is a winner! The secret ingredient to this soup is a chunk of American cheese. You put it in the freezer for easy shredding – it melted really well! In their test kitchen, the decided all cheddar cheese made the soup grainy.
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1 onion, chopped fine (obviously, I left this out!)
- 1 carrot, peeled and chopped fine (mine was 3 ounces)
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 3/4 chicken broth ( or one can)
- 1 12 ounce lite beer
- 2 cups 1% milk
- 3 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
- 1 cup shredded American cheese
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch (I completely forgot about this step!)
- salt and pepper to taste
- Italian seasoning (which I added after adding salt and pepper)
- Melt butter in large pot over medium heat. Cook until onion and carrots are lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Stir in flour and cook until golden, about 1 minute. Slowly whisk in broth, beer and milk. Bring mxture to a simmer then reduce heat to low and simmer gently (don’t boil!) until carrots are soft about 25 minutes.
- Meanwhile, toss the shredded cheeses and cornstarch in a large bowl until well combined. Puree soup in blender (I used my stick blender) until smooth. Remove from heat and whisk in cheese mixture, a handful at a time until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. This will stay in the fridge up to 3 days.
Makes 6 one cup servings: 359 caloires, 25 fat, 13 carbs, .5 fiber and 17 protein
I ended up making ham and cheese pinwheels for dinner. No real recipe. When you open the can of crescent rolls, form two triangles into a rectangle. You’ll have four rectangle. For each roll, add 1 ounce ham, 1 ounce cheese and roll up, using your fingers to close up the seems. Cut each roll into four pieces and bake on a cookie sheet for 15 minutes at 350.
![p1170003-640x480 before rolling up](http://biz319.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/p1170003-640x480.jpg)
Here they look out of the oven:
I added a schmere of spicy brown mustard to each of my rolls:
Paired with my soup and Tabasco sauce:
![p1170017-640x480 648 calories, 40 fat, 35 carbs, .5 fiber and 40 protein](http://biz319.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/p1170017-640x480.jpg)
Off to relax, but quick question: I am going to Cheesecake Factory for lunch tomorrow – any suggestions that may be on the healthy side? I may just stick to an appetizer – its been years since I have been there, but I remember their portions being huge!
See you tomorrow for breakfast!
Your soup and roll-ups look so darn good, I could really go for a bowl and a few rolls. Great looking supper!
Crescents and cheese!! Not much can top those 🙂
ten pieces of cheesecake!
Hope your CF dinner went well!! I used to like their pasta dishes.
I always get the chopped salad – it’s huge, and pretty filling. I get dressing on the side and switch it out for one of their light dressings (I think the sesame soy vinaigrette or something?). I really like the salad because it has a bunch of awesome veggies and these really nice chunks of cheese. And then I just have a piece of the brown bread… holy yum. That’s my favorite bread ever.
I am so glad you seem to love Tabasco sauce as much as I do! I get teased about how much I use it, LOL 🙂
I’ve never been to the Cheesecake Factory. We used to have one in our hometown, but then it closed down. I never really glanced at the menu, but I don’t like Cheesecake, so -lol-…
But oh wow, dinner looks amazing tonight! Glad it was tasty!
Try the chicken lettuce wraps, if you go easy on the dipping sauces it should be relatively healthy.