Potato Broccoli Cheese Soup

Hey everyone! Hope you're making it through the cold weather months and staying warm. The recipe I have to share with you today will help keep you warm! Who doesn't like soup when it's cold outside?! Anyway, this "recipe" comes from my Mother-in-Law and I put the word recipe in quotation marks because it's one of the recipes that can be adapted and put together pretty much anyway you want but it makes one awesome soup! There will be a lot of commentary with the instructions and ingredient list so you can see what I mean about adapting it. I definitely give this recipe a 5!

Ingredients

-Fresh broccoli chopped up (you can also use frozen) use as much or as little as you want

-Chicken Broth/vegetable broth (again use as much or as little as you want, we like to make a big batch at once because this soup gets better as the days go by, it's great for leftovers!) I used about 58 oz. or 4 cans of broth

-potatoes cut up small (again as much or as little as you want and it can be cut up as big or as little as you want)

-chopped carrots (as big or as little, as much or as little as you want)*
-chopped onions (ditto)*-cornstarch (for thickening use as much or as little depending on desired thickness)
-shredded cheddar cheese (as much as you want, the more the better!, I used about 3-4 handfulls)
-salt and pepper to taste

*as a side note to the onions and carrots, if you have little kids who don't like this kind of thing, then put them in a food blender and get them as finely chopped as you can so they kind of blend into the soup.

Directions
Put all ingredients except for the cornstarch and cheese into a pot and bring to a boil. Then simmer until the potatoes and other vegetables are tender.

Add the cornstarch to desired thickness, then add in the cheese until melted. Salt and pepper to taste.

Variations: there are many! Use other vegetables if you want. Also if you don't have potatoes on hand (like I didn't tonight) use instant potato flakes instead and then you can skip the cornstarch because the potato flakes will thicken up the soup themselves.