Simple Homemade Bread and Soup Lunch

I eat lunch at home most days, and often keep it fairly simple - a sandwich, fruit, nuts, yogurt, trail mix, something I baked, or even the occasional candy bar when I'm busy.  :)

But yesterday I was having a craving for pumpkin soup, something I've only eaten when I've been out at restaurants.  I decided to make some for the first time, but got to work baking some bread first.

I made an extremely simple bread that is a culmination of a few recipes I've used through the years. I could call it Sweet and Crunchy Bread because the dough is sweet but the top gets nice and crunchy thanks to those sticks of magic we call butter.  A little boy in a Star Wars apron helped me, so I know you can do this!  All you have to do is...

Heat oven to 375.

Mix 3 cups flour, 3 TBSP sugar, 1 TBSP baking powder, and 1 tsp salt.

Pour in 12 ounces of Sprite and stir with wooden spoon.

At this point your mixture will be very sticky, or as my cute helper said, "It's all gooed up."

Don't worry.  It's supposed to be gooed up!

Take that sticky mixture and put it into a prepared loaf pan. 

Melt 3/4 stick of butter in the microwave and pour it on top.  

It will now look this...

Bake for 35 to 45 minutes (slightly less if your oven is hot, just keep your eye on it).  

Cool on rack then enjoy but beware...it is addicting!

While my bread was baking, I used this recipe that I found thanks to a trusty google search to make some Pumpkin Curry Soup.  The recipe was super simple.  When I got to the evaporated milk I realized the cans in my pantry were expired so I once again hit up google, this time for an evaporated milk substitution.  I found out you can use powdered milk (which I happened to have on hand from some homemade cocoa gifts I had made) and it worked!  After my soup had simmered for a bit, I put it in the blender and thought, here goes nothing!

But it blended nicely and the soup was warm, mild, and yummy - perfect with the crunchy bread!  The only thing I would say about this soup recipe is this: be ready to add salt.  You are probably going to need it.

With some instrumental music playing on my Pandora and my hot soup and freshly baked bread, I felt like I was out to lunch!  Definitely a treat!  I had extra so I packaged some up to give to my parents.  

Sometimes you just need a good, homemade lunch!


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