An Announcement and a Creamy Potato Soup Recipe

First, an announcement:

We're pregnant!

Most of the readers of this blog probably already know, but I thought I'd make it blog-official.

A berry special baby is coming! (Photo by Heather)

Our little "Poppyseed," as we affectionately call this little one

Eric loves Poppyseed. And Mama. (Photo by Heather)

Second trimester just began two days ago!

I'm sure there will be more posts to be written about pregnancy, morning (or all-day) sickness, trusting God in it all, you name it.

For now, I'll share the recipe we had for dinner tonight. I'm especially excited about it for multiple reasons:

1. I love soup right now (even though it's summertime). Nothing better than soup in this nauseated season (except pineapple and raspberries... hmm... now I want to make a smoothie).
2. The nausea is slowly subsiding, and I've actually started cooking things again for the first time in a month or two. Things from scratch! That are made of things like fresh vegetables! Hooray!
3. I made fun modifications to a recipe I found, so it's kind of my own creation!

So, here it is:

Slow Cooker Creamy Potato Soup (Christi style)

Ingredients

• 6 handfuls of diced ham (accurate measurement, I know)
• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
• 2-3 carrots, peeled & sliced
• a few green beans, cut up (I threw these in because I had a small crop of about 8 of them from my garden... I'm sure you could leave them out or add some other veggie)
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 6 large potatoes, peeled and diced into 3/8" cubes
• salt to taste
• thyme to taste
• parsley to taste
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1-1/2 cups half-and-half cream
• 4 oz (1/2 pkg.) cream cheese
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
• shredded cheddar for topping (optional but highly recommended)
• bacon bits for topping (optional but highly recommended)

Directions

1. Place onion in a skillet. Cook over medium-high heat until onions are soft. 
2. Transfer the onion to a slow cooker, and stir in chicken broth, water, potatoes, ham, carrots, green beans, salt, thyme, and parsley. Cover, and cook on Low 6 to 7 hours.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and half-and-half. Stir into the soup along with the evaporated milk and cream cheese. Cover, and cook another 30 minutes before serving.
4. Optional step (I did it and liked it better): Blend with a hand blender for a bit to blend some (but not all) of the potatoes and veggies for the preferred thickness and texture.
5. Serve with shredded cheddar and bacon bits for toppings.

Slow Cooker Creamy Potato Soup

I found the original recipe here, and then modified it based on my preferences, what I had available, and comments on the website.

Enjoy!