Ham and Bean Soup in the Crock Pot

It was a weekend that featured ham at our house. On Saturday, my husband cooked a ham and we had a lovely ham dinner. On Sunday morning, I got up and put a bunch of things in the crock pot, and made ham and bean soup. Here were my ingredients:

diced ham, about two cups
three potatoes, cubed
one half onion, diced
three carrots, diced
one can navy beans with the juice drained off
one can bean with uncured bacon soup
one container leftover ham gravy, maybe half a cup
one chicken bouillon cube, dissolved in 3 cups water (I used to put in 3 cubes, but this time, I looked at how much sodium was in each one, and I decided to use just the one instead of 3; believe me, we never missed the other 2)

I put everything in the crock pot at 9:30 a.m. and turned it on high, and my husband was hopeful we might have ham and bean soup for lunch. But no way was it ready at that time; the veggies were still way too crisp. Eventually, he gave up on waiting and ate a sandwich in despair.

Around 2:30 p.m., I turned off the crock pot. Around 3 p.m., it was ready to eat. About an hour later, it was cool enough to start putting it into containers for storage. It fit exactly in six identical containers. I froze two and put four in the fridge.

The best part was later in the evening, when I had another little serving, and it seemed so cozy. Ham and bean soup in my favorite Campbell's soup serving mug, topped with melted cheddar, a sprinkle of parmesan, and several delightful fancy garlic-butter croutons. Oh, NOM!

The song to accompany this soup blip is about how long it took to make this soup. (But hey, it's always worth it; right?) Here is Linda Ronstadt, with Long, Long Time.