Two Soups Thursday

People ask me, "How do you feed all those kids?" and I answer, "Soup, soup, soup." 
Not that we have soup every meal but we make two soups once a week, so every one is happy with one of the choices.  We use the soups for one dinner and then again for a dinner as a stew.  For instance I might thicken this Beef Lentil Soup and serve it over rice or pasta two days later.  The soups will be available for lunches and it's a go-to snack.  It's a healthy option to sneak a cup of soup when you need a midnight snack.  And, now with fall approaching rapidly, we can share in these tried and true recipes together.

These and other recipes can be found in my cookbook, Creative Slow Cooker Meals:  Use Two Slow Cookers for Tasty and Easy Meals by Cheryl Moeller, Harvest House Publishers, 2012.  These cookbooks are available in spiral paperback and on Kindle and will make the perfect hostess gift for your fall parties.  Click here 

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Soup #1

Beef Lentil Soup (this was always one of Brent's favorite soups)

(This is a different than the traditional Italian Beef Lentil Soup with Bacon, but I like it better.)

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef or turkey, cooked, drained and washed
1/2 small medium onion or 1 T. onion flakes
1 clove garlic (minced) or 1 tsp. garlic powder
1 8 oz. can mushrooms pieces or 1/2 cup fresh diced mushrooms
1 can (16 oz.) stewed tomatoes or three diced fresh medium tomatoes plus 1 cup water
1 medium stalk celery, diced up
1 large carrot, diced up
6 ounces lentils, (one cup) washed and sort out bad ones
1 quart beef broth
1/4 cup apple juice
1 bay leaf (go crazy, add two)
2 tsps. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

Preparation:

1.  Cook first the ground meat, wash, and drain in a dutch oven.  Then in the same pan, cook with the onion and garlic.
2.  Stir in the remaining ingredients.
3.  Cook a total of one hour (stirring often) or put it in a slow cooker and cook all day.

4.  If you have any leftovers, when you warm it up the next day, you might need to add a little extra water.

Soup #2

Easy Italian Tomato Soup

Ingredients:

1  36 oz. jar of spaghetti sauce

Preparation:

1.  Empty contents of spaghetti sauce into crockpot.

2.  Simmer 1/2 the day on low in your covered slow cooker. (Do not cook this all day.  Tomato sauce will burn after 5-6 hours.)

3.  Serve with cut provolone cheese and Italian croutons.

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