Soup and Chocolate Orange Cookies!

Monday's planned dinner was a tomato soup. So when the time came to get dinner started, I began with a can of tomato soup and two cans of vegetable broth.

Those went into a large pot over medium heat. Then I pulled out the leftover pureed sweet potatoes I had in my fridge. I also thought the mashed butternut squash would be a nice addition. 

    Do you remember I had talked about coconut milk? Well, I didn't have any more. haha And the creamer I did have in my fridge for the daily coffee was fat free. I was running out of "creaming" agents for this soup. While all of this was going on, the soup was cooking on the stove with the spices I had whisked in: garlic powder, onion powder, pepper, paprika, and a dash of cinnamon.

I had originally thought of grilled cheese sammies to go with the soup and so I got everything out with that intent.

But tempers were not on my side this particular evening. So I sliced up the loaf of bread I had bought at the grocery and laid the slices out on a pizza pan. The slices got drizzles of olive oil and half got a little spicy brown mustard too. 

The slices without the mustard received a good sprinkling of colby montery jack cheese. The slices with the mustard got some shredded swiss cheese. Then the pan went into the oven while I finished up the soup. So that creaming agent I needed? Sour cream was the winner. To avoid it curdling in the hot pot of soup, I added a small amount to each individual bowl.

Then the bread came out of the oven, onto the plates, and it was time to eat!

Oh my goodness! I completely forgot about the onions I cooked! Okay, so while the soup was cooking but before the bread went into the oven, I caramelized some onions to top the cheese on the the bread slices. It was a nice addition of flavor to the whole over-all meal. If I would have had more onions, I would have added them to the soup. 


So, despite the success with brussels sprouts, this soup was not received well by my 5-year-old. Although she did enjoy the swiss-cheese-and-onion cheesy bread dippers. My 2-year-old did enjoy the soup as well as the bread dippers. I enjoyed it all, so in my book, it was a success. :)




Monday was also the day I needed to get the presents together for my daughter's teachers.

 Abby and I made the Chocolate Orange Cookies that were such a big hit the first time around. These did not disappoint either! :)

And as you'll notice, the cookies were really irresistible. See the hand reaching for the cookies as I snapped the picture? haha 

For the gifts I used the chinese take-out boxes with the cookies wrapped in plastic wrap tied with ribbon. Kyleigh said her teachers tried some in the middle of the day and loved them. :)