Copycat Panera Bread Broccoli Cheese Soup

Good morning!

Kenn was gone for two weeks in January; he doesn't do well with a lot of cheese, so I don't do many recipes for both of us with cheese. While he was gone, I wanted SOUP. and I wanted broccoli cheese soup. I really would have loved to do a bread bowl for it, too, but I was actually being really good. :D

This recipe fo copycat Panera Bread Broccoli Cheese Soup comes from Budget Savvy Diva.

This is a REALLY rich soup. I would say the recipe is a YES, PLEASE - but I can't say I would eat it for more than two days in a row. Because it's so rich. And decadent. :D

OK, I'm outta here! Have a wonderful day - BE BLESSED!!

Hearty Chicken Soup

Good Monday Morning! :)

I thought, since many of us are in this ice/snow belt, chicken soup would be a great thing to share today. :)

This recipe for Hearty Chicken Soup is from Recipe.com.

Now, I will tell you right away that I more used the METHOD than the direct recipe, because I didn't HAVE everything the recipe called for. :D For instance, my chicken thighs were boneless, so the stock wasn't as good for us as it could have been. <sigh> I made this for Kenn when he first started coming down with this respiratory stuff, and we all know chicken soup is good for the soul, healthy or ill though the person may be, correct? :D

With that said, this was good soup. I tend to not like soups too much, because they're SO liquidy. :D I'd rather have a stew or a chowder any day of the week! (Or something with lots of cheese in it... :D ) But I think it was a comfort to Kenn, and it said, "I love you" to him, and we ate it for dinner. :D I'm saving it in my "Good Recipes to Have" folder.

OK, everyone! Stay safe and warm, and enjoy your day! :) Be BLESSED!

Cabbage Roll Soup

Welcome to Wednesday! :)

It's finally feeling a bit fall-ish around Middle Tennessee, so soup is allowed on the menu. :D (Sorry, but I cannot BEAR to eat soup when it's freakishly hot outside...) Kenn loves cabbage, and cabbage rolls, so this is what I made him: Cabbage Roll Soup from Hey! That Tastes Good!

I was surprised at how much I actually liked this soup. I don't tend to enjoy too many tomato-based soups; I think perhaps it's the texture. I used the tomato sauce, NOT the diced tomatoes in here, and that just might have made the difference!

I probably should have made my cabbage ribbons just a tad smaller, but that would have been an aesthetic thing. :D The recipe says it serves FOUR. When I told Kenn that, he looked at me and said, "Four WHAT?!" - it made a HUGE pot of soup. We ate these big bowls, AND I have several jars in the freezer! It's a YES, PLEASE! recipe - easy, healthy, gluten-free, and hearty.

Come back on Friday and see the rolls I made to serve with it. BOY, HOWDY. :D

Have a WONDERFUL day, friend. Be BLESSED!

Chicken Pot Pie Soup

Good Wednesday Evening! :) I'm so glad you haven't given up on me. :) I'm sorry things are a little flaky right now; we're really strapped for cash, so what I'm making for dinner is cheap and not very exciting. :/ This, however, was not only relatively inexpensive, but easy. :D

This is Chicken Pot Pie Soup from SkinnyTaste.

Let's see. After looking at it, there are only two things I did to modify the recipe. First, instead of using the water it calls for, I used the stock from poaching the chicken breasts. It gave just a bit more flavor. Second, we just used regular sliced white mushrooms instead of portabellas - they were cheaper and easier to come by.

And this got a YES, PLEASE! from everyone who ate it! (I had to find SOMETHING to serve with some more of those yummy garlic cheese biscuits! :D ) The soup had a great flavor, was hearty and filling but not heavy - if that makes any sense. :D We'll definitely do this one again!

OK. It's late here, and even later at home :D, but I wanted to get something up! Let me know if you try this! Also, I've heard from ONE of my Biscoff recipients - did you other two get yours?!?!? I sent them before I left in MARCH!!

Have a wonderful day! Be BLESSED!!!!!

Italian Meatball Soup

Welcome to yet another Wednesday. :) Are you having a good week?

Here's another soup from the week I cooked while Dad was gone. It's Italian Meatball Soup from Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice.

I'm going to give this one a YES, PLEASE! The meatballs were really good, VERY tender - but next time, I'm going to BAKE these, too - I just cannot fry a meatball to save my life. <sigh> They turn out more like meatbits!

It was another healthy soup, with lots of veggies - especially spinach! It was easy, and reheats well. Let me check the recipe to see if I did any tweaking.... :D

Nope, followed it pretty much exactly. I'm not REALLY crazy about all the Italian seasoning that floats in the broth, so I might cut that down next time. But it's Italian soup, right? :D

OK, I'm outta here! Have a wonderful day! Be BLESSED!

Savory Bean & Spinach Soup

You made it! It's FRIDAY again! :)

Today, I've got a Savory Bean & Spinach Soup to share with you, from Fitness.com.

Now, then. I am not a huge soup fan. There's just something about it that will never make soup my favorite thing - and part of that, I'm sure, is how messy and noisy it can be to eat. :D

But I took a week, when my dad was traveling, to cook some soups for Kenn for meals. Dad came home early - it was the week the first big blizzard hit Kansas City, but I went ahead and did that cooking. And this was one of the two soup recipes.

