Monday, February 21, 2011

Cha Cha Cha Cha CHANGES!!

Now, for the changes I made to my tortellini soup recipe tonight....

Instead of ground beef, I used turkey meatballs cut into four pieces.
I added a can of black beans (drained).
I used stewed tomatoes instead of just plain diced tomatoes.

And, as I'm back in LaBelle, I added a dash of Everglades Seasoning!

It is done and it is AWESOME! Pic on my Facebook page!

Tortellini Soup....It's what's for dinner!

This is a repost from a recipe I shared a long time ago... I bought some 3 cheese tortellini the other day to make it again. I actually haven't made it since the time I posted it!

I tried a friend's Tortellini Soup at a gathering for work. It was yummy, but it was intended to be eaten as part of a meal and not the whole meal as it didn't have a lot of protein to it. SO, I played with it a bit and love it!
Here's what I actually did...


TORTELLINI SOUP

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef, browned
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 small yellow onion, chopped
1 stick butter
3 cans broth (vegetable and beef were what I had on hand)
1 can kidney beans
1 large can (or two small) diced tomatoes with juice
16 oz bag frozen spinach
about 7 or 8 ozs of DRIED three cheese tortellini
grated parmesan cheese (no romano here, but that is what the orig recipe
called for!)

Brown ground beef, drain and set aside. Cook onion and garlic in butter
for a couple minutes or till the onion is softened. Pour in broth and
canned tomatoes (don't drain tomatoes). Pour in kidney beans (don't
drain those either). Stir in ground beef. Bring to boil. Add frozen,
chopped spinach and return to boil. Then, turn heat down and cook for 20
minutes. Add dry tortellini and cook till they are as done as you like.
Grate in fresh parmesan cheese to taste. Serve with another grate of
cheese across the top!

Nutrition info per 1 cup serving:
Calories--225
Fat--10 grams (3.6 saturated, 0 trans)
Cholesterol--44

Sodium--600
Carbs--13.3 grams (2.5 fiber and 1.5 sugars)
Protein--17 grams

It is yummy!! Can't wait for dinner! Going to serve it with some warm
garlic bread...
Lea

3 mos again!

Recently, a dear WV friend pointed out to me (by email...) that I hadn't been posting to my blog. Well, all I can say is that life has intervened yet again. My last post was titled, "Has it really been almost 3 mos?" Well, that was in December and here we are almost to March! SO, I guess the same question applies.

Lots of stuff can happen in 3 months time! My weight is up--20 pounds or so more than I want it to be. My comfort zone is in the 205 to 215 range. Moment of truth--the number is more than 235 right now and it is entirely my fault. All those things we learn in the first couple of years postop would do me a world of good right now. Cutting back on the carbs, getting back to high protein, and doing some exercise on a daily basis would help me get right back to where I want to be. My clothes are fitting poorly, so I don't have a choice now. I refuse to buy a new set of clothing in a larger size range! Just NOT going to do it! SO, I got a new bike for my anniversary. I need to actually start riding it though. I live in a rural neighborhood, so no excuse for not walking. The carbs part...not quite so easy to break, but the exercise would certainly help with that too. I did stop by Vitamin Shoppe and stock up on protein bars the other day. I just need to purge the bread from my diet again.... It is awful to know exactly what to do to turn the situation around and to still struggle to find the motivation to DO it!

My grandbaby gets to come home next Saturday! Woohoo!! And, I got him a new bike too, so I'll have the baby wanting to ride as a motivator if nothing else works! He will be SO excited to see that bike! He's only had baby bikes till now and this is definitely a big boy bike!

Hubby is working 3 weeks at a time lately, so he's only home for 3 or 4 days every 2 1/2 to 3 weeks...bummer! And, he spends the first couple of days at home just resting and taking care of honey-dos! This means that more of what needs done around here falls to me. I am also still working full time as a teacher. I have 3 different classes to teach, which means lesson planning for 3 completely different courses. I was told this week that I may get to teach all AP World History next year. That would absolutely rock! 4 sections of the exact same class ALL YEAR LONG! Only one course to prep for is totally awesome, though only a teacher can appreciate it fully... And, AP world history is new to me this year, but I am starting to get in the groove with it and would absolutely love being able to devote all my time to this one course and being able to better develop my ability to teach this one class as opposed to trying to split my time amongst the 3 classes like I'm currently doing. If I want to read something to learn more, I have 3 classes competing for my time...which is most important? What can I read to help me in all 3? This makes it hard to choose!

Mandy is still working, but not going to school. How do you convince someone who graduates with a 3.8 cumulative GPA that they should go to college? We "made" her go for a semester after graduation and she totally blew it off, got all Fs and now has a 0.75 GPA. She had a previous college class as a dual enrollment student, so isn't a total 0.0 GPA. BUT, now she has money to payback in order to retain her scholarship AND she has to go a full semester without Pell grant before she can get it back too. That means paying back about $1200 for the classes she flunked and then managing to go without the help of Pell the first semester back. She gives no sign of any interest in going back yet... UGH! She turned 19 this month and gives NO help at home. We're basically like someplace she rooms for free. She pays no rent, does no chores, helps in no way whatsoever, and we're supposed to provide her a vehicle to run around in as well. NOT!

Eliza will turn 22 next month... She's still taking classes and she is starting to grow up, finally, we think. She's more respectful of what we do for her and for the baby. She is more helpful around home and when a vehicle needs maintenance or repair. She is doing better with helping her grandmother when she needs errands run or just someone to visit with her or ride to a doctor's appointment with her. She's just plain more adult than she's ever been. AND, to top it all off, she and her ex-husband are finally on speaking terms and can have a somewhat adult conversation without him just hanging up on her.... He's got another child already--born in January. Matthew got a little brother in January. Will this make things better? No, probably worse. But, perhaps--with this new focus--things will smooth out a bit on that end of this struggle and we'll get more cooperation. Matthew is supposed to start a 3 year old pre-K in August, but we are waiting to see what his Dad has to say about it...

That is pretty much the state of things here now... I'm going to post a recipe that is actually a repost from at least 2 years ago. This is what we're having for dinner!
Hugs till next time!
Lea
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