"Cream" of Broccoli Soup

This soup was plain but tasty, and very similar to a lot of other green soups I make for the kiddos. they gobbled it up and asked for more. It makes a very nice compliment to a sandwich on a cold day. It's souper simple (hehe sorry), and requires few ingredients. It gets most of it's creamy texture from potatoes. You can use 1/2 cup of any sort of milk I suppose, whatever tickles your fancy or doesn't happen to turn members of your family into an anaphylaxis mess. :)

4 cups cooked broccoli florets

4 baked potatoes with skins removed.

1/2 cup milk (I used rice)

Veggie stock to desired consistency

Salt, pepper, seasoning salt to taste

Put the broccoli, potatoes and milk into your food processor and blend, add stock and blend until desired consistency. Pour the whole mess into a pot and heat through on the stove, adding salt, pepper, and seasoning salt to taste. I added a good bit of salt to ours. I added cheese and sour cream to the tops of the kiddos bowls, and I think they also had toast with theirs. This was even better the next day as leftovers.

Broccoli Two Ways....and then some

Happy broccoli season everyone!!!! Are you excited? Yes? No? Not so much? Well we are!

My kids love broccoli. I have been known to hide it until the end of the meal to ensure that the rest of their food gets eaten. Sayings such as "finish your pizza or you won't get any broccoli" have actually been uttered in my house. Because my kids love it so much I serve it often.


Most of the time I serve it simply, steamed and tossed with garlic ginger butter and a pinch of salt. Everything is done to taste, nothing revolutionary. However there are so many food combinations that I would not have thought of if I had not seen someone else do it so I am passing this onto you. I've even had broccoli haters enjoy broccoli in this manner.

The second Broccoli dish is again done to taste, and again very simple (simple suits me well right now). I toss cooked or raw broccoli with teriyaki sesame dressing and sprinkle with sliced almonds. Yum! I love the crunch of the almonds and the salty teriyaki dressing.

Then of course there is always the traditional broccoli with a dip. Might I suggest Avocado Dip? Then there is broccoli soup, casserole, grilled broccoli, broccoli with pasta, broccoli stuffed in twice baked potatoes, broccoli stir-fry, broccoli tempura.......oh I could go on and on.

Do you have a favorite Broccoli dish? Do your kids have a favorite vegetable?

Easy Peasy Mac and Cheesy

I was going to call this "easy as box mac and cheese".....but I over think things....I'm not sure if it really is as easy as box...It takes about the same amount of time as the box mac and cheese.However, instead of waiting around for the water to boil and the noodles to cook you need to be grating cheese. So really it's only "takes the same amount of time as box mac and cheese", not quite the same ring to it.....

I told you I over think things.

It worked out well though, because I got to use rhyming words. I like rhyming words, they make me giggle.


Anyhoo, this is the only mac and cheese my kids will eat, and I have to thank my friend Stefanie for giving me the idea. She served something very similar for Easter one year and when she told me how simple it was (1lb noodles, 1lb cheese, butter, garlic salt, and pepper) I had to try it out. Of course I added a 16oz bag of frozen organic veggies, and sometimes I add other things*.

What you need:

1lb dried noodles
4 cups of shredded cheese (shred mine while I'm waiting for the water to boil)
16oz frozen organic veggies of any kind. (I have used broccoli, peas, mixed veggies, and even a bag of stir fry veggies.)
3tbs butter
garlic salt and pepper to taste

Here's the tricky part. Depending on the type of noodles you use and the type of veggies you use your cooking times/when you add the veggies will vary. I am calculating this for the cook times on the organic penne I bought, and the pea/carrot/corn mixture I bought. Please do your own math to adjust for different types of noodles and veggies. The penne had a 12 minute cook time and the veggies had a 6 minute cook time, so I just dumped the veggies in half way through. Twelve minutes might be too long for regular elbow macaroni noodles.

Boil the water and shred the cheese.

Add the noodles and cook for six minutes.

Add the veggies and boil for six more minutes.

Drain and return to pot.

Add the butter one tbs at a time and stir in the cheese a little at a time so it melts and doesn't turn into one big clump o' cheese.

Add garlic salt and pepper to taste.


My kids love this. I've even given it to their veggie hating friends with success. My kids won't eat box mac and cheese, so when I'm tired this is a great go to meal. It's easy, fast, cheap, and I usually have everything on hand. Make sure to use garlic salt instead of plain old salt, I believe that's what gives it flavor and turns it from noodles and melted cheese into a real dish.



*Variations include "chili mac", where I stir in leftover chili after I add the cheese, and "baked bean mac"....you get the picture.

Cheesy Potato and Broccoli Soup

This was kind of....meh, but DS loved it! And I made it for the kids anyway. Every once and a while you'll see a super high in calorie recipe from me, this is because my children are stubborn and making them gain weight is a lot harder than one could imagine. More on that later I'm sure. This is another one pot dish....kind of...I also had to use a colander, and I used the pot twice. Once for steaming the veggies, and once for cooking the soup...
oh...
I also used a food processor...
So really probably not a one pot dish, but if I had an immersion blender it totally would have been...
I've always kind of sucked at math anyway, what do you expect this is a food blog, not a "let's make fun of the girl who doesn't know how to count to one"blog...
ON TO THE RECIPE....

1 head of broccoli steamed
3 potatoes peeled and boiled to mashed potato consistency
4 cans of evaporated milk
2 tbs butter
1 pkg cream cheese
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
salt, pepper, garlic salt....you know the drill

Melt the butter on low heat with the cream cheese, meanwhile run the broccoli and potatoes through the food processor. Pour the vegetable mush (I know you're salivating already, right?) into the pot with the butter and cream cheese and mix thoroughly. Slowly pour in the evaporated milk mixing well. Cook on medium low until warm throughout, add cheddar cheese, add salt pepper and garlic salt to taste. You may notice there is no broth or stock in this recipe, I was trying to amp up the calories and protein of this dish, for the kiddos. For the average adult not looking to gain twenty pounds you could probably replace about half of the milk with broth.