Green Bean and Ham Soup, with recipe

Green Bean and Ham Soup

I am drooling just typing this so you know. The recipe is from my favorite cook book Fix it and Forget it Christmas . I originally made this last year- see post HERE. It wasn't quite the smash hit I hoped for, but I ventured away from the real recipe because I didn't have ham stock/bones. 

That MAKES THIS RECIPE. So I don't recommend making this with out some ham bones. 

I think I only adjusted 2 or three things from the original recipe. A pretty exact recipe from Cooks.com can be found here. I went to the Sausage Shoppe down the street for some ham bones. Super cheap ingredient alert. I also used fresh from the garden green beans that I had blanched & frozen last summer. I want to make more. It was a GRAND SLAM this go around. See recipe below. 

Green Beans and Ham Soup

1 or 2 Meaty Ham Bones or 2 cups of Cubed Ham (I used 2 ham bones and 1 pack of cubed ham since I didn't know how much meat the ham bone had on it)
1.5 qts Water                   (I really did use water, but you could probably use Ham stock if you have it)
Onion Powder                                    (or 1 lg onion chopped is what the recipe calls for)
2-3 Cups cut up Green Beans            (mine were frozen from last year's harvest)
3 Large carrots                                 (I probably used more)
2 Large potatoes, peeled and cubed   (or more...I use more)
Corn- I used 1/2 can of corn              (not in original recipe)
Parsley, Salt and Pepper
1 cup of milk or cream                       (I omitted that this time)

Combine all ingredients, except milk/cream, in the crock pot. Cover and cook on High for 4-6 hours. After that time, remove the ham bone, cut off all of the meat and add the meat back to the pot. At this point you can eat OR turn the pot to low, stir in the milk/cream and heat through.