Tomato Soup That's REALLY MMM MMM GOOD!

I was so surprised last night at the New Weigh meeting how many people have NEVER tried to make their own tomato soup. It's so easy and versatile. You can used canned tomatoes, garden tomatoes, roasted tomatoes... and don't get me started on the variety of vegetables and herbs you can throw in there! Here is the very basic recipe I use. Feel free to do whatever you want to this - herbs, garlic, salsa, hot sauce, roasted red pepper, sun-dried tomato, cheeses - you name it.

First off - this is a list of the ingredients in a bowl of Campbell's Tomato Soup (c)

Ingredients

Tomato Puree (Water, Tomato Paste)Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup,Wheat Flour, Salt, Vegetable Oil (Corn, Cottonseed, Canola and/or Soybean)Flavoring, Ascorbic Acid, and Citric Acid.

Seriously???? You want to feed this to your family?

Let's try this easy peasy recipe.

Joni's Basic Tomato Soup

1 small onion diced

1 tbsp canola or olive oil

2 14 oz cans diced tomatoes (or about 2 pounds fresh)

2 chopped carrots

2 c chicken broth

1 tsp dried parsley flakes

1/4 tsp dried thyme

1/2 cup fat free half and half (fat free evaporated milk would work too)

salt and pepper

Parmesan cheese for topping (optional) 

Heat oil in a stockpot and add the onion, cooking until soft. Add the spices and cook until fragrant. Add the tomatoes, carrots and broth. Bring to a boil and then cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes. Puree with an immersion blender or carefully transfer to a blender to process in small batches. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add the FF half and half to make as creamy as you desire. Top with cheese.

Snow!

Kids are off today and really wanted to make snow ice cream with them. Well, being the low carbers that we are - no sugar or sweetened condensed milk in the house! So, I'm like a dog with a bone - we WERE going to have some snow ice cream.

I found a recipe for homemade sweetened condensed milk that called for brown sugar. Lo and behold I had some xylitol brown sugar in the cupboard I hadn't tried yet. (Ideal brand).

So this is what I did for the sweetened condensed milk -
2 large eggs (they are from our hens so I don't worry about nasty diseases :) - but use pasteurized egg substitute if you do)
1 cup Ideal (xylitol) brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Mix all that well - but don't beat with your mixer or it will foam up too much.

Then send the kids out to play in the snow and have them bring back about 8 cups of the fluffy stuff.
Mix the snow with the "sweetened condensed milk" and there ya go! It takes awhile to mix it up well. You just have to use the back of your spoon and kind of crush it together. YUM!

FYI- I WILL be using this sweetened condensed milk sub in something else - it is excellent :)