Just a lil’ check-in see how you’re doing with all the weird stuff happening right now. Plus I’m sharing a fav right now – tomato soup and grilled cheese!
Just a Check In, Plus… Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese
Hello friends! We meet again, and yeah, life is really giving us some hard times.
Most of us are (I hope!) probably doing some version of shelter-in-place as we attempt to ride out the waves of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Most of us are probably feeling the hourly alternating emotions of “I can do this” and “I don’t think I can do this.”
We are working on some new things for the weeks ahead, and I am anxious to get those things into the world for you. But for now, I’m just going to share what’s REAL with you.
Today, here in the thick of social distancing and shelter in place orders and a scary news cycle, this is what’s real:
- I’m tired.
- I’m sad.
- I feel like I have LESS time, not more.
- I’m hopeful.
- I’m encouraged.
- I’m almost daily moved to tears by the amazingness of people.
- I’m hungry.
- I’m also not hungry.
- Cooking feels like a lot of work right now.
- I am missing a lot of “key” groceries (hello, milk).
- I am eating a lot of Fruity Pebbles (thank you, nut milk).
- I am missing my friends and family.
- I am grateful, and I am grieving.
The point of all this is just to do a weird little check in to say, hey, still here! Still feeling everything and then some right along with you, still juggling the balls of parenting and remote work and news management and self-care, still thinking about all of you, still eating.
I mean, it’s not fancy, but we’re eating. And the most noteworthy, wonderful, completely winning thing right now:
Tomato soup with grilled cheese.
Wait, you haven’t made tomato soup with grilled cheese yet during quarantine? HOW DARE YOU.
Welcome to my life right now – this is the recipe for minimal groceries, and even minimal-er energy.
Yes, I used baby carrots and don’t yell at me! No regular carrots to be found, so baby carrots have been summoned for their moment of greatness.
Cream? None. Bacon? None.
In place of the cream, cashews were a great stand in to make the soup creamy, and the bacon was just all-out skipped.
I’m not going to write out a new recipe card here because my favorite, the original HOMEMADE TOMATO SOUP already exists and it’s exactly what I used this week (with my substitutions). Please make it. It’s so, so good.
My first bite of buttery, crispy, browned and melted grilled cheese dunked in this rich tomato soup felt like a nice, reassuring, calming hug.
Here’s how it came together:
And here’s how good my about-to-dunk-sandwich photo turned out:
#workfromhome
Friends, how are you doing? What is your experience in this? What are you feeling these days?
What are you cooking? What recipes are making life just a little more bearable? ā”
Thinking of you, hanging in there with you. One day at a time! xo
Filed Under: Life
March 30, 2020
Nice to meet you!
Iām Lindsay and I ā” FOOD. I used to be a teacher, and now making food and writing about it online is my full-time job. I love talking with people about food, and I'm so glad you're here.
Did you make a recipe? Tag @pinchofyum on Instagram so we can find you!
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I needed to read this right now just to know other people are struggling/have struggled too. Thank you for your honesty that sometimes life gets hard. And of course for the soup suggestion because that definitely makes it easier!
Thanks so much for all your recipes. I just love your site! I was planning to try this soup…about how much butter and cashews did you use? š
No butter here, but we used just a large handful of cashews. š
Hi Lindsay, I found this post after listening to the podcast about running at an incline on Food Blogger Pro, and I just wanted to say thank you both (to you and Bjork) for being so open and honest and raw about how you are feeling and dealing with this crisis. It really helps knowing that you want to provide the best value to your readers, and definitely inspires me to do the same! Sending much love. Please stay safe you, Bjork, Solvi and Sage!
