Veggie Meatball Soup

Veggie Meatball Soup

I just found out that January is considered the official soup month. Had I known, I could have posted about 5 other soup recipes I made already this month. Here's a recipe my daughter sent to me and it is excellent!!!

Ingredients:

25 frozen, cooked Italian meatballs (1/2 ounces each) - I made mine fresh, recipe below*

1 can (28 oz) dices tomatoes, undrained

3 cups beef broth

2 cups shredded cabbage

1 can (16 oz) kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 medium zucchini, sliced

1 cup fresh geen beans, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 cup water

2 medium carrots, sliced

1 tsp dried basil

1/2 tsp minced garlic

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp dried oregano

1/8 tsp pepper

1 cup uncooked pasta (your favorite small soup pasta. I used Farfalle.)

1/4 cup minced fresh parsley

Grated Parmesan cheese, optional

Directions:

In a 5 quart slow cooker, combine the first 14 ingredients. Cover and cook on low for 5 1/2 to 6 hours or until vegetables are almost tender.

Stir in the pasta and parsley; cook 30 minutes longer or until pasta is tender. Serve with Parmesan cheese, if desired.

Yield: 6 servings (2 1/2 quarts).

*To make fresh meatballs, I mixed 12 1/2 oz of ground beef with salt, pepper, garlic powder and dried parsley flakes. Roll into 25 mini meatballs. Brown in frying pan for 15 minutes.

Chicken, Pasta Primavera

Chicken Pasta Primavera

This is my own throw together recipe using whatever I have on hand. Feel free to modify according to your preferences and what you have available.

Ingredients:

Canola oil

Carrots

Onions

Celery

Garlic

Broccoli

Red and/or green peppers

Zucchini

Chicken breast, crooked and cubed ***

Pasta, cooked and set aside

Salt Pepper

Oregano

Soy sauce

Directions:

Cut up all veggies into bite sized pieces.

In preheated large skillet or wok, add a small amount of canola oil, carrots, celery, onions and garlic. Cook for about 3-5 minutes.

Add broccoli. Cook another few minutes.

Add peppers and zucchini. Stir fry until veggies are crisp tender.

Finally, add chicken, pasta, salt, pepper and oregano. Heat through and serve with soy sauce.

***Easy make ahead Chicken recipe can be found here.

The Start of a Healthy New Year!

After indulging for what seems like the entire year, I have decided that I'm going to be more aware of my meals and planning in 2015. Even though we do tend to eat fairly healthy, there is always room for improvement.

Throughout the year, I plan to post healthy recipes that you might like to try. I thought I'd start with a meatless meal that is veggie heavy and will leave you feeling full and satisfied. Perfect for the waistline too :-)

Baked Ziti and Veggies

Ingredients

4 oz. uncooked ziti (I used Rice Shells as shown in the photo)

1 TBS olive oil

2 cups chopped yellow squash

1 cup chopped zucchini

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 cups chopped tomato

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided

2 TBS chopped fresh basil

2 tsp chopped fresh oregano

3/4 tsp salt, divided

1/8 tsp crushed red pepper

1/4 cup part-skim ricottta cheese

1 large egg, lightly beaten

Cooking spray

Directions:

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain. Rinse. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In an 8-inch baking dish, spray with cooking spray.

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add oil to pan. Add squash, zucchini and onion; saute 5 minutes.

Add tomato and garlic; saute 3 minutes.

Remove from heat; stir in pasta, 1/2 cup mozzarella, herbs, 1/2 tsp salt and crushed red pepper.

Combine ricotta, remaining salt and egg. Stir into pasta mixture. Spoon mixture into prepared baking dish. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until bubbly and browned.

Serves 4. (Serving size: approx. 1 1/2 cups)

Nutritional Information:

Calories 301

Fat 312.1 g

Sat Fat 5.3 g

Monofat 5 g

Polyfat 0.9 g

Protein 16.5 g

Carbohydrate 32.8 g (if using regular pasta)

Fiber 4.1 g

Cholesterol 65 mg

Iron 1.9 mg

Sodium 640 mg

Calcium 291 mg

(Recipe and nutrititional information taken from www.cookinglight.com)

Spaghetti Squash

There is an abundance of Spaghetti Squash at this time of year. Up until last year, I was intimidated by this (and most) squash. I stopped by an Amish farm stand and spoke with a wonderful mother and daughter about this produce. They explained to me how easy it was to cook and prepare. This was one of their favorite meals served with either a marinara or meat sauce.

I thought that if you are like me, you may have passed this up at your local farm stand or grocery store because you don't know how to prepare it either. So I decided to take pictures of how I made this squash. It really is easy!!!

First, you want to choose one that is blemish free. There is quite a bit of "spaghetti" inside so choose according to your family size. (The first time I made this, I had a fairly large squash and we were eating it for a few days.)

With a large, sharp knife, cut the squash in half lengthwise. As you can see, there are quite a few seeds inside. (Not sure if you can roast these like pumpkin seeds but I would think that they would be comparable.)

Scoop out the seeds and stringy pulp with a large spoon. Make sure you leave the flesh of the squash intact.

Place squash, cut side down, in roasting pan. (I used a 9x13 glass baking pan.) You can add a little bit of water if you would like, but I found that this wasn't critical.

Cover tightly with foil. Bake in 350 degree oven for approximately 1 hour.

Squash is cooked when fork tender.

Allow to cool enough to handle. Place in large bowl and with fork begin scraping out the "spaghetti". Keep scraping until all strands are removed and you are left with an empty shell.

As you can see, you do wind up with quite a bit of spaghetti. This squash is somewhat bland but yet there is a hint of sweetness to it. You can serve this with a tomato based sauce if you'd like. Or, try some warmed olive oil, minced garlic, salt, pepper and Parmesan cheese. Makes a great main dish or side dish.

Enjoy!