Yep, It's Good Food

A bowl of soup on a cold day -- Mmmm! Piping hot, scooped from a big ol' pot. I make a lot of homemade soups (lentil, anyone?) in the winter time but always have canned soups on-hand, too, for an easy lunch when I don't have any homemade soup around. Soup is a favorite comfort food for me, and I have many fond childhood memories involving soup. The steam, the smell, the slurping sounds....

These days, I buy Campbell's Healthy Request soups and Imagine soups from the health food section at the grocery store. When you're looking for lower sodium and low fat, you've got to look pretty hard!  I'm in an Imagine Butternut Squash soup phase right now. Mmmmm.

But as a kid in the '70's, who paid attention to labels? I know my mother didn't, and neither did I. Chicken Noodle soup -- full sodium, thankyouverymuch, Tomato Soup (with elbow macaroni added), and Bean with Bacon. Ahh. Campbell's Bean with Bacon soup. That was my absolute favorite. It's been years since I've had it, but I remember it fondly.  When you dump it out of the can into the pan, it's a solid mass -- packed with beans. It thins out when you add water, but it's still a very hearty soup.

Now that I'm thinking about it as a label-reader, I see the sodium content in my favorite childhood soup. Gasp. 860mg per 1/2 cup serving. Half a cup? I never ate just half a cup. I probably got enough sodium for a month when I had this soup. Otherwise it's not terrible -- good in the fiber department with the beans, and it has some nutritional value with protein, iron, etc.  But 1720mg of sodium per cup?! Gasp!

Anyway, my younger sister and I would pile up peanut buttered crackers (Peter Pan on Zesta, always) & mush them into our Bean with Bacon soup, til we had a very hearty concoction -- we called it our slop. "Shut up and eat yer slop!" we'd say to each other across the table. I'm sure those were heart-warming moments for our parents.

What was your favorite soup as a kid?  And now?

Comments

[running2ks]

Chicken and stars as a kid--or the Sirloin soup you ate like a meal.

Now, being vegan, Imagine and Pacific soups. And progresso lentil :)

[running2ks]

LOL on the "slop" btw :)

[Marcia]

when i was little, it was campbell's cream of mushroom with extra musrooms added by my mom (made with milk, not water, of course!)

now that I'm grown, it's campbell's cream of mushroom with extra mushrooms (and a little garlic) added by me (seriously, more mushrooms than soup... my husband can't stand it!) made with milk and sherry. A lot of sherry.

[K Jones]

I am and always will be a clam chowder fan. My wife forbids it in the house for some reason, but I still love it and always will.

[Uisce]

Oh those serving sizes are such a joke. Like a bag of chips serves ten? Ha! :)

[better safe than sorry]

now is easy, it's cream of brocelli, but i make it. when i was a kid, it was either liptons chicken noodle soup or campbell's tomato soup with soda crackers crushed up in it. i have never had bean with bacon in my life, ewwww, sorry.

[Caltechgirl]

mmmmm Clam chowder then, navy bean and bacon/ham now. even with too much salt.

[raehan]

I remember tomato soup with grilled cheese when I was little. I also loved pea soup.

[Anita]

Oh, I too am a big soup FAN! If you haven't tried Wegman's red lentil chili (sold right around the corner from the sushi in the Pittsford Weggies), you haven't lived.

My favorite as a child was New England clam chowder, and I still love it today if it is homemade.

But now I'm a big fan of the cream of tomato soup at The Brighton restaurant as well as the red lentil chili at Wegmans.

[Melody]

Creamy Tomato Soup. Always Creamy Tomato Soup. I loved it until 15 months ago when I went into labour with Monet. I was feeling a bit crook but needed some dinner. Well, Tomato soup (from a can) was what I wanted. I probably shouldn't have had it as I felt terrible... I now can't have it without the thought of my labour pains... Bummer hey?