Baked Potato Soup

I love my mom…a lot. She’s quite comical and one of the things I love about her most is her ability to laugh at herself.

My mom is absolutely adorable – she has this petite little frame that a linebacker-shaped female like myself would kill for. She’s 5 feet tall and has the potential to be very stylish. However, she regularly wears clothes from the 80’s that should have been retired decades ago. Literally. She also enjoys wearing my clothes AND my brother’s clothes from years and years ago. Why? I’ll never understand…they are anything but attractive or flattering.

My mom writes in shorthand that only she can make sense of – emails, texts, notes. Proper sentences are something she doesn’t see the reasoning behind using when she can get her point across in far fewer letters. Except, I don’t always get her point. If she’s home, sometimes I’ll get a text that just says, “Ma home.” Um, okay? Do you want me to call you? Are you just letting me know your whereabouts? Sometimes she’ll forget a verb or a noun that lends itself to verbage I can make no sense of all together. Gotta love her.

Mom Prevention is also…technologically challenged. She thinks she wants a smart phone, but I know she’d be completely overwhelmed by the touch screen, the options, the apps…everything. She’s also STILL trying to figure out Facebook. She had organized all of her friends into “family”, “acquaintances”, etc. and then when she couldn’t see people’s updates on her news feed, couldn’t figure out why.

She also can’t seem to grasp who she’s commenting to on Facebook.  The hospital where I work, she “likes” on Facebook. Therefore, their posts show up on her newsfeed. Well, last week, the hospital posted about a class being offered on how to “retrain” your brain about eating and said that the class would be at 9am that day. My mom posted, “Ma would like to attend but more notice needed. XOXO.” Someone posted back, “this was rescheduled for the 18^th” and another person said, “…Now maybe Janice (Ma) will be able to make it!” Mom thought she had posted her comment on MY wall and was confused when email updates started coming in the with the responses. Gotta love her. And I’m so glad the hospital only knows me as my married name!

My mom would love this recipe…she loves soup. What’s not to love about creamy potato soup? But she would argue that baking the potatoes before even starting on the soup takes too long. I use that hour of potato baking as my workout time after work. However, you could also cook the potatoes in the slow cooker while at work. Just wrap them individually in foil and set the slow cooker to low, cooking them for 7-9 hours. See ma, I’m always looking out for shortcuts for you!

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Baked Potato Soup originally adapted from Cooking Light and Two Peas and Their Pod, as seen on and adapted from Southern Pink Lemonade

5 medium russet potatoes
2/3 cup flour
6 cups 1% milk
3/4 cup 2% cheddar cheese, shredded
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt
5 green onions, chopped

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Line a cookie sheet or large pan with aluminum foil or parchment paper. Pierce potatoes with a knife or fork several times each and arrange on baking sheet. Bake for 45-60 minutes or until tender. After potatoes have cooled, peel and place them in a medium sized bowl. Coarsely mash potatoes and set aside.

In a large soup pot, add the flour. Over medium heat, slowly whisk in milk until smooth. While whisking often, cook over medium heat until thick, about 8 minutes. Add potatoes, cheese, salt, and pepper. Stir until cheese is melted.

Stir in yogurt and green onions and cook on low until soup is heated through (do not boil).

Yield: 6 servings (1 1/2 cups each)

Nutrition Information (per serving): 267 calories; 5.5 g. fat; 20 mg. cholesterol; 633 mg. sodium; 39.0 g. carbohydrate; 2.2 g. fiber; 17.3 g. protein

Result: Hearty, filling, and decadent like potato soup should be…without the guilt or heavy feeling. You can jazz this up with additional toppings such as bacon and cheese – I highly recommend a bit of each! As mentioned above, you can make the potatoes in the crock pot or even use leftover baked potatoes. The rest is easy peasy. Enjoy!

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 I have a hot date with my cookbook today…lots to do! My table of contents is due tomorrow…ah!

Be well,