Broccoli Chowder

I’ve seem to have found myself again into trying some new recipes. Over Christmas, I received 2 new cookbooks and a new subscription to Healthy Taste of Home Cooking. I still have my regular Taste of Home and my Kraft subscription as well so I’m excited for my first round of 2011 magazines to arrive. In the meantime, I’ve been thumbing thru my new cookbooks and found this recipe that was a winner! If you like cheddar broccoli soup and potato soup – this recipe is the hybrid love affair of the two.

Broccoli Chowder

Recipe can be found in this link:

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Broccoli-Chowder-2

I’m definitely one for shortcuts and substitutions when it comes to cooking. 9 times out of 10, my changes work. What I did to this recipe:

• Did not add celery, seemed like a waste of time/money for something that in my opinion doesn’t add any significant change in taste or nutrition

• I used a small bag of little red potatoes, used them all

• Broccoli florets – just buy a frozen bag and use it all

• Chopping an onion… yeah right. I just used dried chopped onion from my spice drawer. I just shake it in until I feel like it’s enough, which isn’t very much.

• I had to make mine gluten free for Aaron so instead of flour I used cornstarch, same measurement ratio

• Used half the block of Velveeta, so I probably used twice as much as the recipe calls for but we love cheese!

• Carrots – used half a bag of baby carrots and just sliced into thirds

• I did not allow Aaron to add extra cheese to his soup as he normally would, this is plenty cheesy my friends!  ENJOY!