Slow Cooker Tomato Basil Soup {Slow Cooker Saturday}

Welcome to Slow Cooker Saturday! Would you like a side of soup with your grilled cheese croutons? Sounds good to me.

Er..I mean a side of grilled cheese croutons with your soup. Yeah, that is what I meant.

Either way, both the soup and the grilled cheese croutons are kind of fabulous.

At our house we love ourselves some tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. I really wanted to try and make a snazzier version of our typical open a can tomato soup. Yes, I just said we like our tomato soup from the can. I am not ashamed of it.

Back to the snazzy version of tomato soup. I decided to try a tomato basil version that you can make in the slow cooker, and then I got all crazy and I decided that grilled cheese croutons were needed.

The tomato soup just hung out all day in the slow cooker making my house smell divine.

Once it was ready and just waiting to be eaten, I whipped up some grilled cheese croutons. I highly recommend making these if you make this soup. They are kind of like soul mates and it would be cruel to keep them a part.

I like to make our grilled cheese sandwiches with this extra divine and extra special gourmet butter.

Chef Shamy Gourmet Garlic Butter is kind of ridiculous. It should probably be a part of your life immediately.

To make the grilled cheese croutons, simply gather up some good old white bread, some American cheese slices, and this butter.

Drop a spoonful of butter into a hot skillet.

Once it melts add in the bread and cheese (in sandwich form of course). Cook one side until golden brown. Add in a bit more butter and then flip the sandwich and cook the other side until it is golden and the cheese is melted.

Keep on making sandwiches. I recommend making one per person.

Then cut the sandwiches up in cubes. Give them time to set out and dry a bit. Only for like 15-20 minutes. I set them on a cookie sheet and just let them get dry and a teeny bit crunchy. You can let them set out longer, but I like mine still a little chewy.

Now they are all croutony and ready to go on top of some Slow Cooker Tomato Basil Soup.

YUM!!

Slow Cooker Tomato Basil Soup
adapted from 365 Days of Slow Cooking

1 onion, diced
1 teaspoon minced garlic
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup flour
1/4 cup fresh chopped basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 Tablespoons caramelized tomato paste**
2 28oz cans of crushed tomatoes
4 cups chicken broth
1 Tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup of heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste

**To make the tomato paste, saute 1 8oz can of tomato paste in a skillet with 1 Tablespoon of olive oil. Saute the tomato paste until it reduces slightly and turns a deep red.

Heat up some olive oil  in saute pan. Add in diced onion into the pan and cook until translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Add in garlic, basil, and oregano and cook for another minute. Slowly stir in flour and cook for another minute while stirring constantly.

Take off the heat and transfer it to a slow cooker. Add in the tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, broth, honey, and salt. Stir and cover. Cook on low for 5-7 hours.

Remove the lid and turn to high. At this point, use an immersion blender and blend the soup until it is smooth and creamy. Add in the heavy cream. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook for another 10 minutes on high without the lid.

Serve in a bowl topped with grilled cheese croutons.

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Zuppa Toscana

This winter my favorite soup, Italian Wedding Soup has been challenged by this recipe for Zuppas Toscana. I LUHHHVE it. Like so much. Previous to this winter I had never tried it. I had not even ever had the original version at Olive Garden.

Shock. Gasp.

No I do not live under a rock. I just never go to Olive Garden. Okay, so I hardly ever get out. Ha!

There were so many people telling me I needed to try it, that I gave into peer pressure and I decided to finally make Zuppas Toscana. 

Friends, I slurped it greedily out of my bowl and then I proceeded to lick my bowl. Then I had another bowl and repeated the previous process. Then I had another bowl the next day for lunch. People, that means I ate it for leftovers. You know me and leftovers. So...that is basically my must-eat-this-it-will-be-heavenly stamp of approval.

This soup has Italian sausage, potatoes, spinach, and bacon. Basically a few of my dearest loves are all in this soup. Only the most divine ingredients for me. Seriously it is no wonder I love this soup.

This soup is hearty enough for winter, but light enough to be made in all the other seasons. This is an all year kind of soup. If you have never made it, then I very strongly recommend the recipe for this bowl of goodness.

So let's recap shall we--

-never had Zuppas Toscana before

-made it

-loved it

-had it for leftovers

-if you haven't had it, make it

That is it in a nutshell.

Enjoy friends!

Zuppa Toscana

adapted from The Recipe Critic

5-6 pieces of bacon, cut up

4 potatoes

6 cups chicken broth

1 onion, finely diced

1 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

1 lb mild Italian sausage

2 cups heavy cream

2 1/2 cups roughly chopped spinach

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

salt and pepper to taste

Cook the bacon in a frying pan. Remove pieces once they are cooked, but before they are really crispy. Set aside on a paper towel. 

