A new variety of potato soup

Yesterday wasn't freezing cold and a day that really called for soup, but I've been wanting to try a new recipe for potato soup that a friend gave me for a couple weeks and haven't had a chance. Yesterday seemed like the perfect day.

Creamy Potato & Ham Soup

1 bag (26 oz.) shredded hash browns
1 cup chopped ham
1/4 cup chopped onions
1 cup frozen french style green beans
1 cup ham juices/gravy
2 tablespoons butter
2-3 cups milk
2-3 tablespoons flour

Put the hash browns, ham, onions and green beans in a crockpot. Melt butter and stir into ham juices; pour in crockpot. Mix in flour to slightly thicken milk and pour in crockpot. There needs to be enough milk to cover contents in crockpot. Let simmer for 2-3 hours.. May need to salt and pepper to taste.

It's easy to make by pulling the hash browns, green beans and ham from the freezer. You could also use canned green beans in place of frozen. Since I chop and freeze onions in large quantities, that wasn't difficult either. And I had saved the leftover ham drippings from last week when I cooked a ham, so that worked perfectly.

The ham adds lots of flavor to it and the green beans make it different than just plain potato soup. I usually am leery of using leftover ham dripping in anything mainly because ham has so much salt in it. But the potatoes counteract the salt in the soup and I even had to add a little additional salt.

We all loved it! This recipe is definitely a keeper! :)