Lindsay, j just wanted to thank you and Bjork and your team for all you do. Your food and your recipes have carried our friends and family these past couple of weeks. Some friends and I have been making freezer meals to swap with each other and Iāve made your Wild Rice Mushroom Soup, Detox Lentil Soup, Hawaiian Chicken Tacos, Korean BBQ Beef, and more. Every single recipe Iāve ever made from your site has always worked and always been delicious. Youāve been an inspiration with your honest but encouraging spirit and voice. Thank you for building something that helps me when I need food for happy game days and celebrations, crazy busy āno time to cookā days, and just everyday… including these stressful days. Wishing you and your family strength and hope in this time and the days to come š Iām going to make this tomato soup for lunch today āŗļø
Made this tonight, the vegan way with the cashews (and not chicken chicken flavored broth). It was so delicious and easy to make! My whole family loved it and it made a lot but surprisingly didn’t use up too many ingredients. It is the perfect pantry friendly meal. Thank you!
I just wanted to say THANK YOU for such an uplifting and honest post. I have had tomato soup and grilled cheese on my list of dinners and keep putting it off, waiting until we run out of veggies š¤£ but I might have to just do it! This post and these photos look So Good! Thank you for sharing a little joy and keep posting awesome recipes for us all please!! ā¤
Thanks for the message and comfort food receipe. I will enjoy. Keep positive. Fran
We made this last night for dinner. Hands down the BEST tomato soup we have ever had. The grilled cheese was delish with it š
Thank you so much for your recipe, I used it as the base to make pumpkin soup. It turned out great and I am not a cook!
Your posts are always very comforting. I enjoy the consistency of your style of photography and writing. There are so many changes right now in the world, but I appreciate being able to see something I’ve been familiar with for a few years now. Thank you!
Yum! Anyone who needs Disposable Masks…I found some! AVAILABLE NOW!! https://health-and-remedy.myshopify.com/
Feeling all the same feels over here – it’s comforting to know that others are in the same boat of emotions. My bff and I try to call and check in with each other every morning in between wrangling kiddos and it’s been such a beacon of light in my day. Food wise, after several days of crappy breakfasts, I finally switched back to my usual fruit smoothie with collagen powder that I usually make to take to work. I use the Costco frozen fruit mix with peaches, strawberries, mangos, and pineapple and the summery taste is so wonderful. :o)
Faring well. Husband retired week before Lockdown in UK. I’m a full time home maker, so learning to work around him.
We’re old enough to remember having to ‘make your own amusements’ and are managing ok. And we have ‘connectivity’. Though I’m beginning to miss seeing other people – and I’m not that much of a ‘people person’.
Yay Organic Veg Box deliveries!
People I feel sorry for are the ones Locked down on their own. Or with children to home-school, though maybe parents will respect teachers more now!
Iāve made your fluffy pancakes, carrot cake bites, and your best chocolate chip cookies (twice) with my 2 kiddos in the last couple weeks. Delicious, as to be expected! POY to the rescue! Thank you!!
“…felt like a nice, reassuring, calming hug.” I’ve decided I need to make this recipe for this reason alone.
I am currently in the process of divorce from my high school sweetheart, married for (almost… will be before it’s finalized) 14 years with three kids together. And we are quarantined together right now. It was all supposed to be so amicable. But he basically isn’t speaking to me at this point (and is still going out, I don’t know where). I miss his friendship. I cry a lot.
But I also take daily walks and every night I have dinner by candlelight with my kids where we share our “best part” and “hardest part” of our days. I love it, though our responses to those prompts have become decidedly more boring since this whole COVID thing.
Cooking is saving my life right now. Seriously, thanks.
Lindsay thank you so much for this itās so comforting to hear from you and hear your experience. Please know that itās shared and that your posts are something I looked forward to every week before all this and am so happy to read even more now. A very funny moment of universal coincidence: just before I read this I asked my roommate what he was making that smelled so good. He said tomato soup. I asked him which recipe he was using and he said Pinch of Yum (good boy I taught him well). I thought to myself, ah! Iāll go see whatās up on POY and get some recipe inspiration for this week and GOSH DARN if you two werenāt on the exact same wavelength. I think you just earned yourself another big fan!
