It is still Disney day at our house. We have watched our share of Disney Parks TV specials, and will probably watch a few more. It’s a tiny bit chilly outside, so something warm, veggie packed, and Mickey is on the menu. The kids love broccoli and they love cheese, so they at least tolerate them put together as a soup.

Pretzel Ingredients:

1 ¹/² cups lukewarm water

3 ³/⁴ – 4 cups flour

1 pkg (2 ¹/⁴ tsp) yeast

1 tsp salt

1 T brown sugar

1 T softened butter

Course sea salt, kosher salt, or pretzel salt for sprinkling on top

Baking soda bath: ¹/² cup baking soda to 3 cups warm water

Pretzel Method:

In a stand mixer with bread hook, combine yeast, water, salt, sugar, and butter. Allow to proof for 10 minutes. Turn mixer on low and add flour slowly until dough is no longer sticking to the bottom of the bowl, then mix 8 minutes. Shape into a ball and place in a warm area in a covered, oiled bowl, for 10 minutes. Preheat oven to 400F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment or silicone baking mats, spraying each lightly with baking spray. Prepare baking soda bath in a shallow bowl. Divide dough into 10 pieces – you will get 10 Mickey pretzels from this recipe. With each piece of dough, divide the dough in half, then divide one half again, giving you one large and two smaller pieces. Roll each piece into a snake. Wrap the largest piece around all 4 of your fingers, overlap the ends, and pinch it shut. Wrap the two smaller pieces around just 2 fingers, overlap the ends, then pinch each shut. Now lay your larger ring down and place the two smaller rings in ear placement. Pinch each ear to the head. Dip each pretzel into the baking soda bath, sprinkle with salt, bake 12-15 minutes until golden brown. If you would like them to have a shine, in the last minute or so of baking, spray with baking spray.

Broccoli Cheese Soup Ingredients

4 broccoli crowns (I used 2 bags of fresh broccoli, which typically each have 2 heads) chopped into bite sized bits

1 cup sliced or shredded carrot

1 T onion flake or 1/4 onion finely diced

2 pouchs/cubes chicken bouillon

3 cups water

8 oz cream cheese (reduced fat is fine)

4 oz cheddar chopped or grated

¹/⁴ cup corn starch

2 cups milk (fat free/ reduced fat works well)

Salt/ pepper to taste

¹/² tsp each garlic and onion powder

Broccoli Cheese Soup Method:

In a large pot, combine broccoli, carrots, onion flake, bouillon, and water over medium heat. Once vegetables soften, about 20 minutes, turn down to medium low, and add cheeses, stirring often. Once melted, add corn starch and stir well. Then add milk, garlic/onion powder, salt/pepper. Adjust seasoning to taste if need.

What do you like to dip into your soup? Ever tried this combo?

As a side note, you can also make Mickey pretzels by rolling out the pretzel dough and cutting it with a Mickey cookie cutter, but that is a bit more work and doesn’t have the same pretzel chew. It would probably make a dang amazing burger bun, though….

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