Tag Archives: Panera Bread

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

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What’s up with me lately? Posting like…healthy recipes. 2 in a row-that’s a big deal for me!

I feel like I need to look in the mirror and make sure I’m still me! 

Well, I have realized that like 95% of the recipes on here are sweets. Yes, I love sweets. You love sweets. We all love sweets! (right..?)

Anyways, balance is something I should probably practice more of, which is why I’m starting to make a few more like real foods. Personally, chocolate and cupcakes are real food to me but apparently the food pyramid (or whatever the new thing is that’s going around..”my plate” I think?) doesn’t agree. Silly “my plate”

But back to the soup here that I made. Did I mention I made soup before? Well here I did. If you have ever been to this little amazing place called Panera, you may have heard of this soup. Broccoli Cheddar Soup. Practically a bowl of hopes and dreams…healthy style of course. (We all know that if it wasn’t healthy, I’d be talking about a bowl of ice cream).

Soup is WAY, WAY, WAY easier to make than I ever would have thought. Another bonus is that you probably have almost all the ingredients already in your house. These were the only ingredients (below) that I actually had to go to the store to buy, but many of you probably already have this stuff in your house.

Preparing this soup took me about 30-45 minutes. People who cook often for themselves and their families can probably make it faster than myself. Chopping the onions really slowed me down. Man, was I a mess! I looked like a middle school girl who just got dumped by her boyfriend. (ahh…middle school relationships)But really, I’ve got a super low tolerance for onions. I practically had my eyeballs a centimeter away from a candle to try and get the tears to cease but they just wouldn’t quit!

This soup is really one you can do a lot to play with. Using different types of cheese could add a nice element or if you’re a big veggie fan you can up the broccoli. Using cream or half and half will give you a heavier, but creamier soup. Adding different spices can also make it a little more interesting.

Hope you all enjoy this soup sometime soon. But don’t fear, more sweet treats will be comin’ atchya later! ;)

P.S. I had some of that Red Hen Bread with this that I was talking about the other day…perfection! So delicious dipped in the soup. I’m a total sucker for good bread and soup!!

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 cup chopped onions

2 1/2 cups milk (I used skim)

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

16 oz. broccoli florets (I used a bag of the frozen kind)

3 cups chicken broth (I used low sodium and reduced fat)

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

8 oz. cheese, cubed (I used velvet 2% milk cheese)(processed cheese melts best even though the idea of using processed food may make you cringe)

  1. In a heavy saucepan, sauté minced garlic and chopped onion for about 3 minutes until tender. Add chicken broth and broccoli. Heat oven medium-high heat and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook for about 10 minutes.
  2. Meanwhile, whisk milk and flour until blended. After cooking for 10 minutes, add milk mixture to broccoli mixture on stove. Cook for about 5 minutes or until it becomes slightly thick-don’t stop stirring! Stir in pepper. Remove from heat and add cubed cheese, stirring until cheese melts. It will probably take about 5 minutes for all the cheese to become fully incorporated.
  3. Ladle about 1/3 of the coup in a blender or food processor, and process until smooth. I processed mine quite a bit and it came out a very green, smooth mixture. If you prefer a chunkier soup, you might want to process less than me and just pulse the soup or even skip this step all together.
  4. Return processed soup mixture to pan and serve!

Random Fact of the Day: Women end up digesting most of the lipstick they apply.

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Summer might be over but it’s food lives on!!

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I really enjoy seeing what people search for on my blog. It truly makes me laugh; brightens up the day a bit.My top 5 favorite searches have to be

  1. chocolates in my peanut butter
  2. the muffin man* (would you believe 19 people have searched this?!)
  3. loose bathing suit*
  4. black guy weird look
  5. will you spontaneously combust from cookie dough

*In defense to these people I did happen to talk about the starred subjects in past posts…but still, it’s pretty funnyI do feel kind of obligated now though to write a post about spontaneously combusting from cookie dough. Hmmm, we’ll see!!Okay so here’s the deal. These are s’mores..that you make in your house. Then cover in chocolate. This idea just kind of came to me one day, then I realized that I’m not as creative as I thought and people have been done this before… :( Oh well!! Good minds think alike, right?

Chocolate Covered S’mores Bites

2 sheets of graham crackers

a heaping 1/4 c. marshmallow fluff

about 4 ounces chocolate, melted for dipping

2 T. mini chocolate chips (optional)

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
  2. Using a knife, cut graham crackers into eighths. (They should all be little squares, about 1 in. by 1 in.) In a small dish, mix together marshmallow filling with mini chocolate chips, if using. Drop marshmallow filling onto half of the graham crackers and top with other graham crackers.
  3. Bake 2-3 minutes in the oven on a baking sheet. WATCH CAREFULLY!!!! The crackers burn easily!..not that I would ever do that :p
  4. Pop the s’mores in the fridge to stiffen up a bit. Chill for 1 hour.
  5. Meanwhile, melt your chocolate for dipping. Next, dip the s’mores into the chocolate. There are several methods for this; you can either stick a toothpick in there, use a fork, or drop the s’more in the chocolate and drop chocolate on top and on the sides, whatever floats your boat. Place on parchment paper when dipped.
  6. Once all the s’mores are covered in chocolate, pop them pack in the fridge until chocolate is set. I stored mine in the fridge, which is what I recommend, but there is nothing that could spoil them by having them sit out, the chocolate might not be as hard, though.
You may have some leftover dipping chocolate, I recommend doing what any logical person would do.

Dip a bunch of things in chocolate!!! That mysterious blob? It’s a brownie covered in chocolate. HOLY YUM. They kinda reminded me of these. DO it!

That’s all. Have a nice Thursday :) Random Fact of the Day: 3,400,000 Americans are considered “Extreme Commuters”. These people commute over 90 minutes round trip every day to work.

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