Cheeseburger Soup!!

Okay, so today was our first cheat day on our new diet plan, which by the way, is simply: eat healthier foods in smaller portions.

Anyway, today I made Cheeseburger Soup, from the show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. Ever since Erich and I saw that episode we've been wanting to try this.

I followed the recipe from the show pretty closely, but I added some touches of my own that made this soup taste much more like an actual cheeseburger rather than a plain ol' hamburger.

I did still try to make this as healthy as possible, although that was pretty difficult. I'll explain the steps in a second, but be warned, you will think you are drinking a cheeseburger when you eat this stuff, it's amazing!

Sarah's version of Grover's 'Cheeseburger Soup'

1 lb. 96% lean ground beef
Salt and pepper to taste
1 medium onion, diced
1/2 Tbs. butter
16 oz. low-sodium chicken broth
1 15 oz. jar cheese whiz
1/2 pint (1 cup) fat-free half and half
1 Tbs. flour
1 Tbs. water
1 large tomato, diced
1/2 head iceberg lettuce, roughly chopped

These are my additions to make it taste more like a cheeseburger:
4 Tbs. dill pickle juice (or you could dice up a couple large dill pickles)
1-2 Tbs. Heinz yellow mustard (more or less to your taste)

Alrighty, first you want to brown your ground beef, season it with salt and pepper and set it aside.
Melt the butter in a large soup pot and saute the onions until translucent. Add the broth, cheese whiz, and half and half to the pot and cook over medium heat until the cheese has all melted. Don't let the mixture boil yet.
Make a slurry out of the Tbs of water and the Tbs of flour and add that to the soup. Bring the soup to a boil and then add the ground beef.
Reduce the heat to medium low and add the tomato, lettuce, pickle juice and mustard. Serve immediately.


My hubby just about went nuts over this recipe. It tasted so much like a cheeseburger without a bun it was almost creepy. I just wish it was healthier, because I'd make it more often then... :(
But you definitely must try this stuff once, because if you like cheeseburgers, this soup will make you very happy.


Side note: I probably won't be updating this blog more that twice a week, though I will try to write as often as possible, but what with the holiday season fast approaching, (made worse by the fact that I work for the USPS) things have gotten kind of busy of late. But don't worry, I'm not disappearing entirely!