This is on the menu tonight! Our 10 month old loved the soup and subbing for cashews and butter worked great.
Also, pinchofyum recipes make up 70% of what I cook at our house (I dont think I’m exaggerating). Thank you!
Had to pop in the comments to tell you that your blog and recipes have been one of the “good things” in the last couple weeks. I love having the extra time to dive into your recipes. Thank you for being light in a dark place.
Thank you so much Kelly. As motivation can sometimes get low in these seasons, your words are really… well, motivating. š Take care.
Weāve made grilled cheese and tomato soup twice already, lol. Iām not doing that well today. Wish we lived somewhere else and had more space. Wish our neighbors were more considerate. Wish this wasnāt happening at all. It comes and goes in waves, but right now I am really feeling it!
Oh Melanie. Hang in there. I had one of those sad / blah days on Saturday. Wishing for better days ahead for you.
Hey Lindsay! This quarantine period has been interesting, to say the least. Not unlike yourself, it’s been all over the place. I’ve been sleeping more, but still feel tired a lot. It’s nice to have time to myself, but I miss seeing people. I can go run outside, but I miss the gym and the people there. Have more time to cook, but less motivation to do so.
I’m grateful to have the ability to continue working from home, and no kids so I don’t have that massive responsibility to take care of them or home school like some of my close friends have been.
I think that still feeling tired a lot thing is really common, at least that seems the be the consensus among our team too. I think there’s so much heaviness that even just… existing in it, and processing it, is exhausting. You are in good company with the low motivation thing. šš¼āāļøHang in there!
I live in Spain so we’ve been quarantined for two weeks now and it feels like forever. I feel the “I have less time” – I am alternately disappointed in myself for not immediately checking off my very long housecleaning/organizing/free time to-do list, while trying to remind myself I’m not actually on vacation and the stress of the situation is creating anxiety that’s constantly running in the background. Luckily, I’ve been able to cook a lot – including lots of your recipes like chocolate chip cookies and Golden Soup (so comforting). Thank you for checking in! But I think we’re missing the most important information here – how is Sage dealing with all of this? I’m sure she has some wise words for us!
Oh wow. Sage. Honestly she has been taking so many naps that I haven’t even had a chance to ask her. I’ll get right to that!
I just finished eating leftover 5 ingredient red pepper cauliflower pasta from this website! Made it about four days ago. (My kids love it but don’t like it left over, so Mom’s still working on it.) My grocery had all the ingredients but I had to make it with regular white pasta because that was my only choice on the shelf. Thank you for helping us ride this out.
We just made that last week, too! š
I can completely sympathize with the “I can do this”/ “I can’t do this” vacillation. I’m grateful I’m not the only one because I was starting to doubt my sanity a little.
We are incredibly lucky that we’ve been able to pretty seamlessly work from home. Today is day 1 of distance learning with our 1st grader, while both parents continue to work full time. oof. It is a lot. No other way to put it.
I love to cook, and consider it therapeutic, but I gotta say, there has been a lot of daydreaming about eating out and letting someone else do all the work! š
I have come to the realization that I take way too many things for granted. I’m going to really try to appreciate everything more. My goal is to savor the small pleasures in life. Reading your blog is definitely a bright spot in my day. Your tomato soup looks amazing and I’m going to try making it.
I am daydreaming of restaurants too! Can’t wait.
I made a version of this yesterday and blew one of my kids’ minds when I told him he can dip the sandwich in the soup. š
Dipping is life!
Yes…grilled cheese and tomato soup for the win! I am 2/3 of the way through the first trimester of my first pregnancy with our first child (so scary sometimes especially now…) and tomato soup and grilled cheese is one of the only things that tastes good these days. I love reading your check-in’s and coffee dates!
š Missing family and friends right now though…..
I feel you with missing family and friends. And grilled cheese and tomato soup was one of my favorite pregnancy foods, too. š Hang in there!