Slow Cooker Broccoli Cheese Soup

I love my Crock Pot. 

Before marriage, when I was living as a college student in the dorms on a meal plan and in a very small apartment with four other girls, I didn't ever really get the chance to explore cooking. Husband will remind me of the time we ate at my apartment and I cooked up a grand dinner of brown rice with tomato soup poured over it. Yeah, that was my culinary creativity really coming through. However, once we got hitched and I found myself without a job, I started to dig into recipes and cookbooks in search of fun and challenging dishes to cook for my new husband. While there was only time where I really messed up so badly that we nearly threw up and actually had to throw everything out (remember that awful gorgonzola pasta dish, Husband?), I did learn a few general rules of thumb to keep myself sane:

1) Stick with recipes that have a reasonable amount of ingredients

2) Don't try a recipe unless you know you either a) have the ingredients in your cupboard or b) won't have to buy any obscure ingredients that you'll never use again

3) Make sure you like the dish before increasing the amount to ensure leftovers so as to not waste food

4) However, don't be afraid to go out on a limb and try something new - you might be surprised how much you actually like it! (as was the case with these stuffed poblano peppers found on Pinterest - totally not the type of thing I'd ever make but they are SO DELICIOUS!) 

Just to name a few…

Anyway, back to my Crock Pot.

One of the things I also learned was how convenient a slow cooker is, especially during the school year when I'm really busy but love to still have home cooked meals. This blog in particular has been of great assistance in helping me discover all the fantastic things one can create using a slow cooker - if only I was bold enough to commit to making a slow cooker meal every single day and experiment with anything and everything possible! 

So here's a recipe for a simple broccoli cheese soup. The original recipe I found online called for full-fat everything, which yielded an incredibly unhealthy sort of thing I would usually pass up in a second (though I don't know how broccoli cheese soup could ever really be considered healthy, but whatever…). However, I reduced the amount of butter to 1 Tbsp, switched up the soup for low fat, and replaced the original Velveeta with the 2% kind. While I know this probably didn't make too much of a difference, I at least felt better about consuming this for my lunch than I probably would have had I left everything as-is. 

First I gathered my ingredients…

…then I chopped and sautéed the pepper and onion…

…and combined it all in the slow cooker…

…then I got all excited about my soup and the prospect of bread to go with it so I plopped more ingredients into my bread maker…

…and of course set two of my favorite appliances right next to each other…

…and finally enjoyed the fruits of my "labor" (this last photo is way worse quality because I almost forgot to take a picture and then I whipped out my phone and didn't even bother to edit it...)

Aaaand here's the recipe:

Slow Cooker Broccoli Cheese Soup

Adapted from Food.com

1/2 cup green bell pepper, chopped

1/2 cup onion, chopped

1 Tbsp butter

1 10 oz can low fat cream of chicken soup

1 1/2 cups skim milk

1 lb 2% Velveeta cheese, cubed

1 10 oz package of frozen chopped broccoli

1. Sauté onion and green pepper in butter over medium heat for just a few minutes.

2. Combine all ingredients in crock and cook on low for 3-4 hours. 

Note: I did notice that with my slow cooker the soup was sticking to the sides a little bit so I stirred once or twice to break up the cheese cubes and unstick the sides. 

This was a very quick and easy soup to prepare in the morning and be ready for lunch by noon. I even threw some ingredients in the bread maker and "baked" (in the bread maker...) a loaf of French bread to accompany the soup, which was divine. I have a few more soups pinned on my Pinterest board for my immersion blender and my Crock Pot so I'm excited to experiment with those as the cooler months approach.

¡Buen provecho!