Crockpot French Onion Soup

My husband love, love, loves Applebee's French Onion Soup! So I found a copycat recipe online and combined it with a crockpot recipe I found on Living Insanity's Blog . It turned out very good! I used low sodium beef broth (thats all I had) but then added salt.

Crockpot French Onion Soup

Ingredients:

4 cans beef broth (low sodium)

4 small white onions

1 pack onion soup mix (recommended: Lipton's)

2 t. salt

1 t. pepper

2 t. onion powder

6 slices provolone cheese

3 hamburger buns

parmesan cheese (optional)

1. Combine onions, broth, soup mix, salt, pepper, and onion powder in a slow cooker. Cook on HIGH setting for 4 hours, or LOW setting for 8 hours.

2. To make the croutons, cut off the top part of each top of the hamburger bun so that the bread is the same thickness as the bottom half of each bun. Now you should have 6 round pieces of bread--3 bottoms and 3 tops with the tops cut off.

3. Place the bread directly on the oven racks and bake for 15 to 20 minutes at 325 degrees, or until each pieces is dark brown and crispy. When the soup is done, spoon about 1 cup into an oven safe bowl. Put a crouton on top, and put the provolone cheese on top of the crouton. If you want, sprinkle 1/2 tsp of the shredded parmesan over the provolone.

4. Set oven to high broil and put the bowl into your oven. Broil soup for 5 or 6 minutes, or until cheese is melted and is starting to brown. Before serving add another teaspoon or so of grated parmesan, if desired.