Tomato Soup: What is it good for?

Tomato soup....what can I say....not my favorite! So, you might just wonder why in the world I have 3 cases of this stuff. Well, I had volunteered at the LDS cannery in Lindon, Utah one afternoon, and at the end of my shift, I was given the opportunity to buy up to 3 cases of tomato soup. The price was right, and my food storage needed some extra items so, I caved in and bought it. I actually served it one night to my family, with grilled cheese sandwiches. Unfortunately, DH was the only one to eat it (he'll eat just about anything because he was taught not to waste food). So, I still have all of this tomato soup, sitting in my pantry and food storage closet.

Sunday afternoon, I was browning the ground beef for our spaghetti sauce. I reached into the pantry for tomato paste or sauce and came up empty. It was then that I glanced over at the tomato soup. I bit my lip. Could I? Should I? Well, you know, I took that can out of the pantry, opened it, and put it into the cooked ground beef. I added water. I then added uncooked barley. I added Italian Seasoning. I stirred constantly while the sauce simmered. I added more water as I waited for the spaghetti to cook. And you know what? It looked great, smelled great and I served it right up. Everyone dug in and said it was delicious!! Awesome!

So, what else can you make with tomato soup? Thank goodness for google! I found a couple of great recipes for cake using tomato soup on http://www.cooks.com/ along with a chili recipe using tomato soup. We aren't big chili fans, but I am sure that I can find some other recipes if I take some time. I'll try out the tomato soup cake recipe next week and give you a report.

What do you make using tomato soup? Any favorite recipes? I feel another contest coming on....