Slow Cooker Fall Harvest Sweet Potato Soup

This recipe came about because of a dying refrigerator. We had some things in it that weren't bad yet, but they needed to be used! I didn't think to take pictures of it until after I had it all cooking so there's no pics of the ingredients prior to being chopped up, or during the chopping process. Sorry!

This was made in the slow cooker because it requires less watching. And since I'm super duper busy these days that is ideal! Plus, if you do all the prep-work ahead of time you could easily have this all in a freezer bag, pull it out to defrost it, and cook it while you are at work or running errands.

Ingredients**:
3 medium-large sweet potatoes
3 medium carrots
7 stalks celery
1 1/2 medium onions
2 15oz cans pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling with spices in it - just pumpkin)
Rosemary
Cinnamon
Garlic powder
OPTIONAL:
one of the following: almond milk, milk, half and half, heavy whipping cream, sour cream, plain yogurt, or greek yogurt.

Wash the veggies as needed. Peel the sweet potatoes and carrots. Chop up the carrots into 1/4" rounds. Cut up the sweet potatoes into 1/2" rounds and then cut into quarters. Cut up the celery stalks into 1/4" moons (That's what my 3yr old calls them...you know...since they aren't completely round!) Dice up the onions.
Put all ingredients into the slow cooker and turn it on. Turn it on high if you want it to cook for about 5 hours, or low if you want it to cook for about 7 or 8 hours. (I actually turn on my slow cooker and add the veggies as I chop them up so they start to cook as I'm still chopping!)
Add the two cans of pumpkin. Use the cans to add hot water to the mixture. Add approximately 3 cans worth of hot water to the mixture. I say approximately because you want there to be enough water that everything can cook but not so much that it's already sloppy and soupy.
Add approximately 1tsp rosemary, 1tsp cinnamon, 2tsp garlic powder. I just sprinkle it all on top until it looks and smells yummy so I don't know exact amounts!
Let cook! If you are able to, stir it every once in a while. If not, it will eventually all cook nicely.
When everything is done cooking either use a hand-held blender to blend inside the slow cooker itself, OR transfer it to a standing blender and blend up in there then transfer to bowls. Blend to the point of a chunky soup or blend all the way to a puree if you would like! Once it is in a bowl add a dollop/splash of one of the following if you would like: almond milk, milk, half and half, heavy whipping cream, sour cream, plain yogurt, or greek yogurt.

**You can adjust the ingredients to what you have on hand or to taste. I only used so much celery since it's what we had and it needed to get used up. If I were to make it again I would likely add a couple more carrots and use a couple few celery stalks. Also, I don't have any on hand, but I would add some nutmeg if I had thought about this ahead of time and knew I was going to make it...and knew that I was out of nutmeg!