Loaded Cheeseburger Soup

Well, looky there! Another recipe 🙂 I adapted this one from Debi Cooks and I absolutely loved it, as did everyone else who tried it. The stew itself is good, but if you add the toppings, it really does taste like a cheeseburger.

Cheeseburger Soup (serves 4 hearty portions)

Soup/Stew Base:

• 1 lb. hamburger, lean
• 1/2 lg. sweet onion, chopped
• 4 medium carrots, diced
• 2 yukon gold potatoes, peeled & diced
• 5 c. reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 1 can red kidney beans, drained & rinsed
• salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, Jane’s Crazy Salt or Mrs. Dash to taste (a good pinch of each)
• 1 c. skim milk

Fixin’s:

• ketchup
• yellow mustard
• sweet pickle relish
• shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• saltine crackers or Ritz crackers (for a buttery flavor)

Instructions:

1. Add hamburger, onion, carrots & potatoes to stock pot over medium high heat. Salt lightly to draw moisture from veggies. Cook, stirring frequently, until hamburger is done & vegetables are almost tender (about 7 minutes). Drain mixture and return to pot.
2. Add 5 cups chicken stock, and bring to boil. Reduce heat to low. Simmer until vegetables are done, about 20 minutes. **Soup can be held here on stovetop until everyone is ready to eat. Be sure to give yourself 5 minutes to finish it off… Keep an eye on stock level and add more stock as needed if you have to simmer it awhile.**
3. Five minutes before serving, stir in 1 c. milk and allow to heat through.
4. Spoon stew into bowl and top with cheddar cheese, yellow mustard, ketchup, relish and crushed crackers.

Some of my friends prefer to add diced tomatoes, diced onion, French’s french fried onions, bleu cheese (in lieu of cheddar), or A-1 to theirs. However you like your burger, that’s how you’ll like this stew. Feel free to play around with it as much as you like. You can add Montreal Steak seasoning to the soup, Mrs. Dash, cayenne pepper, anything you would prefer. This is just a basic starter recipe.

Give this stew a shot next time it’s too cold to grill and you have a mean hankering for a cheeseburger. After all, who needs McDonalds anyway? 😉

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Just a little sidenote

For those of you who do not know me in real life, you may not know that I have a serious love of facial hair. Actually, sometimes it straddles the line of love and unhealthy preoccupation. I fear that I haven’t alluded to my follicle-loving ways enough on this blog and in that I am seriously remiss. So I wanted to let all of you in on my other personal blog: Power of the Beard. I’ll leave you, fellow bloggers, with a little taste:

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Man Crushes, update

Thought it was about time to add to my “crush list,” lovelies. So without further ado, I’ll just jump straight in, shall I?

Michael Weatherly. Best known, perhaps, for his role as DiNozzo on the drama NCIS, Weatherly’s chiseled jaw and blinding smile more than qualify him for this list.

Jason Momoa. What with the inauspicious first viewing in Baywatch: Hawaii, I certainly didn’t expect this model of Hawaiian descent to grace our collective radar for long. But seeing as he’s grown up *quite* well, I’ll forgive him those few years of relative anonymity.

Christopher Meloni. Marine, kick-ass fictional detective, protective father, wicked smile, and the man can grow a mean beard. Need I elaborate further? Didn’t think so.

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