Southern Grilled Cheese & creamy Southern Tomato Soup (plus a fun recipe for your kids!)

Tonight we are serving up southern grilled cheese with a side of Southern Tomato Soup (and a fun grilled cheese recipe for the kids, too.)   

DIRECTIONS: 

• I (adults only) heat up a griddle or pan.
• We take (real) butter that has been softened and spread it on the bread.   The kids help do this.  (TIP:  Let them use the back side of a spoon to spread it.  It will prevent them from making holes in the bread by using a knife)
• THE TIP TO DOING THIS and making it taste so great is to cook it on low, for a few minutes.  DO NOT rush this.
• After we put thawed butter on the bread and then I also melt the butter on the griddle and I will lay the bread down on the butter.
• I then lay the cheese on the bread, while it is on the griddle.   I use two slices of Kraft® American cheese per sandwich.
• Add the second piece of bread and do the same thing (melt the butter, etc…)
•  Heat it for a few minutes, on LOW, on the griddle, just until it is golden.  Flip and repeat on side #2.
• Don’t rush it by cooking it on medium or high.  (If you do, just the outside part is crisp, by the crust and the rest is burnt…  oops!)
• Before you put the top of the Roman Meal bread on, cut a slice of TOMATO and place it on there- it will be warm and delicious!

• Cook & slice in into bite size pieces when you are done.
• (TIP: I put ours on a cutting board and use a pizza slicer or scissors to cut it- it keeps the tomato from being pulled off of the sandwich)
• Put a toothpick into each one to make it easier to dip it into your Southern Tomato Soup (recipe below).

Now for the fun part for your kids….

Let the kids pick on of these meals to help you make:
Southern Grilled Cheese with cheesy tomato soup
Dinosaur Grilled Cheese with broccoli (we pretend this is the trees)
Car Grilled Cheese with carrots (tires)
Train Grilled Cheese with grapes (coal)
Monster Grilled Cheese with broccoli and ranch dressing (Monster food)

• Let the kids help you to make their sandwich.
• Get out cookie cutters and create what they want their sandwich to be.
• Take the sandwiches off of the griddle and let them cool for about one minute, before using the cookie cutters.
• I give 4 choices of shapes (as you saw above) and pair them with fun vegetables. Its not just broccoli when you are eating dinosaur grilled cheese, its Dinosaurs and Trees, as my nephew says.

• Get creative!

• My shapes change each time that I make this.  (My mom bought me a huge bucket of cookie cutters last year, so I am able to provide them with a bunch of fun options!) You can find some at your Dollar General or any local store.

The kids think this is great and they eat it up!

Southern Tomato Soup:

I sort of cheat with this recipe (not making it from scratch)

• One can of Campbell’s Tomato Soup
• One can of milk (after you dump the soup in, fill it with milk) or you can use half & half or heavy cream.
• 1/2 T. brown sugar (to cut down on the bitterness and to sweeten it just a bit)
• Garnish with basil leaves and a swirl of heavy cream.Do you want more recipe ideas?