The perfect winter lunch

Is anything more comforting and delicious on a chilly day than a steaming bowl of creamy tomato soup and a crusty grilled cheese sandwich?

This meal is pretty simple to make, but I've discovered an even simpler version that tastes fantastic: Pacific Natural Foods Organic Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Soup paired with Archer Farms (at Target) Cheddar Sourdough Twists.

My love for this lunch is fourfold: 1) It's inexpensive; 2) It's easy; 3) It's nourishing; and 4) It's delicious.

If you haven't tried Pacific soups, you must. Aside from the fact that they are all-natural and taste great, I love how they come in a box with a screw cap. I know, I know...opening a can should not be a big deal, but it always takes me 10 minutes to find the can opener, then I can't get it latched on the can correctly, and then I hate having to fish for the lid after it falls into the soup and gets all goopy. (Yes, I'm a little diva-ish when it comes to opening cans.) I also like the box version because I can pour out exactly how much I want.

This particular flavor of Pacific soup is really creamy (it contains milk), but 1 cup only has 110 calories and 2 grams of fat. And yet another great thing about it is that it's currently sold at Costco in a 6-pack box. Or it can be found in natural food stores, or the natural foods section of regular grocery stores.

And now for the cheddar twists...

Anyone who likes grilled cheese knows that the best part of the grilled cheese is where the cheese has oozed out and gotten all burnt and crusty around the edges of the bread. So imagine that someone has grilled about 20 cheddar cheese sandwiches on sourdough bread, and then trimmed off all those deliciously burnt crusty edges, baked them into crunchy breadsticks and put them in a box. That is what you will find when you try Archer Farms Cheddar Sourdough Twists. You can dip them in the soup, or crumble them into the soup. Or, like me, do both and then eat about 5 more after the soup is gone. SO good.

I've eaten this lunch so often lately, I'm almost getting sick of it. But since "winter" here is so fleeting (It's currently 69 degrees), I need to indulge in delicious soups while I can.