Slow Cooker Potato Soup

I knew I wanted to make a potato soup, mainly because I was planning to make Ina Garten's jalapeno cheddar cornbread recipe today (for Barefoot Bloggers -- more on that tomorrow) and potato soup and cornbread are a favorite combo here. I haven't used my slow cooker in a while but really wanted to, so as soon as I had a minute this morning I googled "slow cooker potato soup" and got this recipe from About.com: Southern Food ...

Crockpot Potato Soup

Ingredients:
6 potatoes, peeled and diced
1 cup chopped onion

2 carrots, thinly sliced (used 4 or 5 small ones)
2 ribs celery, thinly sliced (used 4 or 5 small ones)
4 cups chicken broth (used vegetable broth)
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste (used seasoned salt and less 1 teaspoon)
1/2 teaspoon pepper (did not use)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups cream or half-and-half
real bacon bits, optional (did not use)

Preparation:Combine first potatoes, chopped onion, carrots, celery, chicken broth, basil, parsley, salt, and pepper in a slow cooker.

Cover and cook on HIGH for 3 hours, or until vegetables are tender.

Stir together flour and cream or half-and-half; stir into soup. Cover and cook 30 minutes longer or until hot. If desired, sprinkle bacon bits over each serving. Makes about 2 quarts.

This was a really easy recipe and pretty forgiving if you want to change around the ingredients like I did to make it vegetarian and have more veggies. The soup really needed about 4 hours in the slow cooker, but it was delicious! All three of my kids loved it and so did I, picky husband doesn't like veggies but he liked the potatoes and broth and said it would be good with just corn and potatoes like a corn chowder. I will be trying it like that just for him, I could have added a couple more veggies like mushrooms and green beans, also I bet lentils would be great in this, it's so basic but really flavorful after cooking in the crock pot.

My two year old especially loved this potato soup :)