Cheesy Potato Soup

This is a perfect soup for the cooler days that are coming up. I love making a big batch of this on Football Sunday and eating it for lunch and dinner. I make mine vegetarian, but it'd also be good with some ham or bacon in it!! GO PACK GO!!

Ingredients:
* 2 T Butter
* 2 T Olive Oil
* 1 small sweet onion- chopped
* 2 leeks- cut in 1/2 rounds only using white and light green parts
* 3 large carrots- diced
* 2-3 fresh garlic cloves- minced (Or garlic powder would do too)
* Seasonings (Kosher salt, Black pepper, nature seasonings)
* 10 potatoes (around 5-6 lbs) I used half red potatoes and half golden-Take most skin off. Diced
* 32 oz box of chicken STOCK (I used Kitchen Basic brand)
* 1 bouillon cute (I have the granules so I used 1 T)
* 1/2-1 cup water (enough so all potatoes are covered with liquid)
* 2-4 oz velveeta cheese- diced (more or less depending on how cheesy you like it)
* 1-2 cups of half n half

Other Optional ingredients:
*1 T flour plus 1 T melted butter if needs thickening
*Crusty bread (Sour dough round cut into chunks)
*Shredded cheddar cheese for topping soup
*green onion diced for topping
*any other toppings you like on a baked potato would go good!

1. Use a large stock pot.  Put the oil and butter in the bottom of pan on medium heat. Add onions, carrots and leeks. Cook on medium till onions are translucent (around 10-15 minutes).  
2. Add some seasonings (I used lots of pepper and nature seasonings and a little salt.. you can always add more later). And add your garlic or garlic powder. Stir well.
3. Add diced potatoes, chicken stock, bouillon and stir well. Add your water till it covers the potatoes completely. Cook on medium uncovered for about 20 minutes. Stir well and cover and continue simmering for another 20-30 minutes until potatoes are fork tender (not mushy).
4. Take half the soup (veggies and broth) out and put in blender. (Or if you have a hand blender like me, i just put half the soup into a bowl and use my hand blender to mix well.). Blend well and pour the blended mixture back into the soup. Mix well.
5. If you like your soup a little thicker you can melt some butter and mix with flour. Add a little at a time of this mixture until it reaches the consistency you want. (I only used 1/2 of the mixture I made)
6. Add your diced up velveeta cheese and mix. Cook on medium stirring every so often until cheese has completely melted and mixed into the soup.
7. Add your cream. The amount you use depends on how creamy you like your soup. I used about a cups worth. 
8. Serve in a bowl (or a bread bowl would be yummy!). Top with shredded cheese and any other toppings that sound good to you! Enjoy!

Not a great picture, but here I'm sauteing all my veggies. 

Adding my diced potatoes

I didn't get great pictures on making it this time around. Here is after I added the blended portion back to soup and just added the velveeta. 

Add your favorite toppings and serve with some crusty bread. DeLISH!