Broccoli Cheese Crock Pot Soup

My dogs are assholes.  Yes, all of them.

Dave is gone for a hunting trip with my brother.  Hershey barks non-stop.  I think he thinks he has to guard the house while Dave is gone, and when Hershey barks, Riley barks, then Tek and Mooree get in on the fun.  The big dogs bark a couple times, but Hershey does.  not.  stop.  So, I got a squirt bottle and filled it with water, when he barks I tell him to stop, and when he doesn't stop, I squirt him.  He is starting to get the message.

Mooree is still an energetic puppy and while I can put up with that, I can't put up with the digging.  Our back yard is all pavers, gravel, wood deck and grass, and there is a gate to the grass the dogs can't get to unless I open the gate to let them run.  We have pulled all the flowers for winter so around the edge of the deck are empty flower boxes.  Mooree has decided he needs to dig in them, get dirt all over the place and then roll in it.  Plus, it has been raining so the dirt is now mud and all the dogs walk through it and into to the house, so my house is a mud pit. I was out in the pouring rain on Saturday sweeping the mud off the deck. And he eats my shoes.

Tek is mean and I got woken up at 4:30 with a jolt because someone (Lily or Mooree) yelped as Tek was getting pissy with them and I had to go running down the stairs into the garage where the big dog kennel is to be sure no one was bleeding. As it is, the little dogs have to kennel separate from the big dogs because Tek made Hershey bleed once.

And Tek is just not my favorite dog.

Riley is refusing to eat.  I actually sit on the floor and spoon feed that damn dog the stewed chicken I make him because he won't eat dog food and he is so underweight the vet said to do anything to get him to eat. Chicken must taste better on a spoon.

Then, while Dave is gone, I worked on cleaning out the dish/exercise room and getting it ready for me to exercise in during the winter.  I purchased some giant foam squares to put on the concrete floor in that room.  I vacuumed and mopped the floor, then laid out the foam squares and put a gate on the door so the dogs can't come in and get it muddy.  Dave is gone and Riley HATES Mooree so I brought Riley into the room this morning, put him on a soft little blanket and started an exercise tape.  Mooree and Tek got into something so I ran to make sure all was well with the house.  When I came back into the room to resume exercising, Riley had pooped right in the middle of the floor on my new foam squares.  So I spent about 15 minutes cleaning up the mess and rearranging the foam squares so I didn't lay down on the pooped one to do my push-ups or sit-ups.  Yes, I did disinfect the area but still, yech.

Lily is the only good dog we have.

After all this energy to take care of my asshole dogs, I am tired.  To help save myself some time with making dinner, I made this dump soup.  You just dump everything in the crock pot and a few hours later (or when you get home from work) you blend it with your emersion blender and dinner is ready.  I always have all the ingredients in my house so I can make this whenever I'm struggling for dinner or lunch.  I made this and had it all week while Dave was gone because 1) it is delicious and 2) Dave doesn't think soup is dinner.  He doesn't know what he is missing.

Broccoli and Cheese Crockpot Soup

1 lb. frozen broccoli
4 cups chicken stock
8 oz. cream cheese
1/4 cup onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups cheddar cheese
1 cup fresh baby spinach

Put broccoli, chicken stock, cream cheese, onion, garlic, salt and pepper in crock pot.  Cook on high for 2-3 hours or low for 4-6 hours.

Add cheddar cheese and spinach, blend with immersion blender or carefully transfer to blender and puree until smooth.

Top with a little heavy cream (pour some onto a spoon and drizzle onto top of soup) and cheddar cheese.  Enjoy

Makes 6 servings

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3 years ago:  Carrot Soup and Ducks in the Yard

5 years ago:  Cranberry Shortbread

October 8, 2018   Sunrise 8:22 am  Sunset 6:52 pm  Temp. H 43/ L 29˚F