Lash issues...

There is a looming crisis in my life. I am pretty sure my favorite mascara is about to be discontinued. Supplies have been dwindling all over town. Some of you are probably rolling your eyes and making lists of real crises in your head. For me, right now, this is kind of a big deal. I love mascara. The more I can load on the better. I am all about lots of coats, lots. I am sure one day I will look like Tammy Faye Baker. Because I only have boys some poor soul will have to break that news to me. The perfect red lip....no thanks. Dark, luscious lashes...yes please.

I am a drug store brand person. As mush as I love mascara I refuse to pay over $10 a tube. After much deliberation in the make up section I think I may have found a suitable replacement. It took me longer to decide on a mascara than it did for me to know I wanted to buy our house...no joke. So I think I am good. For the record I have switched from Maybelline Define-A-Lash to L'Oreal Voluminous.

Now that that is out in the world let's move onto food. We are getting into full on fall weather now. So as you know, to me, that means soup. I had an assortment of tomatoes around that needed to be used. Before this I had never made tomato soup. I was sure it must be 100% better than the canned stuff.

Ingredients:
6 medium tomatoes
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 chopped onion
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
4 cups low sodium chicken broth (or veggie stock)
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1 cup milk (I used 3.25% milk)

Instructions:
Heat the oven to 400°. Cut tomatoes in half and remove core. Place cut side down on a glass baking dish. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. I used a brush to coat all the halves. Roast the tomatoes until they are shriveled with brown spots, about 35 to 45 minutes.
In a large pot, heat the remaining tablespoon of oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and onion and sauté until softened, about 6 minutes. Add the canned tomatoes with their juice, the broth, the thyme, and the roasted tomatoes, including any liquid on the baking sheet. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, partially covered, for 40 minutes.
Using an immersion blender or blender, puree the soup until it's smooth. Return it to the pot and stir in the milk. Without letting the soup boil, warm it over medium heat, stirring often, until steaming. Add salt and pepper, if necessary. Adapted from here. 

Roasting the tomatoes requires extra time, but is well worth it. It's a great way to use up less than perfect tomatoes because roasting intensifies the flavor. You can easily pull the skin off after they are roasted. I choose not to because I wanted all the extra flavour. There were no bits of skin after I puréed it.

We all loved it. Even my husband who isn't really a tomato person (so weird?). The original recipe suggests serving it with grilled cheese croutons. Sounded fun but I am not down with soggy bread. So we had cheese toast and a salad instead. I also sprinkled a little cheese on top.

Also a great way to get your lycopene. A powerful antioxidant found in very high concentrations in cooked tomatoes. So eat up and enjoy!