my favorite.

I know it sounds silly, but this cooking thing has me on cloud nine. I feel behind the times or like there was this whole world I was never a part of, and now I know what people were talking about all this time. I honestly thought I would never be able to cook. It never appealed to me simply because I thought I couldn't do it. Do you know how many things I think I can't do? A LOT. Now, I can't wait to try the new things because...well, there is a chance I just might be successful.

Tonight I made Broccoli Cheese soup. Again, not the hardest thing in the world, but I made it, from scratch. I knew exactly what I was eating because I put it in there, myself. Everything tastes so much better when you make it yourself. I'll post my recipe at the end of this post (mostly so I have a place to remember it other than on the crumbled up piece of paper with soup splashes on it that sits on my kitchen counter).

I started like usual, and decided I wanted to make the soup. So, I googled "broccoli cheese soup recipe". I found a great one from Cooking Light and thought I can do this. I made some changes to the recipe and I'll add those in bold when I list it below. It turned out so amazing. It tasted so fresh and so real. I got almost all of the ingredients organic from Trader Joe's, so of course, that made me happy. It was just so great to taste something that I created. Not to mention, I had a blast making it!

So, here is the recipe:

Yield: 6 servings (serving size: 1 1/3 cups)

Ingredients

• Cooking spray I didn't use this...don't think I should have.
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth I used vegetable broth and think it worked great.
• 1 (16-ounce) package broccoli florets
• 2 1/2 cups 2% reduced-fat milk I thought about using soymilk and I think I will next time.
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour I used whole wheat flour.
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 8 ounces light processed cheese, cubed (such as Velveeta Light) For this I used Tillamook vegetarian cheese and it was great.

Preparation

Heat a large nonstick saucepan coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic; saute 3 minutes or until tender. Add broth and broccoli. Bring broccoli mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium; cook 10 minutes.

Combine milk and flour, stirring with a whisk until well blended. Add milk mixture to broccoli mixture. Cook 5 minutes or until slightly thick, stirring constantly. Stir in pepper. Remove from heat; add cheese, stirring until cheese melts.

Place one-third of the soup in a blender or food processor, and process until smooth. Return pureed soup mixture to pan. I skipped this part because I didn't want to make it too watery and I think it was fine.

p.s. I know I said I would work on presentation of my food...but that would have required me eating a small portion, and well, it was so good, we all know what wasn't going to happen!!

Cheers!