Taco Soup

January seems to be the coldest month of the year in South Dakota, so a warm bowl of soup for dinner is always the perfect answer! This recipe is best described as a soupy queso filled with smokey Mexican flavors.

Taco Soup
Yield: Crock Pot Recipe

Ingredients
1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork sausage
2 small onions, chopped
2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese
2 (10 oz) cans Rotel
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
4 cups chicken broth

Directions
1. Place cream cheese, Rotel, and seasonings into slow cooker.
2. Brown ground beef until no longer pink. Ladle beef into slow cooker.
3. Brown sausage until no longer pink. Reserve about 1 Tbsp sausage grease (discard the rest). Ladle sausage into slow cooker.
4. Saute onion in reserved grease until tender. Ladle into slow cooker.
5. Pour chicken broth over mixture. Stir to combine.
6. Cook on low for 4 hours or high for 2 hours. Stir before serving.
7. Garnish individual servings with shredded cheese, sour cream, and/or crushed tortilla chips.

Notes
* For low carb or keto version, omit sauteed onions.
* To serve as an appetizer: add only 1-2 cups of chicken broth instead of 4 and it becomes a warm dip.

Recipe adapted from Beyer Beware.

Baked Potato Soup

With our Christmas Eve church service at 5 o'clock in the evening, I knew I wouldn't have a lot of time to prep for dinner when we got home. (We normally eat around 5:45pm and obviously we'd be home well past then.) This recipe was a life saver!

I assembled all the ingredients in the crock pot in the morning, had it cook throughout the day, finished getting the soup made in the late afternoon, and turned down the temperature to warm before leaving the house. When we returned home, I gave the soup a good stir and ladeled it into bowls. Everyone topped their own serving with the garnishes of their choosing and...voila! Dinner was on the table in 5 minutes.

Baked Potato Soup
Crock Pot Recipe

Ingredients
2 lbs potatoes, washed and peeled, diced into cubes
1 onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 (14.5 oz) cans chicken broth (about 4 cups)
8 oz package cream cheese, softened

Directions
1. Add potatoes, onion, garlic, and chicken broth to slow cooker.
2. Cook on high for 6 hours or low for 10 hours.
3. Add cream cheese and puree soup with immersion blender until cream cheese is incorporated. Make smooth or chunky to taste.
4. Top individual servings with shredded cheese, sliced green onion, crumbled bacon, french fried onions, etc.

Recipe adapted from Mama Loves Food.