February Cooking for 2: Tuna & Cheese Melt and Broccoli Soup

 

It snowed yet again last night.  That makes it a good day to make soup.  Before doing that, I will start with the sandwich.  Making a grilled tuna melt is very easy.  First, you mix mayonnaise with the tuna.  I won't specify how much, since different people like different amounts.  I also added some dill, since I like dill with it.  Add some salt and pepper as well.  Then get two pieces of bread and spread some of the tuna/mayo mixture onto one piece.  Add a slice of cheese and top it off with the other slide of bread.  Then, spread some softened butter or some oil onto both sides of the bread.  Any easy way to do this is to put some oil or butter in the frying pan you plan to cook it in, spread it on one side and then flip it over to the other side.  Cook it on a medium heat until the first sides gets a golden brown and then flip it over and do the same for the other side.  I usually cover it while it cooks to make sure the cheese will melt.  It is a nice change from grilled cheese alone.  

As for the soup, well, I made a little bit of white sauce, added thyme, pepper, salt, and garlic powder to it.  Then I added between 1/4 to 1/3 cup of cheese and let it melt.  In a different small saucepan, I cooked about 2 cups of broccoli and 2 Tablespoons of chopped onions in 1 cup chicken broth until they were done.  I cut any big pieces of broccoli and mixed the white sauce with the veggies and broth and ended up with what you see in the picture.  In the past, I have used a lot of white sauce, but I tried to make this healthier by using the broth that I cooked the veggies in for part of the soup base.   The little bit of white sauce was made with 1 Tablespoon of butter and 1 Tablespoon of flour and enough milk (around 1/2 cup) to make it in to a sauce.  It turned out well.  Because of the thyme, it made it taste better and I could use less white sauce and cheese in it compared to what I have done in the past.