mid-week meal share: tuscan tortellini soup

Fall and cold weather type recipes are some of my favorites. Don't get me wrong though, I'm down to grub on most recipes any time of the year. Because, food and we don't judge on body types around these parts. 

This is a recipe I found searching on one of my favorite easy food sites. DELISH. If the namesake didn't give it away and you aren't very good at deductive reasoning everything that I've made has been delish. I would never tell a lie when it comes to good eats.

Easy to concoct: can you brown onions without burning them?

Cost effective: sointantly, what's up doc!

Snatch up these ingredients from your local supermarket!

1 tbsp EVOO (like, is it possible to say this without thinking of Baby Mama?)

1 onion, diced/chopped/pulverized

1 lb chicken sausage

2 tsp (4 cloves) minced garlic

28 oz canned crushed tomatoes

4 cups chicken broth

2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

salt + pepper to taste

1 lb refrigerated cheese tortellini (or the closest amount you can get to 1 lb)

15 oz can great northern beans (rinsed + drained)

5 oz baby spinach

parmesan cheese

1. Prepare your onion and chicken sausage.

2. In a large pot heat your oil and then add your onion.

3. Drain and rinse your beans and spinach forgetting about the onions and promptly letting them burn to the bottom of the pot and start over. Okay, you can skip this step if you really feel like it.

4. Add in your chicken sausage and cook until they brown up a bit.

5. Add in your chicken broth, garlic, crushed tomatoes, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.

6. Bring to a "rolling simmer" and add your tortellini. Reduce to a regular simmer (?) and cook for 20 minutes.

7. Lastly you're going to add your beans and spinach; cooking until it is wilted. Happens quickly.. in about one or two minutes.

8. Throw some cheese on top and enjoy!

So delicious, so easy, and affordable. What more could you look for when mapping out dinners for the week? It was a little on the spicy side (not for me, but for the wee ones) and next time I will probably add only 1 tsp of red pepper flakes. I always underestimate their strength and occasionally regret it.

Now to plan our Thanksgiving menu.
Leia

mid-week meal share: creamy spinach tomato tortellini

Remember when I said that I had prepared a recipe, but forgot to get the pictures onto the computer? Well! You can stop holding your breath because here it is! I present to you, the spectacular and delicious creamy spinach tomato tortellini!

Cost effective: yes ~$15-20 depending on what you already have in your pantry.

Easy to concoct: indeed.

Nutritious: yes, when you don't eat to whole pot.

Eleven items will need to be collected:

I only changed two things this time; and they are VERY small changes!

1 bag of tortellini

2 tsp minced garlic

1 cup chopped spinach

1 can of petite diced tomatoes

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper
1 tsp onion flakes (I used onion powder)

1½ tsp dried basil (I used Italian seasoning)

2 tbsp flour

1½ cups half-and-half

¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. Boil water for your tortellini's.

 2. While your water is boiling, and your tortellini's are cooking, chop up your spinach. I just cut each piece in half.
3. Once your tortellini's are done, drain and set them aside for later.

 4. At this point you're supposed to heat the 2 tsp of garlic in a saucepan until fragrant. Usually about 30 seconds or so. Puh, last I checked that shit is fragrant from the moment you take the lid off.
5. I jumped the gun and added the garlic, tomatoes, spinach, salt, pepper, onion flakes/powder, and basil/Italian seasoning all at once. Do I think it made a difference? Not even a little bit.

6. Cook over medium heat (until it's boiling but you need to multitask until then).
7. In a mixing cup (or bowl if you so choose), combine the flour and half-and-half and whisk until smoothish.

 8. Once the spinach, tomato, and spice mixture begins to boil add the cream mix and Parmesan cheese into the skillet.

9. Reduce heat to medium-low and stir until the mixture is heated through and begins to thicken. About five minutes.
10. Make sure your supervisor doesn't topple off the chair she's standing on.

11. Add your tortellini and mix together.

12. Enjoy!

This recipe is a favorite. I've made it a few times now and everyone really enjoys it. There's really nothing difficult and I don't have any tips to make it better or any easier to prepare.

Here's a typical, blurry ass action shot of a toddler eating and dancing simultaneously. It's hard to use her as a critic because I don't think there's much that she actually dislikes. But I promise, this recipe is a good one. I mean, cream sauce, cheese, pasta stuffed with cheese? What could go wrong?!

*Thanks to Pyrex for sponsoring all posts and forcing me to use a damn measuring cup as a mixing bowl!

Haha, thanks to anyone who believed me for a second. Just kidding, it's just the most common sense thing for me to do.



How would I go about getting Pyrex to sponsor my posts?
Leia