Strawberry Soup!

There are so many reasons I love making strawberry soup. For one, the boys both *love* it. It's super healthy. It's super easy with just a few ingredients and a blender. It's the perfect thing to make for lunch when it's suddenly lunchtime and you realize...whoops, nothing is planned and everyone is hungry NOW. That's the kind of meal I love.

I found this recipe in a magazine... You never know how those kind of recipes will turn out, especially when you're the kind of person who loves things that come with lots of reviews (I would be that kind of person). You don't get reviews when you make something from a magazine. BUT this did not disappoint! And I found a way to make it even better - spinach! (Yes, really. Get excited!) So, here's the recipe with at least one review (mine), if that counts for much. ;)

Strawberry Soup
1 pint strawberries
1 cup vanilla yogurt
1 tsp lemon juice
Spinach

Now...I make my own yogurt, so I never have vanilla yogurt on hand. On the few occasions I buy yogurt, I buy plain yogurt and flavor it myself (MUCH less sugar that way, folks. The store bought stuff is FULL of it, even the "healthy" or organic yogurts. And flavoring it at home is just as great, but you're in control of how much and what you add, but I digress...). So, I use plain yogurt and then add a tiny bit of vanilla. Easy. I also don't really measure the yogurt - just use enough to make the soup the consistency and creaminess we want. Honestly, I don't measure any of the ingredients in this. AND I like it better made with greek yogurt, since it's thicker. Don't have greek yogurt? Put a strainer lined with cheese-cloth or a coffee filter over a wide-mouthed container. Pour the regular yogurt in the strainer and let sit overnight. Wake up to greek yogurt in the strainer (and whey...the liquid that dripped down into the container, which you can use for other things later. Maybe I should do all this yogurt stuff in another post... And here it is.). Back to the recipe.

If you use frozen strawberries, you might want to slightly thaw, since there's little liquid to help with blending. That's what I do, at least. I don't thaw completely - just a tad.

The amount of spinach is up to you. Start with smaller amounts to see what you like. We can't even taste it in ours...

Ingredients for strawberry soup

The little guy sneaking frozen strawberries.

Someone had to test out the yogurt. He kept going back for more, so it must have been pretty good!

Drop everything into blender. 

He covers his ears, not because the blender noises bother him (they don't) but because he likes testing out the difference between covering his ears and not covering them when the blender is in use!

Ready to become soup!!! Don't you just love the colors?!

Blend.

And voila! Strawberry soup!

My little taste tester!

 Pour into cups. And drink. :)

Camden takes this to school for lunch and just pours it in a thermos to keep it cold. He usually takes it the day after it's made, since I usually make it *at* lunchtime. It tastes just as good the next day as it does the first. We've never had it last longer than that...

Easy! It probably took me longer to tell you how to make strawberry soup than it actually takes to make it!

If you want to up the nutrition, pair this with a sandwich of (or crackers with) peanut butter and raisins. The vitamin C in the berries will help you absorb even more of the iron in the raisins and pb.