Crock-pot Cheeseburger Soup

This past weekend, we had the opportunity to celebrate my Grandma's 80th birthday with our extended family.  My mom's family lives in Canada, so we made the trip to visit everyone.  It's about an 8 hour drive ...depending on how much of a lead foot your husband has and how long the baby wants to nurse for.  The trip went really well, we stopped every couple hours to feed Summer and it worked well because I felt like our stops made the trip not feel like it was so long.  Summer traveled well and only cried during the last 30 minutes of the trip when we were in stop & go traffic around Toronto.

My Grandma was so excited to meet her great-grand-daughter! She had balloons and a sign that read Welcome to my little sweetheart Summer Joy!  Of course, as soon as we walked into the door she took Summer out of my arms.  It took her a few minutes before she said hi to Mike and I.  It was so precious to see Grandma's excitement over meeting Summer.

On Saturday, we had an open house and then a family dinner to celebrate.  Grandma should have been the star of the show, but I think Summer was, and Grandma didn't mind a bit!  Summer got passed around and met about a hundred people, she was mostly smiles the whole time!  Mike and I had to come home on Sunday so we could go back to work today, but the celebration in Canada goes through today!  They sure know how to party!

Over the weekend, the weather took a drastic change.  It definitely feels like Fall is here to stay now!  These Cheeseburger Soup is my new favorite fall food.  It was so easy to make, I just put the ingredients into the Crock-pot before work one day.  Then when Mike got home, he added the Velveeta cheese.

I used an entire bag of shredded potatoes, so I thought that it needed more liquid so I added extra chicken broth.  I think that addition made the soup a little less thick than the original recipe.  However, I really enjoyed the soup's texture this way.  This recipe made about 8 servings, so Mike and I had plenty of soup for leftovers.  It heated up well and we enjoyed a few more delicious lunches!

Crock-pot Cheeseburger Soup 

Serves 8

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef, cooked and drained
1 pound bacon, cooked and crumbled
2 pounds (1 bag) shredded hash browns
64 ounces (2 boxes) chicken broth
2 pounds (1 box) Velveeta cheese, cubed

1.  Put ground beef, crumbled bacon, shredded hash browns, and chicken broth into your Crock-pot.

2.  Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

3.  About 30 minutes before serving, add cubed Velveeta cheese to the soup and stir.  The cheese will melt on its own.

4.  Cover the Crock-pot again and cook about 30 more minutes.  Stir before serving.

Source: Well Cooked (original source site unavailable)