Chicken Sausage, Sweet Potato and White bean soup

Last night I kind of made up my own recipe altered from another recipe found here: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/sweet-potato-sausage-kale-soup-10000001591026/

I had sweet potatoes I wanted to use up and it turned out really good with great flavor!

I give this recipe a 5!  Although the kids would rather there weren't sweet potatoes in it so maybe next time we'll do regular potatoes.  The nice thing about this soup is you could use any combination of meats and vegetables and I think it would taste great!  Sorry I forgot to take a picture of it!

Ingredients:

cooking spray (or 1Tbsp oil)
1/2 onion diced
4 cloves garlic minced
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
6 or more fully cooked chicken sausage links (or other meat of your choice)
1 large sweet potato peeled and diced (about 3 cups)
3 (14.5 oz)cans chicken broth
2 cups water (I just filled one of the chicken broth cans up one time)
2 cans white beans (you could also substitute black)
1 cup half and half

Directions:

(If using a different type of meat that needs to be cooked, brown the meat first, drain it and then add onions, garlic, etc.)

Spray your pot with cooking spray (or use 1 Tbsp oil).  Add onion; sauté 5 minutes. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt, crushed red pepper, and garlic; sauté 1 minute.

Add chicken sausage to the pan, cook for 2 minutes to warm it.

Add the potatoes, water and broth and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 8 minutes.
Stir in remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, beans and half and half; cook 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated.