A Simple Meal Made Special
Sometimes life gets hectic and it can be easy to relegate dinner to rushing through a drive-thru, which isn't always the healthier option for our bodies or our wallets.
I love quick and easy dinners and food made simply. I think the less complicated something is on a busy week night the better!
Which is why I love pre-prepping dinner ingredients or having short cuts. A great short-cut is to use canned soup in dinners as either part of a main dish or to enhance meals. I mean, who hasn't heard of green-bean casserole made with canned mushroom soup, or cream of chicken soup used to enhance...well...chicken?
Those are fine -but if I'm going to use a canned soup as a "main course" in a dinner I prefer them to be of top quality...as close to home made or something I'd find in a restaurant as possible.
Which is why, when time is short but I still want to have a nice meal with my family a "go to" quick and healthy meal is Tomato and basil soup over brown rice. I love this meal. It's a favorite of my two boys which is a bonus because I know it's something I can whip up quickly, that is pretty wholesome.
To prepare I use a store bought tomato soup (I love the one by V-8). Brown rice (buy the quick brown rice that is ready in ten minutes otherwise brown rice typically takes about an hour to prepare.) Fresh basil (this is completely optional, but I like to sprinkle a bit into the soup as it's heating up.)
Prepare the soup and rice according to the directions. To brown rice I always...ALWAYS add butter or margarine. I feel the buttery flavor enhances the nuttiness of the brown rice. Truth be told I add a generous amount of buttery yumminess.
I serve this with a simple salad and a smile because dinner was prepped and served in under 20 minutes!
All the extra time I saved is used to enjoy my family. Talk about our day, tell jokes, laugh, make plans for the weekend...whatever. It's those simple, mundane moments that make life special. Having the time to relax and enjoy them is what resonates with me. It uplifts me, because I know that it's moments like these that my boys will look back on fondly. I was compensated for this post.