This one got a definite YES, PLEASE! from Kenn. It was OK - and it was vegetarian, easily made vegan if you don't add the cheese. :)

I was a bit disappointed that mine looked so much more tomato-based than the picture on the website. But I loved the fact it had such healthy ingredients! Of course, I used organic vegetable broth. :)

And yes, that's a piece of the Amish bread behind the bowl. Oh, gosh, that bread made the meal. :D

OK, I'm outta here! Have a wonderful weekend!! :)

Copycat Recipe: Olive Garden's Chicken & Gnocchi Soup

It's FRIDAY!!!! How's your week been? Do you have big plans for your weekend? If you're in middle Tennessee, come to Lamplighter's Theater Company and see LAST TRAIN TO NIBROC. You'll be out in an hour and a half, and it's a really sweet story - bring your sweetheart!

Anyway! This is a recipe for Olive Garden's Chicken & Gnocchi Soup from one of my favorite blogs, Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice. :D And I'll tell you now, it's a DEFINITE yes, PLEASE! for my whole family!!

I used organic, free-range chicken stock from Trader Joe's; I bought some around Christmas, and Kenn used it in his chicken soup when he had a horrendous toothache. I was impressed with how rich it was, so I bought four more quarts - and we used them all within 10 days. :D So there's an extra review for free! :D

This is a wonderfully healthy soup, really; with all the garlic and spinach, it's really good with vitamins. I didn't use half-and-half, because I didn't have any. :D I used 1% milk with a scant 1/2 cup heavy cream. But it was just wonderful; the longer it cooks, the thicker the broth gets. I used Cornish game hen meat we had in the freezer; cooking it again in the soup made it so tender. YUM. It's cool in this room while I'm writing this review, and it's making me wish I had a big bowl of it right here with me. :D The next time I make this, I'm going to do copycat bread sticks, too. Ooooooh......
:D

OK, I'm outta here. SO much to do this weekend!!! Don't forget to leave a comment to win on this blog post!!! (Read it for details!)

BE BLESSED!!!

Copycat: Cafe Rio's Chicken Tortilla Soup

It's FRIDAY! :) Are you ready for some weekend?!?!? :)

Today's recipe is for a copycat of a place I've never heard of, Cafe Rio. If you have one near you, what do you think of their food? Anyway. :D The website that brings you this recipe is the same as Wednesday's, Favorite Family Recipes - because that pico de gallo I reviewed Wednesday is in this soup!

This is one of the meals I made while my parents were visiting my sister. I don't think they'd like it much, but I may be wrong. Maybe it's just Dad who wouldn't like it. :D Because we did! It gets a YES, PLEASE! - except the leftovers, not so much.

This is an assembled soup, which made it nice because I could do prep work the day before - like making the pico, baking the chicken and freezing what I didn't want to use for another meal. And it's a healthy soup - lots of fresh vegetables, not too high in sodium, chicken.... It's pretty, too! :)

When I reheated the chicken to put into the soup bowls, I ladled in some broth - with all the spices, etc., in the broth, it gave the seasoning to the chicken I wanted. I added a little cumin to the chicken, too, but couldn't find any cayenne pepper in the grocery the day I went. That was the strangest thing...! And I didn't use any taco seasoning; Kenn doesn't like it, and I didn't want to buy a package that we weren't going to use all of it, anyway. :)

The tortilla strips absolutely made this soup. Well, for ME, anyway. :D I've never made them fresh before, and oooooooh, were they good just out of the oil and salted. :D I stored them in a paper bag, so it would absorb the extra oil and they would stay crispy.

This will probably be a soup I make when we have people over on the beach; I can get almost everything ready the day before, and keep the broth and beans in a crock pot while we're doing things on the beach. :) It's Kenn's idea of what food should be: fresh and flavorful.

And I'll make extra tortilla strips next time. ;)

OK, I'm outta here. Have a WONDERFUL day! Enjoy your weekend - and let me know if you try anything new!!

Beef Vegetable Soup

Welcome to Wednesday. :D Have you had a good week so far? I've got a doctor's appointment today. booooo, hisssssss. <sigh>

So, anyway. :D Today's recipe is for "steak soup" - aka vegetable beef :D - from Gimme Some Oven! :D I made this soup last Monday, when I opened up the stampin' studio for a free evening. The bread I shared on Monday was a nice accompaniment for this soup.

The soup got a definite YES, PLEASE! from everyone who tasted it. I used 4 cups of beef broth, then about 5 cups of water with a container of Knorr Homestyle Stock (it's condensed) and an envelope of Swanson Flavor Boost. The recipe includes Worchestershire sauce - a touch of brilliance, there. It's got so much "stuff" that I wouldn't think to add to the soup, and a little goes a long way to boosting the flavor and richness of the broth. As a matter of fact, when I made beef stew a couple of days later, I used some Worchestershire sauce in it, too. It was wonderful. :)

This soup was wonderfully hearty, and I have to admit I don't really like soups with tomatoes in them. I cut the amount of tomatoes I added in half from the recipe; I also used fire-roasted tomatoes, which I'd gotten as a freebie to try.  I thought, if you have to have tomatoes in the soup, they were pretty decent. :D And I ate two bowls of this soup. Unheard of for me. :D

OK, I'm outta here! Have a BLESSED day! And do try this soup! :D