Yummy in Your Tummy! Baked Potato Soup

I am a lover of baked potato soup--with bacon crumbles, cheese, green onion--you name it. I love it, love it, love it! It was one of my favorite pregnancy foods and finally after months of searching, Jim and I found the "be all-end all yummy" potato soup from King Soopers and would splurge with crusty bread .  But as the soup Nazi from Seinfeld would say... "NO SOUP FOR YOU!" . Our new gluten free lifestyle put a wrench in our plans--wheat flour. Curse you flour--foiled again.

But not so fast!  Thanks to the "mama loves food blog" (I link a lot of her recipes on my pinterest page) we now have a new favorite -- crock pot baked potato soup. Delicious! My husband loves it, and I am once again in heaven. Read on below.

Yummy Baked Potato Soup!

Slow Cooker Baked Potato Soup 

Ingredients:

• 5 pounds russet potatoes, washed but NOT peeled. Diced into 1/2 inch(ish) cubes
• 1 medium/large yellow onion, diced
• 1 medium sized bulb of garlic minced (if you use jarred, its about 5 tsp)
• 64 ounces (8 cups) chicken stock or broth
• 16 oz cream cheese, softened (I used low fat)
• 1 tablespoon seasoned salt (I used good old fashioned Lawry's)
• pinch of black pepper
• optional garnishes: crumbled bacon, shredded cheese, green onions--really what ever you would like.

Directions:

1. Add potatoes, onion, garlic, seasoning, pepper, and chicken stock to slow cooker. Stir
2. Cook on high for 6 hours or low for 10 hours.



Ready to start cooking...

3. Add the softened cream cheese and puree soup with an immersion blender until the cheese is incorporated and about half the soup is blended.( Since I don't have an immersion blender and I love to use crock pot bags for easy clean up, I removed about 3/4 of the mixture and mixed the cream cheese and it in my kitchen aide blender-- then just stirred it in with the soup in the crock pot-- it worked like a charm).
4. Stir well, top with your choice of garnishes & enjoy!

All blended and ready to serve...

This recipe yields about 10-12 servings and it freezes great. I like to make the full recipe (and I have a monster huge crock pot--as you can see above and below), but you can easily half the recipe if needed.