Another Tortellini idea...

Sausage & Tortellini Soup

with Spinach

I ordered some mild italian sausage from our food company and needed a way to prepare it; I found this soup recipe & with the cold weather, thought I'd give it a try. Plus I'm on a new tortellini kick since I discovered the Buitoni whole wheat cheese tortellini (this stuff would be awesome with any kind of pasta sauce!) but it was especially good in this soup recipe.

The key to this recipe is in sauteing the onion and garlic in the rendered sausage fat to enhance the flavor of the broth--it rocks!

Ingredients:

1 TBS olive oil

1 lb italian sausage (sweet, mild, hot, whatever kind you prefer)

1 onion, chopped fine

2 garlic cloves, minced

6 C low sodium chicken broth

1 bay leaf (I omitted this)

1 9-ounce pkg cheese tortellini

3 C baby spinach (just eyeball it & add to your liking)

S&P to taste

Directions:

1. Heat oil in dutch oven over medium high heat--cook sausages, rolling occasionally, until browned all over (about 8 min). Transfer to paper towel-lined plate and pour off all but 1 TBS fat from the pot.

2. Cook onion in sausage fat until softened. Add garlic and cook until fragrant. Add broth and bay leaf, scraping up any browned bits, and bring to boil.

3. Cut browned sausages into 1/2 inch rounds and add to pot. Stir in tortellini and simmer over medium heat until tender, 6-8min (I cooked my tortellini separately, according to pkg directions & then added it). Stir in spinach until just wilted. Season with s&p. Serve.

Banana-Cinnamon Cake

I sometimes take my ripe bananas and make banana bread or muffins. This time I decided to try something new--this was really good and would be great for a brunch (also got this idea from bettycrocker.com)

Ingredients:

1 pkg yellow cake mix

1/2 C water

1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 medium)

1/2 C butter, softened

2 tsp ground cinnamon

3 eggs

1/2 C chopped walnuts

Cinnamon Glaze:

1/2 C cream cheese frosting (I used store bought, but you could make your own)

2-3 tsp milk

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon to sprinkle on top

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 350--grease bundt pan

2. Beat cake mix, water, bananas, butter, cinnamon & eggs with an electric mixer for about 2 minutes. Stir in walnuts. Pour in pan.

3. Bake 40-50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Turn pan upside down onto plate, remove pan & let cake cool completely (about 2 hours). Stir glaze ingredients (except for cinnamon) in small bowl until its thin enough to drizzle. Drizzle cover the cake and sprinkle cinnamon on top.

Caesar Tortellini Salad & a quick dessert idea

Got this salad idea from bettycrocker.com and the dessert idea was included; both were keepers!

Ingredients:

1 pkg (9 oz) refrigerated cheese-filled tortellini (found these in the deli section @ Walmart and got the whole wheat kind)

1 bag complete Caesar salad mix

1 medium tomato, chopped

1/4 C bacon bits

1/4 C fresh ground pepper

1. Cook & drain tortellini according to pkg directions; rinse with cold water, drain.

2. Toss tortellini, salad mix ingredients, tomato, bacon bits & pepper. Serve immediately.

Quick & Easy dessert idea:

Heat canned cherry pie filling (or apple, etc.) and top with granola & whipped cream!

Rolled Steak Florentine

I am making this tonight and it has been one of my favorites since I was a kid. It is pretty easy and has really nice presentation (and looks like it was hard to make) when served over rice. My boys love it too...and a great way for them to eat spinach!


1 1/2 lb flank steak (sometimes I use sirloin tip steak if I can't find flank)
garlic salt
pepper
12 oz cream cheese, softened
10 pkg chopped spinach, thawed and drained well
Worcestershire sauce (to taste)
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 can beef broth
2 T flour
kitchen string

Pound steak and sprinkle lightly with salt. Combine cream cheese, spinach, pepper, Worcestershire and onion. Spread over steak and roll up. Tie kitchen string around steak to make it stay together while cooking. Pour broth over steak. Bake 1 hour at 350, uncovered. Transfer meat to a platter and keep warm. Combine flour and 1 cup water and stir into broth. Cook until thickened. Serve meat sliced into 1/2" slices over rice (white or wild) and top with gravy.

Happy Thanksgiving... & 2 fun sites

Happy Thanksgiving friends! Here are two fun new recipe sites/blogs I stumbled across and thought I would share: thegirlwhoateeverything and ourbestbites.

I'm thankful for the joy of sharing food ideas with all of you! :)

Easy Meatball Stew

I made a version of my mom's meatball stew for supper and Trent told me to make it this way every-time (I decided I'd better write it down b/c I didn't use a recipe, I was just winging it).

My mom makes her own homemade meatballs, but I cheat to save time and buy the bag of italian meatballs that are pre-made and in the freezer section at Walmart. :}

Ingredients:

meatballs (buy or make your own)

1 box beef broth

1 can tomato paste (I used the Hunt's garlic/basil/oregano kind)

minced garlic

1 can whole green beans, drained

carrots, sliced

new potatoes, cut into chunks

half an onion, diced

ditalini pasta (or small macaroni noodle pasta)

Directions:

*Put meatballs on a pan & cook in the oven while preparing everything below--toss meatballs in at the very end.

*I did several things in separate steps b/c I was short on time...I cut up my carrots & steamed them; I washed & chunked the potatoes--seasoned them a little and microwaved them so they would get soft faster.

*I also cooked my pasta separately and added it at the end.

*In a dutch oven I added a little olive oil & minced garlic and sautéed my onion in that, then I added in the carrots & potatoes (which I had already steamed) and dumped in the green beans. I stirred them around in the saute for a minute before adding the beef broth.

I mixed my tomato paste with a little water and added this to the pan.

I brought it all to a boil, then turned it down and simmered it, covered, for a while until we were ready to eat (tossing the pasta & meatballs in at the end).

These instructions are rambling, and not in great order--sorry--the main reason I'm posting this is so I'll kind of remember how I did it for next time!

Pumpkin Bars with cream cheese icing

Made these today for Tara's Thanksgiving feast at school and they are yummo!

Recipe was on Foodnetwork and is from Paula Deen.

Ingredients:

Bars:

4 eggs

1 2/3 C granulated sugar

1 C veg oil

15 oz can of pumpkin

2 C sifted all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

Icing:

8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened

1/2 C butter, softened

2 C sifted powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.

Using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine eggs, sugar, oil & pumpkin and mix until light & fluffy.

Stir together flour, baking pwd, cinnamon, salt & baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix at low speed until thoroughly combined and the batter is smooth.

Spread the batter into a greased 10x13" baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes*. Let cool completely before frosting. Cut into bars.

To make the icing: Combine the cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the sugar and mix at low speed until combined. Stir in the vanilla and mix again. Spread on cooled pumpkin bars.

*Side notes for the next time I make these (it took less than 30 min for these to cook; I checked them at about 18 minutes and layed foil around the edges of the pan b/c the edges were done but the center needed a few minutes more). It was also beneficial to let this cake cool for a couple of hours before attempting to cut it into bars and/or ice it.

This cake recipe is a great consistency to be used for bars. They actually turn out looking exactly like the picture! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!