Ham and Potato Soup

I love soup in the fall and winter! A big bowl of something hot to warm you up after raking leaves in the cold wind or shoveling snow. Now, I wasn't doing either of those things when I decided to make soup for dinner but this soup was delicious anyway!

For this recipe, I actually had everything on hand with a few adjustments. Here are the ingredients I used:

• 5 large russet potatoes, diced (this is part of the 50 pound bag we got from Ruby's pantry and when I say large, I mean as long as your hand)
• garlic powder, to taste
• onion powder, to taste
• 3 ish cups of mixed frozen vegetables (no need to thaw ahead of time)
• 2 cups of diced ham (we keep this in the freezer after chopping up a big ham since ham even comes precooked! very convenient!)
• 1 cup reduced sodium chicken broth (this was the last of my broth)
• 3 cups water with 3 chicken bouillon cubes
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 6 tablespoons flour
• 2 cups milk
• 2 cups monterrey jack cheese

I threw in the potatoes, frozen veggies, frozen ham, broth, and water (no bouillon yet) into a giant pot until it boiled. Because I started with so many frozen ingredients, this took a good 20 minutes. Then I added in the bouillon, garlic powder, and onion powder until the potatoes were done. Next, I made the cheese sauce and then stirred that in. It all came together very easy.

This soup was very hearty but I served it with bread anyway. I'll take any excuse to eat more bread! My mom and brother were in town and we all agreed that it could've used more ham. It probably didn't help that my toddler was picking ham out of all of our bowls but even in spite of that, I would add more ham. 

My mom also suggested using a sharp cheddar. The original recipe calls for that but I don't normally have that kind of cheese on hand so I probably wouldn't buy it special for this but I do admit, it might help. We all rated this an 8/10. Very good and easy dinner, just not what I would call quick. I will definitely make it again!