Valentine's Day & Make Your Own Potato Soup!

It's almost Valentine's Day! Is anybody excited? Do you have a special Valentine?

I know that I always talk about Pinterest, but seriously, you can find ideas for anything and everything on there! Here are some pretty pictures of crafts, gifts and food that you can make for your special someone on Valentines day. All of the links to the following photos can be found on my
 "Valentine's Day" Pinterest board!

Moving on! Dinner. I have posted before about a fantastically easy crockpot soup called "Jane's Potato Soup".  It originally came out of a Paula Dean magazine, so you know it's delicious. I can't tell you how simple this creamy soup is to make.  You just throw all of the ingredients into the crockpot and cook on low for five hours. I like to turn mine up to high for a while, to give the soup the slightest,
" just starting to brown the edges smoky taste". Basically, it's 1/2 an onion, some chicken soup broth (although you could use veggie stock), condensed cream of chicken soup, (I use GF Pacific brand, it's organic and comes in chicken or cream of mushroom. Both work great!). Then you add pepper and the main ingredient, a bag of frozen hash brown potatoes. The cubed style. Of course, you could also just chop up some fresh potatoes and use those!

Today Noah had a friend over for a playdate. I thought this would be a good time to try out "Make Your Own Potato Soup".  With all the cooking time that I save with the crockpot, I was able to bake some gluten-free muffins for dipping, and then lined up soup toppings.... croutons, chives, cheese and Trader Joe's Nitrate-free turkey bacon. (Also, apples and oranges for a side.) Pretty fun and kid friendly, right?

Noah's buddy had fun and topped his soup with "the works". In fact, he came back for seconds and ate two whole bowls!  While Noah didn't really eat his....... :(   ........ I still highly recommend this crockpot soup for kids. It's creamy, easy and fun!

xoxoxoxox,

Lauren