Pizza Soup

One of the irritating things about being gluten free is you can't just heat up a can of Campbells for lunch. 99.9% of canned soup manages to cram some kind of gluten into it. But, I've discovered that homeade soup is way yummier, and usually pretty easy. Not to mention cheap. Cheap is good.

On the road to this discovery I happened upon a delicious Creamy Tomato Pesto recipe. It's one of my favorites, but my kids won't touch it. Until today.

My sister is brilliant with kids; she always has been. It's a gift. And she is the one who taught me this trick. Never ever ever serve tomato soup. Always serve pizza soup. It's exactly the same thing. But the spin does the trick. Well, you do have to let the kids sprinkle mozzeralla on it and diced pepperoni. It's also good with croutons or pasta. But those are just extras. The point is that the word pizza works miracles on a kid's appetite. And if it even remotely resembles pizza then its a done deal.

Bub ate 3 bowls.

(And he had no idea I added pureed yellow squash to the recipe. The kid wouldn't touch squash with a 10 foot pole. But I, Wonder Mom, had cleverly disguised it as pizza. )

Creamy Tomato Pesto Soup goes something like this:

- 32 oz. of chicken stock
-1 can of tomatoes with garlic and onions.
-1 BIG can of diced tomatoes.

Puree. Heat. Then add:

1 cup half and half (or, if your husband isn't watching puree 1/2 pack of tofu in with the other stuff. I actually like the tofu better than the half and half - just have to be a little sneaker)

Salt and pepper to taste. ( go long on the salt folks)

Garnish with store bought pesto. (it says 2 T. but I say way more is better)

and sometimes 1 T of sugar helps balance the flavors...

Anyhoo...I think I'm beginning to see why I might not have a future in food blogging. My cooking is usually loosely based on a recipe I saw once. Could tend to confuse...