Loaded Potato Soup (in the crock pot!)

 When a blizzard hits, what do you do? Hit the crock pot and hope the power doesn't go out.

The beauty of this meal is that the soup is so simple that you can make everyone happy by letting them load it up with anything they want. Perfect for a large crowd, or if you're like me, and have nothing but picky eaters.

Ingredients: 

7C potatoes (or roughly 6 medium)
1C yellow onion
3 cloves garlic
3C chicken or beef stock
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground pepper
1C whole milk
4 slices thick cut bacon

Toppings of your choice. I used sharp cheddar, sour cream, scallions, bacon and hot sauce - Frank's to be exact. I put that sh*t on everything.

Peel your potatoes and chop into small chunks, roughly 1" in size.

Chop your onions and mince the garlic. Add all of your vegetables to the slow cooker bowl. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour in your stock. Cover and cook on high for 3 1/2 hours (or low 6).

After you toss everything in, make your bacon.  Blot with paper towels so it stays crispy. Add any remaining bacon grease to slow cooker. Be careful when pouring your grease in... since you only just put your veggies in your cooker the grease is hotter than anything else and can splatter. Stir gently and replace cover. Chop bacon, set aside.


Remove 1/3-1/2 of the potato chunks to a blender with whole milk. Blend until smooth. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE my Ninja? Seriously... everytime I turn it on I feel like doing karate moves around my kitchen yelling HI YA!

Beautiful.

Return your now smooth potatoes to your cooker, stir and cover, continue cooking for an additional 30 minutes.

Seriously. See how smooth that is? GEEZE.

When you're ready to eat, set out a toppings bar. This is why I say it would be good for a crowd. I had all of those beautiful toppings and my boring other half had 2 out of the 5. The soup is pretty plan by itself, but it's thick and filling. 

Go nuts. And don't forget the Frank's!