In honor of National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day today I knew I had to make grilled cheese. Ok, well I cheat, I make "toasted cheese." Doesn't sound as good but it's definitely healthier! No frying in butter! Tastes just as good to me and less mess to clean up!
I searched Pinterest and found two recipes I liked and adapted my version from them. One was from Your Homebased Mom and the other from Food Doodles.
It looks like a lot, but I promise it's easy and you probably have most of the ingredients on hand already!
Ingredients:
- 2 14.5oz cans of tomatoes, crushed or petit diced (I used a quart Mason jar of home-grown and home-canned tomatoes from my parents!)
- 1/4 cup of butter or oil (I used coconut oil)
- 1 cup of chicken broth (I used 1 chicken bouillon cube)
- 1 can of tomato paste
- 1/4 teaspoon of thyme
- 1/4 teaspoon of basil
- 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
- 1-2 cups of water
- 1 cup milk (2%, whole, half & half, whatever you prefer! I used 2%)
- Salt (to taste)
- Pepper (to taste)
Directions:
Add all your ingredients together and mix thoroughly into a medium saucepan. The white blob is just coconut oil, don't freak out!
Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 10-15 minutes.
Let it sit until it's cool enough to put into your blender. You can also use a food processor or an immersion blender.
Pour it into your blender, carefully!
Blend until smooth! Anyone know why it turns orange?
This is when I added the tomato paste because I didn't think it was thick enough and the flavor wasn't where I wanted it, but obviously it's better to add it all from the beginning!
Return to the saucepan or serve this way. At this point I added milk and water until I got the consistency that I wanted.
Get your grilled (er, toasted) cheese going!
Mmm look at that melty cheese!
Once it's the way you want it, serve it and enjoy!
Garnish with a little fresh or dried basil for that perfect finishing touch!
And don't forget to cut the grilled cheese at an angle like mom used to do ;)
Or cut it into tiny bit-size pieces like me.
Hope you go for this before buying Campbell's again! I promise, this is way better, and healthier!!
Do you prefer to make your own tomato soup or go for the can? What's your favorite way to make a grilled cheese? How did you celebrate National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day?
Till next time,
Catherine
I've linked up to Make Your Own Mondays 9/23 with Nourishing Treasures!
I've linked up to Mostly Homemade Mondays #47 with Frugal By Choice, Cheap by Necessity, Homegrown & Healthy, Scratch Mommy, and Mindful Mama.
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