Broccoli Cheese Soup

Broccoli cheese soup is one of my favorite soups. It was the soup that made me appreciate broccoli as a vegetable. I'm trying to find the perfect combination of veggies, cheeses, and flavors. This is a pretty good pit stop on that journey.

Broccoli Cheese Soup

What You'll Need: 

5 tbsp butter
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/3 cup all purpose flour
2 cups vegetable broth
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp spicy brown mustard
2 1/2 cups milk
3/4 cup half and half
3 1/2 fresh chopped broccoli pieces
2 carrots, grated
2 cups freshly grated sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper

How to Make It: 

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and cook for five minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and thyme and cook for another two minutes. Add the flour to the mixture and cook for one minute, stirring constantly to prevent it from burning. Slowly pour in the vegetable broth, milk, and half and half. Add the Worcestershire sauce, mustard, nutmeg and bay leaves and cook, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Remove the bay leaves from the pan and add in the broccoli and carrots. Cook another 6-8 minutes or until the veggies are cooked and a bit soft. Remove the soup from the heat and add in the cheeses and salt and pepper to taste (you're probably going to want to be generous with both of them.) Cover to keep warm until ready to serve.

Simple Parmesan Mushrooms

I often say mushrooms are my favorite vegetable, even though they are actually a fungus. No one is going to like you if you go around talking about your favorite fungus. Mushrooms are amazing, though, and we need to eat more of them. At least four times a week, I say. This is a super simple and very satisfying side dish to throw together when you don't have a lot of time or energy.

Simple Parmesan Mushrooms

What You'll Need:

2 small packages sliced mushrooms (about 1.5 lbs)
Olive oil, for drizzling
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 cup grated or shaved Parmesan (or more- I won't judge)
Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper

How to Make It: 

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Lightly oil a rimmed baking sheet, or spray it with nonstick spray. Rinse the mushrooms and pat them dry with paper towels, then transfer them to the baking sheet. Drizzle with a generous glug of olive oil (about 3-4 tbsp), and sprinkle with the garlic, thyme, Parmesan, salt and pepper. Toss the mushrooms to coat and combine. Bake them for about 12-15 minutes, until tender. Serve them immediately.

Lazy Sunday Pasta Bake

You don't have to just make this on Sunday. It is, however, a very lazy dish, and I've made it a few times when I wanted something that tasted like real food but didn't actually require me to do much. 

Lazy Sunday Pasta Bake

What You'll Need:

1 box bowtie pasta
1 jar of your favorite marinara sauce
1 packet dry Italian dressing mix (found with the salad dressings at your grocery store)
1 bag shredded mozzarella, or 2 cups (8 oz) shredded mozzarella if you like to shred your own

How to Make It: 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray a 13x9 pan with nonstick spray. While the oven is heating up, cook the pasta according to the package directions. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine the marinara sauce and the Italian dressing mix .When the pasta is done, drain it thoroughly and add it to the marinara mix. Stir everything to combine, and pour it in the prepared dish. Top it all off with the mozzarella. Bake, uncovered, for 15-20 minutes, until the cheese is melted and everything is nice and bubbly-hot.

If you're feeling adventurous, you could add some extra diced tomato (straight from the can is fine), mushrooms, cooked sausage, or even more cheese, if you feel like your arteries could use some extra build-up. But adding ingredients to the dish kind of takes away from the point: it's yummy food to eat when you don't feel like actually cooking!

Potato and Onion Breakfast Strata

I made this dish for Christmas breakfast a couple of years ago, and it was a big hit! My grandma still talks about it, and my mom took home all my leftovers. Some of my family members are a little picky, so I kept this pretty simple, but I think it would be great if you added some mushrooms, kale, or red pepper, too!

Potato and Onion Breakfast Strata

What You'll Need:

1 sweet onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 large Yukon gold potato, peeled and diced
About 2 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 cups (6 oz) shredded Parmesan
1 1/2 cups (6 oz) shredded Swiss cheese
8 large eggs
3 cups milk
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
Pinch of salt
Pinch of garlic powder
Pinch of paprika
1 12 oz loaf sourdough bread, cubed

How to Make It: 

Saute the onion and the potato in the oil until the potato starts to become very slightly tender and the onion just starts to turn golden, about 15 minutes. Lightly grease a 9x13 pan, and layer half the bread cubes in the pan. Spread half the onion mixture on top, then sprinkle half of each of the cheeses over that. In a large bowl, lightly beat the eggs to break up the yolks. Add the milk, the mustard, and the spices, and whisk to combine. Pour half the egg mixture over the ingredients in the pan, then repeat all the layers. Cover the pan and refrigerate it overnight (at least 8 hours, or up to 24 hours.) Take the pan out of the fridge for about 10 minutes before placing it in the oven. Heat the oven to 350 degrees, and bake the casserole, uncovered, for 45-50 minutes until a knife inserted in the middle of the strata comes out clean (the top will be lightly browned and the casserole will be set in the middle.) This recipe makes 6-8 hefty servings.

Parmesan Tomato Soup

I made soup for the very first time tonight! My mother-in-law gave us her blender, so I'm going to be putting it to good use- starting with this soup! It has a very mild flavor, thanks to the cheese and half and half, so it's less acidic (and therefore much nicer for me to eat) than store-bought tomato soup!

Parmesan Tomato Soup 

What You'll Need: 

1 28 oz can diced tomatoes (I like Muir Glen)
1 cup finely diced carrots
1 finely diced onion
2 tbsp tomato paste
4 cups broth (we prefer using vegetable, but chicken would also be a good choice)
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tbsp dried basil
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
1 cup grated or shaved Parmesan
1 1/2 cups half and half
1 tsp salt
Fresh ground black pepper

How to Make It: 

Add the tomatoes, carrots, onion, tomato paste, broth, and herbs to a slow cooker. Cook on low heat for 5-6 hours. When there are about 30 minutes of cook time left, melt the butter in a saucepan. Slowly add the flour, and whisk constantly about 10 minutes to make a roux. Very slowly and carefully, add 1 cup of the soup to the roux and whisk- it will make a paste, but it will also let off a lot of steam, so watch your hands! After the soup is incorporated and a thick paste has formed, add another three cups of warm soup to the mixture, and whisk to combine. Return this thickened soup mixture to the slow cooker, and stir it in. Add the half and half, Parmesan, salt ,and pepper to taste, and stir everything to combine it well. Before serving, blend the soup with an immersion blender or a standing blender (you may have to do this in batches if you're using a regular blender) and blend until smooth. Return the soup to the slow cooker and set on "warm" until you're ready to serve it! This recipe serves 6-8.