Crock Pot Broccoli Cheese Soup

My husband works rotating shifts, a lot of hours, and sometimes at night.  I've been trying to find easy dinner ideas that I can just throw together and not really have to do much to prepare because right when I am fixing dinner seems to be the time when my little Noah likes to eat! 
Soup is a super easy thing to make in the crock pot and it's a good thing because we LOVE soup in our house.  
Last night I made broccoli cheese soup in the crock pot.  We LOVE broccoli cheese soup! I've never made it in the crock pot before, after all, it's easy enough on the stove, but I wanted it even easier!  Unfortunately, most of the recipes for broccoli cheese soup in the crock pot called for Velveeta and those of you who know me well, know how much I HATE Velveeta.  I don't think it can even be considered food.  It's highly processed, it's got chemicals in it, basically it's like eating flavored plastic.  YUCK!  Why someone would choose to put that in his or her body is beyond me.  It makes me sick, literally.  So, I set to work trying to figure out how to get around the Velveeta issue.  Here's my swap- Cream Cheese!  It works beautifully!

Crock Pot Broccoli Cheese Soup

• 4 large heads broccoli cut into florets
• 1 jar alfredo sauce (I like Newman's Own) UPDATE- I no longer use jarred sauce for this recipe, I use homemade béchamel sauce.
• 8 oz cream cheese
• 4 cups chicken stock or broth
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Combine the broccoli, onion, alfredo sauce, and chicken stock in the crock pot and set on low for 4-6 hours.  Stir to break up the broccoli and mix together.  Stir in the cream cheese until melted and incorporated.  Add the cheese and do the same as with the cream cheese. Mmm...delicious!

Until next time, happy and healthy eating!