In a saucepan, saute onion in butter until tender. Stir in tomatoes, soup, milk, sugar, basil, paprika and garlic powder. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
Stir in cream cheese until melted. Serve immediately.

OR

Ingredients:

1 can (10 3/4 oz.)Tomato Soup (Regular or 25% Less Sodium)
1 cup milk
1/2 cup light cream OR cup half-and-half
1 tbsp. lemon juice
6 tbsp. prepared pesto sauce
6 slices French or Italian bread, 1/2″ thick, toasted

Directions:

Stir the soup, milk, cream and lemon juice in a 2-qt. saucepan. Heat the soup over medium heat until hot.

Spread 1 tbsp. of the pesto on each toast slice.

Divide the soup among 6 serving bowls. Float a pesto crouton on each bowl of soup.

OR

Florentine Soup:

Ingredients:

1 tbsp. butter OR margarine
1 tbsp. finely chopped green onion
1/4 tsp. dried thyme leaves, crushed
1 cup packed shredded spinach leaves
1 can (10 3/4 oz.) Tomato Soup
1 soup can milk

Directions:
HEAT butter in saucepan. Add onions and thyme and cook until onion is tender.

STIR in spinach and cook until wilted. Add soup and milk and heat through.

Seafood Chowder

Ingredients:

1 tbsp. olive oil OR vegetable oil
1 medium bulb fennel, trimmed, halved and thinly sliced (about 2 cups)
1 medium onion, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
1 tsp. dried thyme leaves, crushed
5 cups water
1 3/4 cups Vegetable Broth (regular or Certified Organic)
1 can (10 3/4 oz.) Tomato Soup
1 pkg. (10 oz.) frozen whole baby carrots, thawed (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/2 lb. fresh or thawed frozen firm white fish fillet (cod, haddock or halibut), cut into 2″ pieces
1/2 lb. fresh large shrimp, shelled and deveined
3/4 lb. mussel (about 12), well scrubbed
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
HEAT oil in saucepot over medium heat. Add fennel, onion and thyme and cook until tender. Add water, broth, soup and carrots. Heat to a boil.

ADD fish. Cover and cook over medium heat 2 min. Add shrimp and mussels. Cover and simmer 3 min. or until fish flakes easily with fork, shrimp are pink and mussels open. Discard any mussels that do not open. Serve with black pepper.

Then heat some sour cream with some cheese (or melt some cream cheese) and swirl that into the soup. Garnish with a bay leaf.

Add a touch of “gourmet” to a classic grilled sandwich if you can. If you have any artisan bread or sourdough, place some thin layers of meat and gourmet cheese (or even swiss or parmesan or a mix) between the slices of bread and grill, if possible do this in a panini maker or foreman grill to get nice ‘grill strips’ on the sandwich.

Sort of a gourmet take on traditional grilled cheese and tomato soup.