Clam Chowder and Cheddar Muffins

We had some delicious clam chowder tonight and some White Cheddar Muffins to go with it.  Here is the recipe for clam chowder.  It's totally basic, a recipe I grew up with, and is as simple as you get.

Clam Chowder

1 6-8 oz can chopped clams with juice
3 stalks celery, chopped
3 medium gold potatoes, chopped
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
2 c chicken broth
6 T butter
3/8 c flour
1 1/2 c skim milk
1/2 c cream
Salt and Pepper to taste

In a large pot, place potatoes, celery, onions, clams, chicken broth and clam juice.  Make sure veggies are all covered with broth, if not, add more.  Boil and simmer until all veggies are tender.  Make a white sauce with the butter and flour and milk and cream.  Mix the white sauce into the veggies and broth, and salt and pepper to taste.  Serve.

We love this recipe, it's so easy and satisfying, and we split this into 6 servings.  Each serving is 299 calories, and we gave this soup a 9.

The muffins were pretty good, but I felt like the rosemary overpowered the cheddar flavor.  I used extra sharp cheddar instead of white cheddar, adn the rest of the recipe I followed exactly.  I liked the texture of these muffins, but I think chives or onions would go better in these muffins.  We gave them an 8, and since I got 12 muffins out of the recipe the calories were 195/muffin.

Tomorrow we're having some chocolate muffins.