Italian Sausage and Potato Soup

Italian Sausage and Potato Soup

1 lb Italian sausage browned

1 onion diced

1 cup diced celery

1 c diced carrots

3 cloves garlic minced

1 bag baby red or Yukon gold potatoes (1 1/4 lbs cut into quarters)

12 oz frozen corn

6 c chicken broth    

1 tsp basil

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp parsley

1/2 tsp ground mustard

1/2 tsp black pepper 

1 Tbs soy sauce

1 Tbs hot sauce (like Franks red hot or Tabasco)

1 cup cream

2 cups sharp cheddar

Brown sausage in large pan. Halfway through browning add carrots, celery, onions and garlic. Cook until meat is completely cooked through and vegetables are tender. 

Add all ingredients to crock pot and cook on low 6-8 hours or high 4-5 hours. 

During last 45 minutes add a bag of frozen corn. Bring back to temp and slowly add cream while stirring. Add cheese and stir until melted. 

 

4 Packet Roast

Sunday dinner. For as long as I can remember growing up we had a roast with potatoes and carrots for Sunday dinner. When I got married I tried to recreate that Sunday dinner and it was never quite right. My gravy was terrible and even though I followed my mom's directions to the letter the roast was never very good. I decided that it must just be one of those things that only Mom could make and moved on to other Sunday dinners for my own house. When Randy was called to be in the Bishopric several years ago I decided to try again because I needed something that I could walk away from and come home and have yummy dinner. We both had callings that required more Sunday time from us than ever before.

Enter my second favorite kitchen appliance. The Crock Pot. Over the years I've assembled a collection of crock pots in various sizes and shapes, I think it's a sickness actually. Anyway, I decided that I would try throwing the roast in the crock pot and seeing if I liked it any better than my previous attempts in the oven. Hello and hallelujah! It was so easy and so good. I've fiddled around with different seasonings depending on what we are doing with the meat but this is now the only method to cook roast. So tender and best of all easy!

I found this variation on Sunday dinner on My Sister's Cafe when I was doing my weekly blog check. I found all the seasoning packets in my cupboard yesterday so this was dinner and it was delightful.

I dumped potatoes, carrots and onions in with the meat and thickened the drippings for gravy. It was definitely a do again.

4 Packet Roast
Ingredients:


1 packet ranch dressing mix
1 packet brown gravy mix
1 packet Italian salad dressing mix
1 packet onion soup mix
1 roast of choice
1 cup of water

assorted veggies if desired

Place roast in crockpot. Arrange vegetables around the roast if being used. Sprinkle the mix packets over the roast. Pour water around the roast. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.