Tuesday's Food: Crockpot Spicy Tomato Soup

I looked at the text my husband just sent me, and then looked at the pantry again. This past week had been an expensive one for us, and if we were ever going to save any money for our 10 year anniversary trip to New Orleans, we were going to need to cut corners...again. With just his income (and the little bit I get from Bounty...see here, here, and here for details), I have to be creative and frugal as the Home Manager. So as he texted me with the latest update on our budget (he does it on his lunch break...crazy guy), I knew that a quick trip to the store to pick up stuff was just going to have to wait until the next payday.

Lucky for me, though, two weeks ago I went on my monthly BOGOF grocery trip. I go about once a month and pick up pretty much just Buy 1 Get 1 Free items...with the exception of milk and eggs...which generally aren't ever BOGOF. :( I'm not particularly good at couponing, but I'm pretty good at taking all the sales papers of my local grocery stores and making lists of all the BOGOF stuff we would actually use. Check out my loot!

So you see on the bottom right all those cans? Those are all tomato-something. And that was where I got my inspiration for last night's super-frugal, completely husband approved, and kid tested (and liked!) dinner.

I searched my favorite crockpot website A Year of Slow Cooking, and found her Tomato Soup Recipe. The problem was I didn't have all the ingredients she had, and I was really going to try to make something at home without having to go by the store. So, I grabbed what I had and made a pretty decent soup! Check it out:

Crockpot Spicy Tomato Soup 

Ingredients:

• 2  (14.5 oz) Cans of Diced Tomatoes (One of mine was Oregano and Rosemary diced) 
• 1 (10 oz) Can of Diced Tomatoes with Green Chilies (if you don't like spicy, then just add another can of regular diced or maybe one of those herby ones like I had above) 
• 1 (14.5 oz) Can of Stewed Tomatoes 
• 1/4 cup of oregano (yes! I love this stuff!) 
• 2 Tbsp of rosemary (fresh is preferred, but dried will work just as well) 
• 1 Tbsp of Garlic Powder
• 2 tsp of Onion Powder 
• 1/2 cup of Fat Free Sour Cream

Steps: 

1. Gently dump all your tomatoes in a blender. (If you have one of those nifty tools that you can stick in your soup to puree, do it! I would have done this with mine, but I killed my hand blender on making a smoothie...for real, I did.) Blend until the tomatoes run smooth. 
2. Gently pour into your crockpot. Blend in all the spices. Leave the sour cream until the very end. DONT put it in at this point. Trust me. 
3. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours. 
4. About 10  minutes before serving, gently stir in the sour cream. 

Serve with grilled cheese (that you make in your waffle iron...if you haven't done this yet, it will change your life!), a few croutons, and a dollop of sour cream. I had some leftover garlic bread from spaghetti last week, and I just chopped that stuff up and put on top of the soup. See below: 

It was YUMMY! And I had enough to freeze for another meal another time. 

And just a side note, my oldest child likes to think he can handle hot stuff, especially since his mama can barely handle black pepper. So when I served him this soup last night, we had a competition to see who can eat the most without having to drink anything....and I won. Just saying. :) 

And one last side note: don't make this while wearing white. You will want to test the soup at some point, and inevitably the spoon will slip out of your hands, fly through the air in slow motion and land on the floor with a large SPLAT! Then you will have to quickly remove all the whites you have on and run to your laundry room to quickly apply a stain-fighter agent (white vinegar or peroxide)...just because you wanted an early taste. Just leave the soup alone.