When you come across a recipe and see that it has every thing you have on hand...you get totally excited. As so did I. Having said that. I was not thrilled about the over all taste or the mushy look to the end result. And I can tell you it was very bland. Blame the overcooked potatoes in the directions. There is no seasoning & the ingredients in the cooking process that need to be rearranged. Confused? Here's what I see to what happened in my batch. I followed exactly to a T & especially to the directions. The directions literally over cooks the ingredients. The potatoes were so mushy & tasted watered down. The noodles were way to tender. The rice was overly mushy as well as split in half. The ham was the only thing that had kept the flavor all the way through. I had to doctor it up to be edible for my family. When adding spices to correct the water downed taste from the potatoes, the back flavor still didn't have any flavor even though you could taste the seasonings. There totally needs to be herbs and spices in the beginning process when cooking the meat with the water. The potatoes need to be added after the 20 minute simmering process. Noodles & rice needs to be added on the last 30 minutes, not an 1 & 1/2 prior. I would either omit the rice or omit the noodles but not have both. This recipe is a tweaking recipe. As is, I'm sorry is not great at all.

As with any recipe I add or delete ingredients. This was very good with a bit of garlic and oregano added. I used navy beans and cooked it a lot longer than called for because of the beans. I added oregano and garlic with a few green beans. Came out wonderful.

I put the ham bone and extra ham on high in a big crockpot filled with non-fat chicken soup stock. Scraped off the grease that formed on the top. Added carrots, potatoes, celery (skipped frozen vegetables) about 2 or so hrs before done. Added rice 20 minutes before as someone suggested. I would skip the macaroni next time and add more rice as macaroni gets mushy in storage. MOST IMPORTANT CHANGE IS TO ADD 2 (11.5 OZ.) OF SPICY V8 JUICE. THis makes it a 5 star in my book.

I followed the advice of others. I added garlic, salt, pepper and parsley. I omitted the macaroni and used only rice. I added rice 35 min. before end of cook time and cooked soup for a total 1 hr. 15 min. We thought it was delicious with these changes.

This recipe needs seasonings and I found that it was just too mushy with not enough ham in it. Macaroni, rice and potatoes is too much starch and carbs for our taste.

This was an okay recipe with some tweeking. I thought the ham would have given it more of a salty flavor,but didn't. . . I did add the seasonings suggested by other reviewers, and I used fresh vegetables instead of frozen. . . Once spooned out in bowls I added a ton of pepper and cheese as a topper which made it better. I also omitted the pasta and just did cooked rice. I just thought it didn't need more carbs in it with the potatoes as well. Also for my family of 4 (two kids 6 and 3) it made WAY TOO MUCH. I think I would have been happier using my ham bone with a white bean soup recipe.

Followed the recipe exactly, no changes made. Felt it needed something else. I have other recipes for soup that uses a ham bone which I would choose over this one. It isn't bad, but it just isn't a keeper for me. My husband did say it tasted better than he thought it was going to. I kept my opinion to myself until after he had a bowl. I was hoping it would have more flavor but just didn't do it for me. Sorry.

Good, very thick. Would add more liquid the next time.

Delicious. The cooking time was weird though. My pasta and veggies came out mushy, plus the potatoes were completely gone (melted away). I suggest this cook time instead. Boil, then simmer ham bone med- low - 1 hr Add potatoes - 30 min Add all other ingredients except tomato sauce - 30 min For flavor, I added garlic & onion powder & boullion cubes

Yummy! I added the rice and noodle later .