With a Side of Hope

Hi there!  Happy Wednesday to you!  I feel like this week is definitely dragging more than previous weeks.  It feels like today should be Thursday already.  Unfortunately, it’s not.  I hope this work day goes by quickly.  I’m very tired today.  I think it’s from the weather.  It’s a crummy day weather wise.  It’s supposed to rain the entire day and go up to 60 degrees.  Weird to be 60 degrees in the winter here.  I don’t like that.  I’ll deal though.

So yesterday after work, I spent some time trying to catch up on my dvr shows.  I’m so far behind on a ton of shows and I don’t know why.  I try to watch as much as I can but there just isn’t enough hours in the day once I get home from work.  Once Mike got home, we decided to cook something different for dinner.  For the past year or so, tomatoes have been bothering my stomach.  I try to avoid them as much as possible.  Last night, I decided to try having tomatoes again to see if maybe I wouldn’t be as sensitive to them.  That of course failed but I did end up with a really delicious recipe that I have to share with all of you!

I have mentioned a ton of times that Mike and I really enjoying eating Bertolli’s Meal Soup.  The soup is quite expensive especially if you don’t find it on sale.  I always wanted to try my hand at making it myself.  So last night was that night where I took it upon myself to create my own version of Bertolli’s Meal Soup and I have to say, I impressed myself!  This is a good one folks!

Homemade Chicken, Spinach & Tortellini Meal Soup

Ingredients:

1 yellow onion

3-4 cloves of garlic (depending on your taste and tolerance for garlic)

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 tsp. oregano

1 tsp. basil

1 package of frozen tortellini

1 28oz. can of tomato sauce

1/2 of the 28oz. can of water (depending on how thick you or thin you want the soup, if you want it on the thin side, use a whole can, if you want it thicker use less.  I used the entire can and I think next time I will use a little less to thicken it up)

1 package of Perdue Short Cuts Original Roasted Chicken Breast (or you can use raw chicken and pre-cook it)

1 package of frozen spinach

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

Directions:

In a large pot add the olive oil, onion and garlic.  Cook until the onions are translucent about 10 minutes or so.

Next, add the tomato sauce, 1 can or 1/2 can of water, basil, oregano, salt and pepper to taste.  Bring to a simmer and let cook for another 10 minutes.

Once the sauce starts simmering, add the tortellini and spinach.  Cook until the spinach is tender and has broken apart and the tortellini floats to the top and is cooked.

Add the Perdue chicken and continue to let the soup simmer and cook for another 10-15 minutes depending on how thick you want the soup.

Enjoy!

Onions and jarred garlic cooking in the olive oil

Sauce with the seasonings cooking

Finished Soup!

Served with garlic knots

I was so impressed by this recipe!  It really turned out great and it was pretty quick to cook and prepare as well.  I think the part that took the longest was chopping the onion.  That was really bad.  It must have been a really strong onion or something because I was balling my eyes out.  My eyes were literally burning to pieces when I was done cutting the onion.  I’ve teared up when cutting an onion before but never like this.  It was a very strong onion.  Next time, I think I need to do some of those remedies for cutting onions so I won’t tear up.

Mike and I thought this soup tasted extremely close to the Bertolli soup we are used to eating.  Unlike that soup, I used a ton of coupons on everything that went into this soup except for the spices which I already had at home.  So I would say altogether this meal probably cost me around $2 or $3 to make!  Not bad if you ask me.  It also left a ton of leftovers which sadly, I will not be able to take part in because my stomach hates the tomato sauce.  It’s tragic, I know.

What a great meal on a winter’s night!  I bet it would taste great in the crockpot too.  I want to mention that I used the short cuts chicken to make it easier on myself.  Feel free to add raw chicken that you have pre-cooked yourself.  Whichever, is easier for you!

Do you like soup?  What is your favorite kind of soup?  I love broccoli cheddar soup, french onion soup, minestrone, matzah ball soup, chicken noodle soup, and tomato soup.  I’m sure there are more soups that I have missed.  I remember when I was younger my mom used to make friendship soup for us.  I can’t remember for the life of me what is in that soup but I should get the recipe from her and try making it.  I remember it was good!

Alright, well have a lovely Wednesday!  Stay dry!  

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: | dinner, soup ingredients, vegetarian