Peel the potatoes. Slice each potato in half lengthwise and then cut each half into 1/4" slices. Add the chicken stock to a large pot. Bring the broth to a boil. Add the potatoes into the boiling broth.

As the potatoes cook, saute the Italian sausage into a pan. Cook just short of being completely cooked. Drain off the fat. Add in the garlic and onion. Saute the mixture together until the sausage is golden and the onions are translucent. 

Once the potatoes are tender, add in the sausage mixture and the spinach. Let the mixture boil for a couple of minutes. Long enough for the spinach to start to wilt.

Reduce the heat and add in the cream, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Cook until the soup is heated through.

Top with bacon and serve.

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Breakfast Command Center Tray {Project Pantry}

I have a project list two miles long. The list is more than a little overwhelming and a whole lot too much for the budget. Instead of getting all tragic about it I just pick one smaller project and I bust it out making my list just a bit smaller.

My smaller project as of late is a little pantry make over. I am calling it Project Pantry. I know. I am pretty original. It is a gift.

There has been painting and more painting. I have gathered containers I already owned and then bought some new ones. I only have a little bit more work to do. Then I can show you all my all prettied up pantry.

Today, I want to give you just a little sneak peak of Project Pantry. Well, this will be a second peak if you follow me on Instagram (go on and follow me @larissa_anotherday) because I already gave one over there.

One of the biggest messes in our pantry was all the breakfast stuff.

My solution was to organize all the breakfast stuff onto a Breakfast Command Center Tray.

We had a miraculously warm and sunny day which gave me the opportunity to spray paint some stuff. I had an old TV tray just taking up space. It was just the right size to hold some cereal boxes.

So it got spray painted.

Then it got fitted with all our breakfast favorites. We have cereal boxes nicely stacked side by side. Packets of instant oatmeal and granola are nicely stored in clear containers. Just grab some bowls, spoons, and milk and breakfast is ready.

When breakfast is done, I can just put the tray back into the pantry. Where it patiently waits and sits until the next morning breakfast rush.

Be on the look out for more Project Pantry coming soon! Eek! Can you feel the excitement?!?

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Clipboard Love Note and Temple Silhouette Art

Clipboards are one of my favorite decorating secret weapons. Clipboards are easy to find and they are really cheap. You can paint them. You can add a simple photograph. They can hang on the wall. They can sit on a shelf.

Seriously, clipboards are the best. They aren't just for taking notes anymore.

They are for leaving notes too. Love notes to be exact.

Love notes quoting the ever-dreamy Mr. Darcy to be more exact.

Just the best love note ever. This love note is simply clipped onto the clipboard. The great thing about this love note is that it is actually a photograph.

I made this love note photograph using PicMonkey. I scanned a piece of regular notebook paper into my computer. Then I opened it up in PicMonkey and used one of my favorite handwriting fonts to "write" up one of my favorite romantic lines ever. Then I just printed if off at a photo center as an 8x10.

right click on the image and save to your computer

The smaller sized clipboards are so cute. I just had to create something with one of them too.

The Hubs and I got married in the Salt Lake City Temple. I thought it would be nice to add a silhouette image of the the Salt Lake City Temple to a clipboard.

I cut out a stencil of the silhouette of the Salt Lake City Temple using my Silhouette machine. I stuck the vinyl stencil on to the clipboard. Then I used painters tape to cover all the parts of the clipboard I didn't want painted. I left a small boarder around the edge.

Then I spray-painted until the coverage was how I wanted. The last thing you need to do is let it dry for a bit and then slowly remove the painters tape and vinyl stencil.

With my clipboard art in hand, I can start decorating with it.

So much love and cuteness in the air I can barely stand it.

These clipboards would also look super cute in a wall collage...which just might be where they end up...hint, hint. Coming soon.

Now off I go to watch Pride and Prejudice for the 1,000th time.

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Superhero In Training T-Shirt

Superheros are a big deal around here.

Like BIG.

B.I.G

How big?

Well, I have four Superheros in training to be exact. That is a pretty big deal.

I figured I should make a shirt declaring their future world saving status. That way their awesomeness would be clear.

Hence, this Superhero In Training T-Shirt.

I used Expressions Vinyl flocked heat transfer vinyl and cut it with my Silhouette. I used a simple rectangle shape and block lettering. I used the negative space for the letters.

It was a quick and fun project that brought immediate joy to the wearer and the momma.

Do you see this face?

He loves this shirt, as would any superhero in training.

I think this superhero's superpower is cuteness.

Do you have Superheros In Training at your house? They might need a shirt like this.

Thanks for reading Peeps!

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