Campbell's Ready to Serve Soup

Millions of us grew up eating cans of Campbell's condensed soups. Millions more still do to this day. There are not very many cupboards or pantry shelves that do not contain the familiar red and white cans. I still have fond memories of sandwiches and soup when coming home from school for lunch. Mom would have the meal ready for us to eat in that brief lunchtime then off to school. There was tuna-fish sandwiches and chicken noodle soup, Bologna, turkey, ham, egg-salad sandwiches and cream f mushroom or cream of chicken or plain tomato soups. Just wonderful meals. The cans also were perfect for camping trips or late night sleep-overs.

Campbell's also offers soups in ready to eat cans. Instead of having to add water or milk like the condensed versions ready to eat soup just needs to be warmed up before eating. As school and work consume most of my time I decided to try these soups recently. Not only for the convenience but because of the enjoyment I received from eating Campbell's soups in the past. I went to our local grocery store and purchased several flavors.

Campbell's offers soups in microwavable can but, being a poor student I do not have one. So I bought the regular small cans. The non-microwavable cans were a bit less expensive. The cans I bought came in 7 1/4 ounce servings. The labeling is the familiar white and red rather multi-colored design made famous by Andy Warhol. Printed on the label is simple heating instructions including the admonition to be Careful, leave in microwave 1 minute, then stir. Apparently these cans are sold in vending machines and the warning related to this states; Do not heat un-opened can for more than 3 days. Excessive heating creates internal pressure. Some vending machines keep canned soup heated no really heats a can of soup for 3 days. Or,...do they?

The size of the can is handy. It packs very neatly into just about anything used to carry food. It also packs neatly in bags sacks or backpacks because the cans wont spill food all over the place. If there is a microwave handy I just empty the contents into a microwave-safe bowl, heat it up and then dig in. At home I pour the soup into a pan and heat it up for a short while before eating it. Either way does not take long at all.

They come in various flavors but my favorites are chicken noodle and cream of mushroom. Both are very flavorful and have plenty of chicken and noodles or mushrooms. To me these soups taste less 'salty' than the condensed versions. I will say that on my fixed budget they are equal to or more satisfying than the dehydrated flavored noodles sold at discount prices or candy bars and potato chips. Campbell's ready to eat soups seem to be nutritious too.

The list of ingredients on the chicken noodle can is long and it is interesting I only list it so the reader can see how many times chicken or chicken products are mentioned and the various other things;

chicken stock, water, enriched egg noodles with added calcium, egg, egg whites, niacin, ferrous sulfate, thiamine mono-nitrate, riboflavin, folic acid, cooked chicken meat, salt,contains less than 1% of potato starch, chicken fat...pause for breath...mono-sodium glutamate, dehydrated cooked chicken, onion powder, yeast extract, spicy extract, modified food starch, beta carotene for color, soy protein isolate, sodium phosphates, chicken flavor(contains chicken stock, chicken, chicken powder, chicken fat) dehydrated garlic.

There is also a list of nutrition facts on the lable; 50 calories in 1 serving, fat calories are 10, sodium 800mg,includes Viatmin A, Calcium, and iron.