Tomato Vegetable Soup

This is a great crockpot soup. I threw everything into the crockpot in the morning and it was ready in the evening. :)  My crockpot is a 6 qt, so this recipe fits in quite nicely. If you have a smaller crockpot you will need to scale down the amounts of everything.

Tomato Vegetable Soup

1 qt. tomatoes

6 potatoes

1 onion

3 cloves garlic, pressed

3-4 carrots

corn

1/4 tsp. celery salt

3 tsp. beef boullion

1 tsp. salt (taste at end)

1 Tbsp. Seasonall

1/2 tsp. thyme

1/4 tsp. black pepper

meat, precooked (hamburger or stew meat)

1/4 c. pearled barley

parsley flakes (at end)

spaghetti noodles (at end)

canned tomato soup (at end)

I use 1 qt of home bottled tomatoes and I blend them until they are smooth. Then I dump them in the crockpot. Chop up the potatoes, carrots, and onion and add to the tomatoes. Press 3 garlic cloves and add to soup. Then add the pearled barley and all the seasonings. Cook your meat and add. Once you have all of this in your crockpot, fill the rest of the crockpot with water until it is about 2 inches from the top. Let it cook on high for 4-6 hours. About 20 minutes before you eat the soup, add 1-2 cans of canned tomato soup, parsley flakes, and whatever noodles you like. If you use spaghetti noodles, break them into 1 inch pieces.

What I did differently:
This time I added fresh thyme, oregano, and chopped spinach. It was really good! I also didn't use meat in my soup. I prefer it without. I just add a little extra boullion. :) Also, sometimes I use lentils instead of the pearled barley. I just add the lentils in at the beginning and they have plenty of time to cook if you leave it cooking all day.

My kids used to not like this soup. Once I started grinding up the tomatoes so there were no tomato chunks they started eating it really well. I made enough soup so we could have it for 2 meals and the 2nd day we had it with cheese bread. The bread was a nice addition and made it like a new meal all over again. To make the bread, I simply sliced medium cheddar cheese, placed it on slices of bread, and put it in the oven under the broiler until it was melted.

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

I decided I needed to make this yesterday because . . .

the day looked like this!

It's almost May and the weather is unbelievably cold. However, it will warm up soon and that means we only have a few good soup days left! Time to pull out the crock pot!

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 onion, chopped
4 carrots, peeled and sliced
celery salt
poultry seasoning
wide egg noodles
chicken bouillon
salt and pepper to taste

I don't follow a recipe for my homemade chicken soup, I just throw everything in the crock pot and test it until it tastes right. So, yesterday morning I put a couple of boneless, skinless chicken breasts in the crock pot and turned it to high. Then I added 1 chopped onion, 4 carrots (peeled and sliced), put in just enough water to cover it all and let it cook until afternoon.

In the afternoon I took 2 forks and broke up the cooked chicken breasts into smaller, bite-sized pieces. Then I added canned chicken broth and chicken bouillon. I had to add the bouillon to make up for the water I already had in there with the chicken and vegetables. I also added the celery salt, poultry seasoning, salt and pepper. Then, about an hour before we ate I put in as many noodles as I wanted and let them cook.

The soup turned out really good. One thing I would have done differently is put the noodles in a little later. They ended up softer than I wanted and broke apart before I served it. I ended up making a double amount of soup so that we can have leftovers today and I can have a little break from cooking dinner. Maybe I'll make some rolls tonight to go with the leftover soup. Those are always a hit.

Oh, I can't forget our "side" with the soup from last night! This is certainly a kid favorite and I had them when I was a kid. What is it? CRACKER SANDWICHES!!! I still like them.

Actually, these little cracker sandwiches go a long way as an incentive to get kids to finish their soup. I put them together with a little bit of butter in the middle. So tasty! I ate them with my soup and it added a real buttery taste to my soup.