Crock Pot Pizza Soup with Cheesy Garlic Toast.

 Wow! What a stormy past couple of days. Rain...Rain and more Rain! Not to mention all of the thunderstorms....holy cats it was a crazy weather day yesterday. It certainly hasn't been cold...in fact very muggy....temps in the mid to upper 70's.....just wet and sticky. But I just couldn't help myself...I had to make a soup for dinner. It seemed like the perfect day for it.

 I came across this recipe over at www.sweettwistoffate.blogspot.com a few weeks ago and thought it would be perfect for a cozy fall evening.  I remembered it yesterday morning and I had everything I needed plus I thought it would go great with the kickoff to the football season.

The soup was delicious....very versatile...you could add just about any of your favorite pizza toppings.  I made ours pretty basic....because remember I do have to feed the "picky one".  But he loved it!  I made just a few minor changes to the original recipe.....so I was able to use what I had.

For me the best part was the little slices of cheesy garlic toast.....if you lay them across the top of the soup they will soak up some of the broth and become part of the soup.....so yummy.

Trying to do my part in making this a bit more "healthful" I did use turkey pepperoni.  Really I don't know that it is any better for you....but we can try...right.

Crockpot Pizza Soup

 

1/2 a medium size onion, diced small

1 28oz can of crushed tomatoes, with Italian seasoning

1 1/2 cups fresh mushrooms, sliced

4 cups beef broth

1 lb Italian sausage, browned

1 package of slice pepperoni, quartered

slices of French bread

garlic butter

mozzarella cheese

 

1.  Place the diced onion, tomatoes, mushrooms and beef broth into crock pot. 

 

2.  Turn crock pot to low and cook for 5-6 hours

 

3.  45 minutes to an hour before cooking time has ended add the browned sausage and pepperoni.*

 

4.  Before serving place sliced bread in oven at 450 degrees.  Lightly toast. 

 

5.  Remove from oven and brush with melted garlic butter and top with shredded mozzarella cheese.

 

6.  Return to oven and toast until cheese is melted.

 

7.  Ladle soup into bowls and top with toasted bread.

 

*  I actually added my sausage half way through the cooking time....I wanted some of the sausage flavors to enhance to soup flavor.

 

**  Prior to adding the sausage I took my hand held blender and smoothed out the texture a bit....my boys do not care for chunks of tomato or onion. 

 

 

Happy Friday!