~Cheeseburger Soup ~

I have never made cheeseburger soup, but in light of the cold and snowy day we are having here in Western Pennsylvania, it sounds like a good soup to try out!

I looked up several recipes online and found TONS! I was looking for a lighter version, Weight Watchers friendly one....and this is what I found.   I have tweaked it a little here and there because I did not have all of the ingredients called for in the original recipe.  But isn't that what cooking is all about?   A little bit of this, a little bit of that, and voila`!?!

WE SHALL SEE!!!

Again there are many of cheeseburger recipes out there, I made a list of the ingredients that I actually used.

Ingredient list

*Minced garlic
*Chopped onion
*1 cup shredded carrots - I did not shred mine, used baby carrots.
*4 cups of potatoes
*1 pound lean ground beef
*3 tbsp flour ( I keep Gold Medal Wondra quick mixing flour on hand for adding to soups)
*3 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
*1 1/2 cups fat free evaporated milk ~ divided
*8 oz. lowfat cheddar cheese
*1/2tsp paprika
Dash of table salt
Dash of pepper

In a large sauce pan, add vegetables, broth and salt.  Bring to a boil then reduce heat. Cover and simmer until potatoes are tender about 15-20 minutes.

Brown ground beef in a skillet, drain off extra fat, if you have really lean ground meat, there really won't be much to drain off.  In my case, my family and I buy a side of beef from a local farmer every year and his ground meat is extremely lean!  I love supporting our local farmers!

Since I don't always use fresh vegetable and garlic, after I've browned and drained the ground beef I usually put it back in the skillet and mix in what dried ingredients I use.

This recipe I used is a stove top version, there are slow cooker versions out there as well.  Totally up to you and what you want to do!

Stir beef and 1 cup of the milk into the saucepan.

In a small bowl combine flour and remaining milk, stir til lump free.  Gradually stir into the soup.  Bring to a simmer, cook until thick and bubbly.  About 2 minutes.  Reduce heat, add cheese and paprika.  Stir until melted.

Serve topped with tortilla chips or whatever topping you want.  May add a spoonful of sour cream.  I am not a sour cream fan, so I usually skip it.

I use to hate to cook, but I've learned that I don't ALWAYS have to follow the recipe, it's about what I have and want to use.  My grandmother made it up as she went along and she was an amazing cook!  So why can't I???  Really cooking is about trying new things.  Adding this and that!  So tweak it anyway you'd like! Add pepper jack cheese instead cheddar.  A lot of the recipes I found used the processed cheese, which I am not fond of so, but that's just my personal choice, so I used cheddar.  Choose your poison, well.... so to speak!