

Here is another awesome healthy slow cooker recipe. This is easy and quick to prepare and tastes great! I add the chicken frozen, so no need to thaw your chicken if it's frozen.

Serve with cheese and Frito's or tortilla chips. Frito's scoops are my fave and I figure since it's such a low calorie dinner, I can splurge a little on a few Frito's.