Sunday Dinner- Cheesy Vegetable Chowder!

I have officially decided that I am going to try a new recipe every sunday for Sunday Dinner at the Copper Castle.  This is exciting!!!

So before I go into the details of my chowder, I would like to explain why I'm going to do this.  I've been having a hard time finding time to just sit and think.  I'm too wrapped up in my job and my homework and everything else around me, I just need some time to relax.  So I had a thought today: Cooking.  I always used to love cooking at home on the weekend.  Making some cookies or a cake or even better, cupcakes with Bridget.  So I'm going to spend my Sunday afternoons cooking Sunday Dinner instead of whatever else I had in mind.  This will be good.  (Plus, I'm hoping it will make me actually post every week instead of when I randomly find time!)

Today I woke up at 7:19.  I was wee bit irritated that I woke up so early on my only day to sleep in for the week (I went to the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes event on Saturday morning with Bridget and Mim, but I'll post about that later this week hopefully).  So instead of actually getting out of bed and being productive, I got on Pinterest and began looking through all the yummy recipes that I've pinned.  And the Cheesy Vegetable Chowder was the winner.  

A fellow pinner/blogger actually had the recipe posted on her site, so you can see it here (since it was her idea and all): Lulu the Baker

But  I'll also share it with you here:

Cheesy Vegetable Chowder

2 Tablespoons butter

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 cup finely chopped carrots

1 celery stick, finely chopped (feel free to add more celery if you like)

1 Tablespoon minced garlic

4 cups chicken broth (I usually use a mixture of low-sodium chicken broth and broth made with chicken soup base because it gives it such a nice flavor)

2 large baking potatoes

1 Tablespoon flour

1/2 cup water

2/3 cup milk

2 cups chopped broccoli

2 heaping cups shredded cheddar cheese

Melt the butter in a large soup pot.  Add onion, carrots, and celery and sauté over medium heat until tender.  Add garlic and cook 1 or 2 additional minutes.  Add chicken broth and potatoes, bring to a boil, and cook until potatoes are tender.  Mix flour with water, add, and simmer until soup is slightly thickened.  Add milk and broccoli and cook until broccoli is just tender and soup is heated through.  Stir in cheese, allow to melt, and serve.

So of course I made some changes, duh.  I do have the tendency to eat like a herbivore.  Instead of chicken broth, I used vegetable stock, and I added about 1/2 cup more cheese.  I also didn't peel my potatoes, just because I forgot. Oops.  And of course I added more celery, along with carrots and onions as well (what can I say?  I love my veggies!)  Other than that, I did everything else according to the recipe.

Here's the process:

Chopping all my veggies with my teeny, tiny knife.

My wonderful substitute. 

Boiling away..

The broccoli is for real going to be my favorite part.. except for the cheese. :)  But it also took the longest to get tender... and the recipe made me add it last.  I was a little irritated.

Dinner rolls to serve warm with it!

And, drum roll please..................... 

The finished product!

And I just tasted it.  I want to marry this chowder.  For real.  

All in all, I would say it was a very productive thinking and cooking session.  Especially since the blog said it would only take my 40-60 minutes, but it took me about 90 minutes.  Oops.  Dinner is going to be delicious and I had an epiphany about my life as well.  Good job, Kelsey, good job. :)

Happy reading.  Stay excellent, Me.