February 24, 2014

Easy Cheeseburger Soup Recipe | Off the Beaten Path

Martie Food and Recipes easy cheeseburger soup recipe, quick beef stew recipe, week day cooking 3 Comments

Jump to recipe

Easy Cheeseburger Soup Recipe | Off the Beaten Path

When you have a week that is jam-packed with activities and there isn’t much time for cooking, you will love this easy cheeseburger soup recipe…especially on a chilly day! We have one of those weeks on the books, and I’m always so pleased with myself when I do a little planning ahead. The delicious cheeseburger soup is the star of this post, but I’ll share a few tips for some other dinner ideas, as well. Doing your week day cooking a little ahead is a huge favor to yourself, trust me!

Off The Beaten Path…Hunter’s Safety Course

The past week in the salon was super busy! I love weeks like that, for a number of obvious reasons, not the least of which is the kind of tired I feel. It’s a great tired, the kind of tired that makes you feel accomplished and worthy of some rest. My body is a little fatigued, sure, but nothing a hot soak in the tub won’t fix. My mind is at peace, the bills are paid, and the improved weather promises more weeks of this variety ahead.

We will be getting colder again this week, but we’ve had a taste of spring here in the Deep South, and it tastes mighty fine. My kids even look more alive lately, and they have things to look forward to. We have Girl Scout Cookie time behind us, and we have our summer stash of Thin Mints in the freezer. This week, we will be super busy on the home front, because Pooh is signed up for a hunter’s safety course beginning tonight and ending on Saturday. She is beyond excited about it, and I truly hope the excitement will carry her through four three-hour nights and a Saturday morning (no Wednesday night meeting…this is the Bible belt, after all).

In light of this, and the fact that I am scheduled to work late a few nights this week, I’m spending some time cooking today so Coach and Pooh can have a hot meal each night of this cold week before they head out for the class. I would also like to get some emails answered and make some phone calls. My “to do” list is a mile long, but I have to make sure we get to eat!

Yummy Cheeseburger Soup

I’m making a family favorite, cheeseburger soup. We all love this hearty soup, and it’s really more like a quick beef stew recipe that uses ground beef instead of chuck roast, and the addition of cheese makes it twice as yummy.

I’ve seen recipes for something similar on Pinterest, but not one like my version, which I concocted a few years ago out of what we had in the kitchen. It’s so filling and warm, and it seems to get better each day…it usually only lasts us for one supper and a couple of servings for lunches the next day.

As you can see, I do take a few little shortcuts with this yummy soup, like frozen vegetables. I especially love frozen hash brown potatoes, or even my famous chicken pot pie, because peeling and dicing potatoes is no joke! As long as you don’t overcook them, the frozen hashbrowns work beautifully in soups and stews, and no one is ever the wiser!

 

This is just the basic recipe, and the way I made it on this particular day. You could use frozen mixed vegetables, or you could use 4 ounces of diced Velveeta in place of the Cheez whiz. Today, I’m using a Cheez Whiz-type substance, because the store brand was cheaper.  Also, I’m using tomatoes that were grown in my Father-in Law’s garden, and canned by my Mother-In-Law, so my stew is going to be extra, extra delicious this time.

I only had one can of beef broth, so I added a couple tablespoons of Watkins Onion Soup Base and about three cans of water.  I love Watkins Soup Bases; they are all so good!  I had chicken and onion, so I went for the onion.

FYI, this is exactly how I make my chicken stew, except I use cooked chicken and chicken broth (usually from cooking my chicken) in place of ground chuck and beef broth.

Other kitchen tips

We’re having tacos one night, because it’s quick and easy, and, Coach has no trouble preparing it. I bought just over three pounds of ground chuck, so some will be tacos and some will be cheeseburger stew.

I will brown it all up today, and season about a third of the meat for tacos.

Have you every tried adding a can of chopped green chiles to your ground beef and seasoning? Your tacos will be so good,  I promise!  I shopped at a discount grocery store this week, so I couldn’t find chopped green chiles.  I’m trying this here stuff instead…I’ll let you know how it turns out.

As an extra treat, I’m making some brownies and some fruit and yogurt parfaits.  I searched  for a homemade granola recipe last night, and I ended up combining several recipes.

I found some cute little bitty grapes, see?

I love making my easy cheeseburger soup recipe, and it’s so easy that I don’t mind working on a few other meals, as well. Sometimes its fun to have a cooking day. It does bring some other issues to my attention, though. This looks pretty good,

but I really need to address the next-door-neighbor.

What a disaster!
I know we will all have a better week because I planned ahead, and made some meals in advance. There is nothing I hate worse than coming home from work at 7:00 at night and having absolutely no idea what we are having for supper, so, fun or not, this is worth it. I highly recommend this easy cheeseburger soup recipe, and I hope you’ll try it out! Please come back and let me know what you think!

Happy Monday!

X,O,X,O Martie