Broccoli stem slaw with cranberries

Save your fresh broccoli stems and use them to make an easy and delicious slaw! This slaw has a simple dressing and chewy dried cranberries along with salted roasted sunflower seeds for extra flavor and texture.

Cheddar ham and broccoli quinoa casserole

This is a total comfort food dinner for a cold evening. This dish is something we've eaten multiple times, mostly with ham, but occasionally with chicken. 

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It's a versatile dish that you could use different add-ins for, but I love the broccoli + ham combination with cheddar. I originally came up with the recipe when I was cleaning out the cupboard and found some quinoa that needed to be used up, plus we had some leftover ham and frozen broccoli. I threw it all together and it was a winner. 

So I've tweaked it a bit and measured out the ingredients so I could share it with all of you. This casserole is sure to be a hit. 

It should serve about four people. It's a complete meal in itself, but a side salad is a nice addition.

Broccoli salad with cheddar, cranberries, and sunflower seeds

Broccoli salad is a summer picnic favorite. I especially love one full of crunch and flavors like this broccoli salad with cheddar, cranberries, and sunflower seeds.

Sesame chicken and broccoli stir-fry

Making stir-fry is one of my favorite quick weeknight dinners and as the weather warms I find myself making them more and more. The weather here has been surprisingly hot already so I've been spending as little time in the kitchen as possible. For this dish, I wanted to make something like sesame chicken (one of my favorite Chinese take-out dishes), but without deep frying. Plus, I wanted to incorporate some vegetables into the dish, especially some broccoli for my broccoli-loving husband. The results were a lightly and tasty stir-fry full of sesame flavor.

So it's getting close to another summer and we find ourselves still in an apartment. We thought for sure we'd be in a house by now, but life hasn't worked out that way... Apartment living in the summer can be really rough.... especially uppers where it gets extra hot. There's no escape for eating or cooking outside. Luckily, we are able to have a small container garden and we put that in last weekend. We planted a bunch of herbs (sweet basil, Thai basil, chives, tarragon, oregano, lavender, mint, etc.), lettuces, and tomatoes. Hopefully we'll be in a house by the end of the year! It's tough for two outdoorsy people who grew up in a rural area to be without any land.

Cheddar broccoli soup

I was searching the internet for a cheddar broccoli soup - one that had a lot of cheddar flavor and one that contained a good amount of broccoli and carrots. I also was hoping to find a "copycat" recipe of Panera's cheddar broccoli soup. I love their cheddar broccoli soup, so I wanted to replicate it at home. 

 

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I found a copycat recipe all over the internet. I don't know where it originated or if it's really from there... I read all the copycat recipes and then made my own version below.

This soup was delicious, and like most soups, better for lunch the next day. I enjoyed it a lot - it was exactly what I was imagining. Perfect for a winter dinner (too bad it's been more like April around here lately). 

 

I bought these little bread bowls at my grocery's bakery because I thought it would be fun to serve the soup this way. You just need to carefully cut off the tops and pull out some of the bread until it's hollow enough to hold soup (freeze the extra bread for the next time you need to make breadcrumbs). It's completely optional though. 

 

You can also puree the soup if you like. This soup will make about 6 servings.