Favorite Recipes - Soups! Edition

I spend a not insignificant amount of time looking at recipes online. Brandon likes to tease me for this, but I don't hear him complain too much around meal time.  I have a pretty good system for storing and cataloging all these recipes, but it has gotten out of hand lately.  I recently spent some time reorganizing and cleaning out the clutter. My recipes are now neatly categorized and easily searchable by ingredient, occasion/meal, even cooking method, in some instances (for those days you just want to throw something in the crock pot). There are sub-categories, separate tags for favorites and recipes we have not tried yet, and you can cross-search any combination of these things :)

In addition to online recipe searching (and organization!), another love of mine is bringing people and information together. When I studied social work, we called this 'brokering'. I love it so much I probably err on the side of over-sharing about products, events, deals and travel tips - even when unsolicited. I think that maybe I value a personal recommendation so much, I figure other people must, too :)

With all that in mind, I am going to start a little series here sharing some of my favorite recipes that have been big successes at our house.  I'm always on the lookout for new recipes to keep things interesting at mealtime - maybe you are too!  First up, since the weather is turning decidedly 'Fall' around here - some of my favorite soups! Nothing better on a cool Fall evening than a warm, hearty bowl of soup. Click on the blue link to go to the original recipe.

• The Recipe: Zuppa Toscana Soup (Olive Garden Copycat Recipe) - Tasty Kitchen
• A broth soup with bacon, sausage, potatoes, onions and greens
• The Revision: We have made this with potatoes (as written) and with cauliflower (low carb suggestion) - and you really can't tell much difference! Also, I always make it with swiss chard because I don't like kale.
• The Rave: We first had this soup at Olive Garden and loved it, so when I saw a copycat recipe, I decided to give it a try. It is pretty close to the real thing! This soup is broth-based, and therefore, not too heavy.  But the addition of a little cream at the end still makes it feel a little decadent. This soup comes together pretty easily and is a favorite in our house.

• The Recipe: Baked Potato Soup - Mama Loves Food
• A creamy potato soup without any heavy cream! And you cook it in the crock pot - bonus!
• The Revision: The only change I make to the recipe is to scale it back a bit - as written, it doesn't fit in my 5 quart crock pot. Even scaled back a bit, it still makes a ton! Also, before I had an immersion blender, I used the remove-soup-and-blend method; now I use my immersion blender in the crock pot. Either works fine.
• The Rave: This soup is GOOD. It does not pack a big nutritional punch, since there's not much to it besides potatoes and chicken broth, but boy is it yummy. And easy on the budget. It is good to throw in the rotation every other month or so to stretch your grocery budget. For instance, this week at Hy-Vee you can get 5lbs of potatoes for $0.98! Also a good recipe if you need to feed a crowd. Or you can make a batch and freeze half (or deliver to a friend in need of a little pick-me-up).

• The Recipe: Spaghetti and Meatball Soup - Iowa Girl Eats
• Exactly what it sounds like - spaghetti and meatballs in soup form! (With some extra veggies hidden in the soup)
• The Revision: Okay, one of my pet peeves when reading online recipes is when someone comments under a recipe with some helpful comment like: "Awesome recipe! Loved it!! I did exactly what the recipe said, except [I changed every single thing about the recipe]!!!!" How is that helpful? How is that relevant? Well...I'm going to do that. We like this recipe, but I wanted to make it a little more Paleo. So, I substitute extra carrots and zucchini for the spaghetti noodles and use ground beef in place of the meatballs (most meatballs contain bread crumbs). Other than those two things, I follow the recipe, though :)  But I think it sounds awesome as written, especially for kids!
• The Rave: This is another easy recipe (seems to be a theme for soups). It's a good way to work in a lot of veggies (carrots, zucchini, onions, and tomatoes in the marinara) without feeling like you are eating a lot of veggies. And, if you actually use the mini meatballs - how cute!!  It has the familiar taste of spaghetti and meatballs, but with a unique twist. This would be perfect with a side of buttery garlic bread...but that wouldn't be very Paleo.

Happy cooking :)