During the fall and winter months, my family has the tradition of making weekends our soup nights. We like to make all of our favorites and I am always looking for new ones to try.

Soup can be a very economical dish to make, especially when you have to serve lots of people or when the economy is bad. My family happens to face both of these circumstances every day. I have to cook for 8 people and we live on one income. I am always on the lookout for good, cheap, nourishing meals.

This soup fulfills all of those qualities; good, cheap and nourishing! Surprisingly, it also pleases everyone in the family. With so many of us, it never fails that there is always "someone" who doesn't like "something".  I hope you enjoy it as much as my family does!

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons butter, 1 large onion, 6 medium potatoes cut into bite size chunks, 4 cups water, 4-5 cups fresh broccoli florets (about 2 bunches), 1 lb cubed Velveeta cheese, 1 cup milk, salt and pepper to taste.

Directions:

In a large stock pot, saute onions in butter till crisp tender. Add cut potatoes and water. Bring to a boil and cook till potatoes are halfway done, about 5 minutes. Add broccoli (pot will be full and look like there is only a little liquid) and cook for another 5-8 minutes or until potatoes and broccoli are tender. Take soup off stove and add Velveeta cheese. Cover and let sit till cheese is melted. Stir well and add milk, salt and pepper. Delicious!

1.  When making this recipe you can add a few more potatoes or use a few less. The same goes for the broccoli. If you like your broccoli finer rather than chunkier, chop it more.
2. One thing to remember is to make sure you use the same ratio of cheese to liquid. If you add more liquid you will need more cheese.
3. Make sure that when you add the milk, you do not keep it on the heat.  The milk will curdle. I also let it cool down a bit before adding the milk.  That is the reason for letting it sit while the cheese melts.
4. There have been times when bacon has gone on sale and I have fried it nice and crisp. I then crumble it, put it into a bowl and serve it with the soup. Anyone who wants to add some to their soup can.  This makes it taste like a broccoli, cheese, and bacon topped baked potato.
5. I like to serve this soup with some nice homemade bread (that is another hub!).
6. I have found that this soup doesn't re-heat well the next day because the milk wants to  curdle. Does anyone have any tips on this? I would love to make the soup last for 2 nights instead of one day.

 I have calculated what it cost for me to make this soup.  I have to double the soup for our family so the prices here are for a double batch.  To get the price of milk and potatoes, I divided and rounded out the cost. For example; the milk cost $1.98 a gallon.  I only used 2 cups so it came out to .13 cents per cup. The other ingredients were on sale.  I only paid .99 cents for a bunch of broccoli.  I try to wait for sales on the Velveeta, and I will stock up on them at a sale price.  Then when the broccoli comes on sale, like it did this week, I buy it and make the soup.  Coupons on Velveeta can also help bring down the cost.

Potatoes - $2.00, Broccoli - $3.00, Onion - $.80, Cheese - $4.00, milk - $.26, butter - $.24.

That is a total of $10.30 for a double batch which will feed our family of 8 for 2 meals.  It comes out to $.64 cents per person per meal.