Trying this again.....Creamy Tomato Tortellini Soup

Well, it's been quite awhile since I published my last post. My plan of trying at least one new recipe each week last year failed miserably. I have been trying a lot of great recipes lately, and I figured I should document them so I'm returning to my blog. Maybe I can be better about posting this year.

One of my latest recipes to try is a Creamy Tomato Tortellini Soup. I found a lot of recipes for this type of soup, so I decided to use a combination of a few different ones to make a great soup!

Creamy Tomato Tortellini Soup

Ingredients:
1 large can tomato soup
2 cups Half and Half
2 cups chicken broth
1 container Philadelphia Cooking Creme-Italian Herbs and Cheese
1 pound Italian sausage
1 package cheese tortellini (I buy the stuff in the frozen food aisle)

This recipe is pretty simple.

Start by browning the meat. (You can certainly leave the meat out or get meat tortellini if you prefer).

While the meat is browning, combine the tomato soup, half and half, chicken broth, and cooking creme in a large pot.  Let that simmer together for about 10-15 minutes.

Then add the meat and tortellini and let simmer for another 10-15 minutes.

Enjoy!

(The second time I made this I decided to throw some random spices in to add a little more flavor. This time I used Penzey's Northwoods spice to add a little flavor, but you could probably use whatever spices you would like).

Chocolate Eclair Cake! So Yummy!

I love dessert! This recipe is a great dessert and is super easy! Plus, it's a Weight Watchers recipe, so of course it's a little more healthy! :)

Chocolate Eclair Cake

Ingredients:

Low Fat Honey Graham Crackers- 1 box

Fat Free Sugar Free Instant French Vanilla Pudding- 2 small boxes

Skim Milk- 2 cups

Fat Free Cool Whip- 8 ounces

Chocolate Frosting - 1 container

Place a layer of the graham crackers on the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan. Next mix the boxes of pudding with the skim milk as directed. Fold the cool whip into the pudding.

Spread half of the pudding mixture over the bottom layer of graham crackers. Add a layer of graham crackers to the top of the pudding. Add the other half of the pudding mixture on top of the graham crackers. Top this with another layer of graham crackers.

Microwave the chocolate frosting for about 10 seconds in order to soften it. You want the frosting to be liquefied. If 10 seconds is not enough, stir frosting and warm again for 10 second. Stir the frosting and pour over the top of the cake.

Place the cake in the refrigerator overnight. This will allow the graham crackers to soften. If you do not have time to let it sit overnight, make something else. You will be sorry if you do not let it chill overnight. The graham crackers are too hard to cut if not chilled.

Weight Watchers Point Value : 4 points

I've also started experimenting with this recipe a little bit. When I experiment it isn't always as healthy, but its fun to try different twists to this. Just switch up the kind of pudding and frosting that you buy. We've done strawberry pudding with vanilla frosting. I also still have cheesecake pudding at home to try with this recipe!

So Many Cooking/Baking Items......Time to Get Cooking/Baking

I know this post isn't recipe based, but I had to share all that I got for Christmas. I am looking forward to trying lots of new recipes with all of these items! In the picture, you'll find the following:

Bundt Pan

Roasting Pan

Cooling Rack

3 Sheet Pans

3 Springform Pans

Pyrex Glass Large Casserole Dish

Pyrex Glass Small Casserole Dish

Small Cake Pan with Lid

Large Cake Pan with Lid

Cupcake Pan with Lid

2 Pizza Pans

Pampered Chef Rolling Base for Pie Crusts to measure the accurate size

2 small Wisks

Rolling Pin

Hand Mixer

Containers for Flour, Sugar, Brown Sugar and Powdered Sugar

Large Pot with Strainer Lid

Small Pot with Strainer Lid

Also not pictured is the Kitchen Aid 4.5 Quart Mixer that I ordered with the Christmas cash I got! 

Can't wait to spend a lot of time in the kitchen!

Christmas Cookies

It's been quite awhile since I've posted. Things were quite hectic with the holidays and getting back into the swing of things at work after being on vacation.  I have a few blog posts to make this evening, and then I'm going to get back to my plan to posting one new recipe a week!

Since I've recently started baking, I decided that I, of course, had to attempt to bake Christmas cookies!!! I made three different types of cookies:

Red Velvet Black & White Cookies - These cookies were very delicious, however, the combination of black & white on the top made them very sweet. I should have made them half and half, but I think next time I would just do without the white icing and only use the chocolate. Or the cookies would be great without the frosting as well!

Mom's Ginger Snaps - I have always loved Ginger Snaps, and this recipe did not disappoint! Follow the recipe exactly, especially for the cooking time. You want to pull these out when only the outside is done. If the inside cooks too long, they'll be hard.

Mrs. Sigg's Snickerdoodles - This was my first time making Snickerdoodle cookies, and I must admit it didn't go well. I ended up making two batches to try to get the cookies to not be so hard. On these cookies as well, you want to follow the recipe exactly especially the cooking time. You do not want the inside of these cookies to cook too much!

Overall, I had fun experimenting with different types of cookies. I look forward to making more in the future. 

First time fish experiment

It's not very often that Jay and I buy fish, but when at Costco we couldn't pass up a large piece of salmon based on the price.  I looked at a few different recipes on how to bake salmon, and I ended up using this baked salmon recipe as a guide. I did not however follow this recipe when decided what to put on the salmon.

I first put the salmon into a piece of aluminum foil that I would be able to fold over to completely cover the salmon. I then poured soy sauce over the fish following by added pieces of cut butter. Finally I added some mustard seed, parsley and pepper. I baked the salmon at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes. The baking time will vary depending on the thickness of your piece of fish. This was a very simple, tasty meal!

Tasty treats for the dog too!

Another thing that I've started baking is treats for our dog. With only four ingredients, these are so easy to make. I decided to actually use cookie cutters to make them so that is the longest part of the process.  Rachel Ray's Pup'kin Biscuits are great. Our dog loves them!

What to do with all the leftover turkey?

After our tasty Thanksgiving meal, we found ourselves with lots of leftover turkey. Now for me this tastes good a few times, and then I start to get sick of it. So I started to search for something that I could use the turkey in. I also was looking for something simple that I didn't need to go to the store to get additional ingredients.

I settled on Turkey Tettrazini. It was a very simple recipe, although we found that there wasn't much flavor. I would definitely make this again in the future, but would figure out something to do to spice it up a little.

We also made turkey tacos. I purchased taco seasoning and used turkey instead of ground beef.