Lil Carb Broccoli Cheddar Soup and Ham Grilled Cheese

To follow up my post from yesterday about my low carb diet I thought it would be great to focus on being thankful for the food that we eat every day.  It's easy to grab breakfast as your running out the door or cruise through the drive thru and eat a meal while driving your car but when I do those things I don't really pay attention to what I'm eating.  I don't enjoy it and half the time I don't remember tasting it because as I am eating I'm concentrating on other things. So with changing my diet and making a lifestyle of lower carb meals I also take a moment before I eat to be grateful for the food that I'm eating. I say thank you and think about what I'm about to eat and really savor each bite. No matter what it is- I do this while I drink my morning coffee and even when I get a glass of cold water from the water cooler at work. It is so important to be living in the moment. This is a great way to practice that.

Because of the topic I decided to also share what I made for dinner tonight. From my menu for the week tonight I made an already low carb broccoli cheese soup recipe that I found HERE on The Food Network website along with with my version of a ham grilled cheese. This is a perfect weeknight meal because it is so yummy but doesn't take long to prep or prepare. Even better I found a great soup recipe that is already low carb- no changes here!
Here's how I did it:

Start by chopping up a medium onion and 3-4 cloves of garlic- I love garlic so I used 5 small cloves... ok they weren't that small but I love fresh garlic!

Add a tbsp of olive oil to a pot and sauté the onions and garlic for about 4 minutes 

Can you smell it?! I can! Mmmm one of my favorite smells!

Then sprinkle on 1/2 tsp salt and since we love pepper I added 1/2 tsp pepper too. 

To the onion and garlic sauté add in 2 cups of chicken stock and 1 cup of half and half.  Bring to a simmer and then add in about 3 cups of broccoli cut into florets.  Cook the broccoli in the simmering mixture until it is tender. 

Then using an immersion blender blend it until smooth.  It's important to blend it really well or else the broccoli will be grainy in the soup. 

After it's all blended add an 8 oz block of Monetary Jack cheese thats been shredded and add in a block of Boursin cheese. I love this cheese! Growing up we always had it at family parties to spread on crackers but since it is already seasoned its a great addition to a soup like this. The one I used was seasoned with shallot and chive -YUM.   

Once the cheese has melted and the soup is piping hot I added in about 1/2 tsp garlic salt for extra flavor. I added it in a sprinkle at a time until I liked the flavoring. I feel this soup really needs that at the end. Then.... it is ready to serve!

Garnished with fresh cracked black pepper

I served it along side a ham grilled cheese. These sandwiches I came up with one summer before I  changed to low carb but since I knew they would pair perfectly with this soup I modified the bread to Ezekiel bread which you can buy in the freezer section at most grocery stores- I get mine at Shop Rite. Ezekiel is a great alternative to traditional sandwich breads because it's made of refined wheat and many different kinds of grains (wheat, millet, barley, and spelt) and legumes (soybeans and lentils).

This makes this dinner healthy and lower carb.

Believe it or not almost every grocery store has this mustard and its worth it to keep it in your fridge- before you know it you'll be at the bottom of the jar.

For my sandwiches I put the bread in the toaster on the lowest time setting to defrost it since it is frozen.  Then I spread butter on each slice so they get a nice golden color on the stove.  On the other side of the bread, the bottom slice gets a layer of mayonnaise spread on it then a piece of white american cheese then 4 slices of deli ham I like to pile the slices- not stack, just personal preference. Next I put dill pickle sandwich slices after I have patted them dry of extra juices and then top it with 2 more slices of cheese. The top slices gets a spread of Kosciusko Mustard- I guess that's the polish in me- then top the sandwich and place in a cast iron skillet on medium heat. Flip once the cheese has melted and the bread is brown- I think everyone knows the drill for a good grilled cheese. 

I hope you enjoyed this soup and sandwich recipe! 

I found the soup recipe while making my weekly menu on foodnetwork.com- you can find the printable recipe HERE. I added in a couple extra spices so see above!  

Relax and enjoy your next meal and really savor each bite! We are so lucky to have such amazing food available to us each and every day.  

I really think the more thankful we are the more our food nourishes us. 

Cheers!