Five on Friday: Soups and Stews

 

Now that the weather is getting cooler (it was actually 49 degrees yesterday afternoon), I'm starting to make stews and soups again.  The following are my favorite fall-winter soups/stews/chilis:

1. Italian Wedding Soup

Last year we went to a deli that served Italian Wedding Soup and it was the best I've ever had.  I've to tried to recreate it, but I just can't get it as good as theirs was.  But this soup is really good.  I usually use ground chicken for the meatballs to make it extra healthy.  I love having the leftovers for lunch.

2.  Tomato Soup

This soup is easy, delicious, and comforting.  Tomato soup always pairs well with grilled cheese and the grilled cheese recipe attached to this soup recipe is good too.  But honestly, I'm a grilled cheese purist.  I prefer American cheese even though I know it's processed cheese.  Maybe it's because I'm a child of the 70's/early 80's.

3.  Slow Cooker Beef Stew

Beef stew is so filling and comforting.  I love making it in the slow cooker.  It combines all the flavors so well.  This recipe is a simple and classic beef stew.  I do like browning my stew meat first.  I put it in a plastic bag with flour and salt and shake until the meat is covered in flour.  Then I use the browning feature on my slow cooker/multi cooker and heat up 1 tbs of oil.  Dump the flour covered meat into the cooker and brown on all sides.  Cancel the browning mode, add all the other ingredients and cook on low for 8 hours.  You can do the same exact thing with the pressure cooker, only the stew is done so much quicker (use sauté feature to brown the meat, then set the pressure cooker for 45 minutes and let it naturally vent).

4. Slow Cooker Baked Potato Soup

Baked potato soup is one of my favorites.  I love it so much that I could make it once a week.  Unfortunately, it's not the healthiest of soups, just the yummiest.  The recipe that I share above is my absolute favorite, but there are times I want to try to make it a little more "middle aged mom friendly" and I use this WW friendly potato soup.

5.  Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup

We love this soup.  It's so easy and so tasty.  And I love using my slow cooker so it's perfect for an easy, quick weeknight meal.  I usually make this a few times in the summer also.  We love it that much.

The nice thing about soups or stews are that they can be very budget friendly.  The ingredients are usually lower in costs, and leftovers can be used for lunches.  Trying to keep the grocery budget down is especially important now with prices so high.  To make these meals extra filling, serve with bread, rolls, or corn bread.