Your soup sounds good but a lot of work. Ours was tomatoes with baking soda to kill the acid and milk heated in separate pans. You didn't measure, you just knew. Then served with a pat of butter.
Mine I liked to grill some finely chopped onion to add. And I still eat the canned stuff, only Campbell's with milk, and with a pat of butter and sprinkled with celery seeds.
Last week I didn't mention my latest simple snack. Hot chocolate by Chef John on Food Wishes. I bought the expensive Dutch process red cocoa at amazon. Since I run out of milk very fast, I ordered some special kind of milk powder and Cremora from walmart, gonna try that, hasn't come yet. You heat a mug of milk (in a pan, my microwave was sparkin' last time I used it). I pour boiling water in my mug while heating the milk. When milk is steamy, stir in 2 tbsp (or to taste) cocoa/sugar mix, pour hot water out of mug, pour in cocoa. I don't need marshmallows or whipped cream but would like to try a small amt of espresso powder in the mix.
Lots of variant mixes out there, used to make the Nestles Quik, powdered milk, powdered sugar and Cremora when kids were growing up, made a lot. I tried this one and like it:
Youtube - Chef John Food Wishes Hot Chocolate Mix
Then I get this Asiago cheese bread in the bakery section of Hy Vee (they have wonderful breads), it's on the flat side, cut 4 1/2-inch slices. Slather one side with melted butter, place on a rack in an old jelly roll pan. Turn oven to 425, don't put under the broiler but middle rack. Toast for about 5 min until the edges of the bread get toasty but inside doesn't.
The Cuisinart Griddler is great for panini, but you can use it for a lot of other things, as well - I’m not sure I would have bought one myself, but it was a gift from a friend, and I really like it. You can get Belgian Waffle plates for it, too. (It does take up a lot of space, though):
-JT
I have gotten hooked on hot chocolate and have it several times a week at bed time but..... I read about Mexican hot chocolate and now I am adding a shot or two of hot sauce. It is addictive.