Loaded “Light” Baked Potato Soup (yeah right)

Ingredients:

- 5 large red potatoes
- Olive Oil for sauteing onions + frying bacon
- 1/2 chopped onion
- 1 1/4 cup Chicken Broth
- 3 tbs flour
- 2 cups lowfat milk
- large scoop of light sour cream (apprx 1/4 cup)
- as much salt and pepper as you can sprinkle on this beast
- 3 slices of thick-cut, peppered bacon
- shredded sharp cheddar cheese (also as much as you can fit)
- diced green onions (or scallions for you fancy folk)
- 2 tbs butter

Directions:

1. Rinse and scrub potatoes. Poke holes all over with a fork and then place in microwave for 13 minutes. When done, set aside.

2. Heat up a large skillet with the olive oil. Toss in diced up onions and let simmer. After about 3 minutes, add in the chicken broth.

3. In a small bowl, combine flour and 1/2 cup of milk. Stir mixture together and then add into a large pot, along with 2 cups of milk. Keep this mixture on medium heat for a few minutes.

4. Add onions and chicken broth into the milk/flour mixture.

5. Add large scoop of sour cream to the pot and reduce heat to low. Continue to stir. I had problems with it not thickening so I turned the heat up slightly and put a lid on it to let it simmer.

6. Now you want to begin frying your bacon on high heat.

7. While the bacon is frying, cut your potatoes in half and scoop the insides out of the skins (I know, easier said than done).

8. I used a large knife to roughly chop up/mash the potatoes into my desired consistency for the soup. Once mashed, add in to the soup mixture. Also, just for giggles, I added in 2 tbs of butter.

9. Prepare the green onions, crumble the bacon, set out the cheese.

10. I let it simmer for about 15 minutes and then served it like you can see in the picture above!

Side notes: This was a rather scattered recipe and I didn’t know if it was going to all come together in the end but it was actually really delicious. Once I fixed my bowl, I did add in more s&p.