Chicken, Broccoli & Cheddar Soup

It is getting colder and colder everyday which makes it the perfect time to make soup! I love making soup and wanted to tackle making my husbands favorite. I had never made Broccoli Cheddar before and decided that last night would be a good night to try!

I could not find an easy Broccoli Cheddar soup recipe to save my life! So I had to combine two different recipes and came up with this!

Chicken Broccoli & Cheddar Soup

3 boiled & shredded chicken breast
1 32oz bag of Broccoli Florettes
1 1/2c cheddar shredded
1 1/2c velveta cheese cubed
1 1/2c mozzarella shredded
1/2 c Parmesan cheese
2 1/2c chicken broth
2 1/2c milk
4Tbs instant potatoes
4Tbs flour
Pepper
2 Tbs chopped dried onion
2 tsp granulated garlic


Spray with cooking spray large pot. Add in Dried onion, garlic, broccoli, chicken broth & shredded chicken. Bring to a boil till broccoli is tender and remove from heat. Remove 2/3 of mixture and puree in blender and add back to pot.

On the side warm milk in microwave in a med size bowl for abt 1 min. Whisk in one Tbs at a time dried mashed potatoes & flour into warm milk.

Add milk mixture to soup and bring to boil for 1 min. Add in cheeses & Stir frequently.

Once cheese has melted add in pepper to taste and serve!

Enjoy!!

nonna fiorentino's meat sauce

4 lbs. ground veal or beef

8 carrots

4 stalks of celery

1 green bell pepper

1 medium onion

1 can san marzano italian whole plum tomatoes, peeled (the big size can, not the 14 oz.)

1 tsp. nutmeg

1 c. white wine

1/2 c. milk

salt to taste

chop all of the vegetables finely in a food processor. combine in a large pan and sautee in olive oil until soft.  in another large stock pot brown the meat until cooked through.  once veggies are soft, add them to the meat.  puree the tomatoes and add to veggies and meat.  add wine and nutmeg.  let simmer on low heat for one hour.

after an hour, add the milk and let simmer for at least another half an hour.  salt to taste before serving.  it's best served over wide noodles of some sort.

this sauce is delicious and super easy to make.  it freezes really well, so making such a large quantity is a good thing.