No Soup for You!

I don't like soup.

 I have never liked soup.
I always associate it with being sick (I think I must have been forcibly fed Chicken Noodle Soup as a small child or something.)
So the fact that there are a lot of freezer cooking meals that are soup originally posed a problem for me. Because I don't like soup.

I knew that there were a lot of benefits to soup:
1. It contains a lot of vegetables and usually in small pieces so that you can sneak it into your children.
2. Its a one dish meal, possibly served with a roll.
3. Because soups are usually frozen completely cooked, they are very quick to prepare if you are arriving home late or leaving early for the previously mentioned soccer practice at 6.
4. Its cheap to make and goes a long way.
But I don't like soup.

I decided to try it, steering as far away from Chicken Noodle Soup as I could.
I started with 3 bags of dry lentils and some ham.
Following a very simple recipe, I came away with a very large pot of lentil soup. I sure hoped I liked it, because there was a lot of it.
How could you not like it? It was made with fresh ingredients, there were no ingredients that sounded like a science experiment (polysalasoluaminate), there was not a day's worth of sodium in each bowl, there was not funky metallic taste from coming from a can.
It was good.

My soup making has branched a good distance from there.
There is the Spicy Italian Sausage with Cheese Tortellini. (Its good, but its not good for you.)
There is the Split Pea with Ham. (That one is really good for you.)
There is the Buffalo Chicken Soup that is so good I gave it for a gift to my boss at Christmas.
And, by the way, I make a really good Chicken Noodle Soup.

Buffalo Chicken Soup (this one ain't cheap.)
This will make 3-4 gallon bags of soup.
3 Deli chicken or 6 pounds of cooked chicken
6 Tablespoons of Butter
1 1/2 cup chopped celery
1 1/2 cup chopped onion
90 ounces chicken broth
4 1/2 cup milk
3 Teaspoon Salt
4 1/2 Teaspoon Hot Sauce
4 1/2 Cup Mozzarella Cheese
20 ounces bleu cheese
1 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 cup of flour

Directions
Debone the chicken or chop it up.
Melt butter in stockpot.
Brown onion and celery.
Add the broth, milk, salt and hot sauce.
In a mixing bowl, mix the cheeses and flour. (This keeps the cheeses from clumping together. I have skipped this step. DO NOT DO THAT!)
Add cheese gradually to the soup, stirring it in and letting it melt as you go.
Stir in the chicken.
Cool and freeze.
Or if you are a normal cook and don't freeze everything as you cook, heat through and serve.