Thrifty Recipes: Broccoli, Potato, and Cheese Soup

First a little background on this meal. My 4 year old will hardly ever eat a vegetable. I'm told this is typical of this age, but very difficult for me, the mom, who is trying to teach her child health eating. She most of all, HATES broccoli. She will run out of the room if I tell her we're having broccoli in a meal. But, a few weeks ago while out to lunch with my parents, she had Broccoli cheese soup, and LOVED it! She's been asking me to make it ever since.


I am a big fan of crockpot cooking. Two reasons, 1.) I can throw stuff together in the morning and not have to think about dinner until it's time to serve it. 2.) Crockpots take a lot less energy than an oven raging at 350 degrees to cook a casserole for an hour or more.


I found this recipe in one of my favorite books, Fix-It and Forget-It, Lightly. There is a whole series of these crockpot books. I highly recommend getting one if you don't already.

I was able to pull off this recipe for about $4.00 using ingredients that I've stockpiled from my extreme couponing. The potatoes came from a 5lb bag that I got for .98. The Velveeta came from a block I got for $2.87 (I only used a third of the block for this recipe). And the broccoli was $1.00 a bag.


Here is the recipe for Broccoli, Potato, and Cheese Soup from Fix-It and Forget-It, Lightly

2 cups cubed or diced potatoes

3 Tbsp. chopped onions

10 oz pkg of frozen broccoli cuts, thawed

2 Tbsp butter melted

1 Tbsp flour

1 cup of cubed Velveeta Light cheese

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

5 1/2 cups fat-free milk

1. Cook potatoes and onions in boiling water in saucepan until potatoes are crisp tender. Drain. Place in Slow cooker.

2. Add remaining ingredients. Stir together.

3. Cover. Cook on low 4 hours.


Ironically, this is not a favorite of mine. But, my anti-broccoli child ate it up. And the hubs liked it. So, it's probably a keeper.


If you have good ways of getting an anti-vegetable child to eat veggies, let me know!