recipe: Cooking Light's cheesy potato soup

via 

Another new recipe in our household, this one was OK, although after a few tweaks, I think next time it will be a real crowd pleaser. Crowd. As in, Mike and I.  Barkley joins us at the table, however she is only interested in stealing my napkin, not actually eating any human food, but I guess to make to feel like a crowd, we'll include Barkley.  Because as the saying goes, "Three's a crowd."

Case and point...

Married Couple + dog = crowd

crowd + doctored up potato soup = crowd pleased

And that, my friends, is your math lesson for the day. 

Now on to dinner:

Cheesy Potato Soup - Cooking Light, January 2012 issue

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 2 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3 cups chopped red potato (about 1 pound)
• 1 1/4 cups 1% low-fat milk
• 3/4 cup fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese
• 1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper  (I like it hot, so I added about a palmful or so of crushed red pepper flakes (to be honest, I don't know what ground red pepper is), which to me, is about a tablespoon
• 2 tablespoons chopped green onions
• AnnE's addition: Spicy chicken sausage - we have a stock pile (OK, so we have 2 packages, but for this crowd, that is a stock pile) of it in the freezer, so to add a bit more spice and extra umph (and by umph I mean another food group) to the meal, I would add a few links of cooked chicken sausage cut up into bite size pieces.

Preparation

1. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion to pan; sauté 5 minutes or until onion is tender. Sprinkle with flour; cook 1 minute, stirring onion mixture constantly. Add potato, milk, broth, and 1/2 cup water to pan; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes. Add 1/2 cup reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese and ground red pepper; cook 2 minutes or until cheese melts, stirring frequently. Top each serving evenly with 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped green onions.
2. AnnE's additional step: Cook the chicken sausage how your package suggests and add to the soup. 

Vanessa Pruett, Cooking Light
JANUARY 2012