Cream Cheese Chicken and Vegetable Soup

First off, sorry I've been MIA for the past week.  Between starting a new job, keeping up with the old job, and the Thanksgiving holiday, last week was a cuh-razy week.  I'll do my best to get back on track this week.

Second, have you all noticed how much I love this website?  One of my dearest girlfriends told me about it a couple of months ago and I sure am glad!  It is chuck full of awesome recipes.  I've pulled a lot of my recipes from there lately and have loved every single one.  She has a lot of great soup and bread recipes I've fallen completely in love with!

I pulled this delicious soup recipe off of her website a couple of weeks ago and was holding out for the day we got some of the makings . . and then we had couple of weeks of potatoes and celery so it worked out perfect!  It was so good and so easy I just might make it again this week.  We still have lots of potatoes and celery left!

Cream Cheese Chicken and Vegetable Soup

 *Note: this recipe calls for already cooked chicken. I usually cook the chicken breasts in the crockpot with a little chicken broth the morning I make this soup, but you could also go ahead and cook the chicken in the first step with the onions and other vegetables that cook together.

 *Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter (I think next time I'll use olive oil...much healthier!)
1 yellow onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 stalks celery, diced (I used 3 stalks)
1/2 cup diced carrots (I used 3 big carrots, which was a little more than 3/4 cups carrots)
3 cups chicken broth
2-3 potatoes, peeled and finely diced (I used red potatoes and left the peels on them)
1 cup milk (Mel says 1% is her milk of choice, but I used skim and it worked great)
4 tablespoons flour
1 (8 oz. package) regular or light cream cheese (I used light and it was perfect!)
2-3 (about 1 pound) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and diced

Directions:

In a large pot, melt the butter and add the onion, garlic, celery and carrots. Saute, stirring often, for 3-4 minutes, until the veggies are slightly tender and the onions are translucent. Add the chicken broth and potatoes. Bring the soup to a simmer and cook, partially covered, until the potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes. In a liquid measuring cup, vigorously whisk the flour and milk together until smooth. Whisk the mixture into the soup, stirring quickly, and cook over medium heat for 3-4 minutes, until the soup begins to thicken slightly. Stir often to ensure the soup doesn’t burn. Soften the cream cheese in the microwave until it is very soft/melty. I usually place the unwrapped cream cheese on a plate and microwave it for one minute at 30% power. I like it really, really soft so it doesn’t leave lumps in the soup. Add the cream cheese to the soup in small tablespoon-size pieces. Let the pieces sit in the soup and warm through then whisk or stir the soup until the cream cheese melts and mixes in well. Add the cooked chicken and heat through. Season with salt and pepper. Serve.