Why haven't we had this before? - Broccoli Cheese Soup and Bread Sticks

Tonight I made these two new recipe's for dinner.  We loved them!  After having a fourth bowl of soup and about eight bread sticks Chad said, "Why haven't we had this before?"  As long as the Lactaid pills work for my lactose intolerant children and they don't all throw up tonight we will definitely have this again.  

Broccoli Cheese Soup

Ingredients 

6 T butter 

 1 onion, chopped 

1-2 t minced garlic

 1½ - 2 pounds fresh broccoli (I only use the florets, my kids don’t like stems much)

 4 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth (I used 7 cups of water and 3 T of chicken bullion)

 2 pounds of Velveeta cheese, cubed 

 2 cups half and half 

 1 tablespoon garlic powder 

 2/3 cup cornstarch 

 1 cup water

Directions

1. In a stockpot, melt butter over medium heat. Cook onion and garlic in butter until onion translucent. Stir in broccoli, and cover with chicken broth. Simmer until broccoli is tender, 10 to 15 minutes.
2.  Reduce heat, and stir in cheese cubes until melted. Mix in milk and garlic powder.
3. In a small bowl, stir cornstarch into water until dissolved. Stir into soup; cook, stirring frequently, until thick.

Notes

After cheese has melted, turn stove heat down to low or the cheese will stick to the bottom of pot.  To help my kids eat this better after it was all finished I blended the soup with a hand blender so the broccoli was completely chopped up.  There were no broccoli pieces that needed to be picked out. :)  This made a LOT of soup.  I will half the recipe next time.

This soup goes great with these Bread Sticks!

Bread Sticks

1 pkg yeast (1 heaping Tbsp.)

2 Tbsp. sugar

1½ c. warm water

1 tsp salt

3 ½ c flour

¼ c. butter

Garlic salt

Parmesan cheese 

Mix yeast, sugar and warm water.  Let sit for 5 minutes.  Add flour and salt.  Knead dough.  Let rise until double.  Sprinkle flour on counter and roll the dough out into a rectangle.  Cut into 1 inch strips.  Twist and lay in a pan.  Melt butter.  Brush butter onto the twisted breadstick dough in the pan then sprinkle with garlic salt and Parmesan cheese.  Bake at 400 degrees for 10 – 15 minutes or until golden brown.