Crock Pot - Loaded Baked Potato Soup

I love to use my crock pot! I really don't know what I did without it! It makes dinner in my house so much nicer! Everyone gets a great homemade meal without me having to stand in the kitchen all afternoon! I am always looking for new recipes that work for my family - for any meal. A staple in our house for last winter was a Pampered Chef recipe for Loaded Baked Potato Chowder which is made in the microwave using the Pampered Chef Deep Covered Baker. We absolutely LOVE this recipe!! We were so upset when I couldn't make this recipe anymore! My microwave has been on the fritz since ... well... over a year now! If you are wondering - it works just fine if you are only microwaving for a few minutes (anything up to 10 minutes is fine), but the recipe requires a bit more than that. We also add 2 bags of steamer broccoli - that's an additional 12-15 minutes, plus, I eat mine over rice which I cook in my rice cooker in the microwave. The whole thing is just too much for my poor little microwave to handle. So, I need to find an alternative to this favorite meal for my family.

While it is not the exact same thing, I think I found something very similar thanks to Crockin' Girls. They have this recipe for a Loaded Baked Potato Soup that cooks in your slow cooker. I thought I would give it a try. Here is a link to their youtube video (it's also on their web page for the recipe).
Here are the ingredients and the directions:

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Uploaded by thecrockpotgirls on Oct 29, 2011

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

6 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 large onion, diced
1 quart chicken broth
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup butter
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste

1 cup cream or 1 cup 1/2 and 1/2 cream
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
Garnish: chives, sour cream, bacon, and cheese

Directions:

Combine first 7 ingredients in a large slow cooker and cook on high for
4 hours or low for 8 hours (potatoes should be tender). Then you will
need to mash potatoes until coarsely chopped and soup is slightly
thickened. Stir in cream and cheese. Garnish with toppings.

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Now that you have all of that info, here are some of my pictures from when I tried it. :)

Started off with my bag of potatoes. The directions do say 6 baking potatoes, but I used a bag of small - medium sized potatoes. 

This is 6 of the 7 ingredients that you put in the slow cooker to start out. I didn't have any garlic.

Thought I would sneak a picture while it was cooking. :)

Potatoes are done cooking and ready to be mashed.

I use my Mix 'N Chop (yes... another Pampered Chef item - I should really sell their products, shouldn't I? haha) it really seems to be the perfect tool for this job!

All mashed, with cream and cheese added.

We also added broccoli to ours.

This is the hubby's bowl. You can see that I dished out the soup, added some pepper, cheese, and real bacon bits to his bowl.

This one is mine. I make mine just like I do the hubby's, only I add sour cream to mine.

While we thought this was good, the hubby and I both thought it was missing something. For my other recipe, I use fresh onions instead of cooked onions. It is possible that's what it was missing. I did not use garlic like this recipe called for, but I don't typically put garlic on a baked potato. I will definitely try this recipe again, making a few changes to it next time. :)


**If you decide to give this (or any of the other recipes I have posted) a try, please let me know!! I'd love to hear what you and your family think of the recipes that I have shared! **

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