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With fall trying to make its way into Las Vegas, it’s time to pull out some old favorites!

This broccoli cheese soup rivals any I’ve tried in a restaurant, and only takes about half an hour to prepare. It’s not going to win any health awards, but trust me when I say it’s worth it! Mike and the girls love it, even the one that doesn’t like cheese (I still haven’t figured out how that’s possible).

We also like the broccoli to be a bit more substantial, so I’ve started using one bag of frozen chopped broccoli, and one bag of frozen whole florets.

Serve it with some buttered French bread.

Broccoli Cheese Soup
makes 8 generous servings

1/3 cup butter
1 onion, chopped
2 tablespoons garlic, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
2 (16 oz) packages frozen chopped broccoli
4 (14 oz) cans chicken broth
1 (1 lb) loaf Velveeta, cubed
2 cups milk, divided
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 cup shredded Colby Jack cheese

In a stockpot, melt butter over medium heat. Cook onion and garlic in butter until softened. Add salt and pepper, and stir in broccoli. Add chicken broth and simmer until broccoli is tender, about 10 minutes. Reduce heat and stir in the Velveeta cubes until melted. Stir in one cup of milk.

In a small bowl, whisk cornstarch into remaining cup of milk until dissolved. Stir into soup and cook, stirring frequently, until thick. Add remaining cup of shredded cheese just before serving.

Our cool evenings are coming to an end so I’m trying to squeeze in as many cold-night dinners as I can. A family favorite is this chicken noodle soup — with dumplings! It may seem like overkill to have both noodles and dumplings, but it’s delicious. You can easily leave out one or the other if you like.

This is very versatile as well. You can easily substitute the raw chicken for cooked leftovers (roast chicken works perfectly).

Or you can make the soup in the crockpot, and do the dumplings separately on the stove: Pour about an inch of chicken broth into a shallow pan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to simmer, and drop your dumplings in, and cover. Let cook for a few minutes and then serve with the chicken soup out of the crockpot.

I have made dumplings in the crockpot, but it took forever. Doing it separately on the stove is much faster.

Chicken Noodle Soup with Dumplings

1 lb chicken, cut into 1/2 to 1 inch cubes
1 Tb oil
2 Tb butter
1 potato, peeled and diced into small pieces
2 carrots, peeled and diced into small pieces
1 onion, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 tsp poultry seasoning
2 Tb flour
6 cups chicken broth

2 cups egg noodles
1 cup frozen peas

2 cups biscuit mix
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp dried parsley

Add oil and butter to large pot over medium heat. Add potatoes, carrots, onion and bay leaf and cook for five minutes, stirring often. Season with salt and pepper, and add poultry seasoning. Add flour and cook for two minutes, and then stir in broth and bring to a boil. Add chicken and stir, cooking for about five minutes. Add egg noodles and stir.

Combine biscuit mix with salt, garlic powder and parsley, and add about 1 cup of warm water (you don’t want it too wet or too dry, so you may need to adjust with a little more mix or a little more water). Using two large tablespoons, scoop out a spoonful and drop gently into the pot. I usually get about six dumplings. Cover the pot and reduce heat to simmer, steaming the dumplings for about 10 minutes. Remove the lid, remove the pan from the heat and add the peas.

I would usually serve soup with a yummy homemade bread, but there are enough carbs in this soup on its own!