Split Pea Soup

I make this recipe all the time. Split pea soup has a bad reputation for some reason, but honestly this soup is one of Stephen and I's favorite meals. Stephen begs me to make it for him when I haven't for a while, I kid you not. It"s SO good for you, SO cheap, SO easy to throw together and SOO good. I've looked at lots of different recipes for it and kind of combined them to come up with this recipe. But I change it up all the time, putting different amounts of everything, and it always turns out great.

I'm counting calories right now so I measured everything out this last time I cooked it, totaled up the calories, and divided by the amount of cups it makes. If you follow this recipe exactly, it's 192 calories per cup -- really filling for not that many calories!

This makes A LOT of soup - almost 15 cups of soup - so beware. We like to make it and eat it for lunch for a few days. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

12 cups water (use more or less depending on whether or like thick or thin pea soup)
8 chicken bouillon cubes
3 cups dry split peas
3 cups chopped ham
ham bone (I don't always have one to throw in. Works fine without it)
2 cups chopped carrots
1 1/4 cup chopped celery
1 1/2 cups onion
Dried thyme to taste
3 bay leaves
Crushed black peppercorns (not necessary if you don't have these on hand but they are SO good!)

Just throw everything into a big pot, bring to a boil, then turn down the heat to a simmer until the peas are a consistency you like. I like it when the peas are totally mushy - takes about an hour I think.

Serve with homemade wheat bread. Yummmm!