It's a Soup Kind of Day

It's really cold, windy, rainy, and just plain yucky outside. It's the type of day where you want a fire, a cozy blanket, and a good book/movie and the desire to do nothing, but hole up until the weather meets your approval.

Since I don't have the luxury of vegging out all day, I decided that making some soup would take the place of the fire. I used Nie Nie's Organic Tomato Soup Recipe and tweaked it a bit, but I think it turned out pretty good! We haven't had lunchtime yet, so I don't know if she'll like it or not- and she's the real barometer by which I measure all things.
If you want to make the recipe, it's VERY easy and took less than 15 minutes to make.

Organic Tomato Soup

• 24 oz tomato purée
• 2 cups organic vegetable stock
• 1 cup (a dash more for creamier soup) organic half-n-half
• sea salt, to taste
• ground pepper, to taste
• chopped fresh basil
• 1/4-1/2 cup (to your liking) of shredded Velveeta Cheese
  

Heat tomato purée with stock until simmering. Add shredded cheese and stir until is has melted into the soup. Remove from heat and whisk in half-n-half. Season and garnish with mini toasts and basil.

If you don't have tomato stock or tomato purée, here is the easy version!

• One can of tomato soup
• Half-n-Half
• 1/4-1/2 cup of shredded Velveeta Cheese
• Water

This recipe is not as specific, as it's one I made up myself and I usually just eyeball it.  But here's my best guestimates!  Empty the can of condensed soup into a pot. Fill the can with a little bit of water to make sure you got all of the soup out and pour that into that pot.  This is the trickier part.  Pour in the half-n-half, while stirring, until the soup is the color of pumpkin orange.  Stir constantly until steaming hot and then add the shredded cheese.  Keep stirring until the cheese has melted into the soup. Add little mini-toasts if you like.  Serve Immediately!   If you don't serve it right away the soup starts to get to get a cheese/cream skin on top and that doesn't taste very good.  This only takes like 5 minutes to make and it's one of Spencer's favorite things that I make!