Italian Wedding Soup

aka Little Meatball Soup

My paternal grandmother is pure Italian. When we would visit her for Thanksgiving she would always serve this soup with dinner. I remember always looking forward to it, and if she didn't have it I would be disappointed.

When my mom and I finally learned how to make it, Progresso used to make an escarole soup and that was the only way we knew how to make the soup (well, the basis for it anyway). Then one day I could never find the canned escarole soup so I was at a loss for what to do and so we went a few years without this fabulous soup (because we stopped visiting this grandma because she wasn't exactly local anymore) until, one day I got up the guts to face the fact that escarole is a fresh leafy green available in my grocery store and that it wasn't gross to boil what, to me, was "lettuce." So I gave it a shot and it turned out fabulous so all was right in the world again. And so I shall share the basis of this recipe with you

about 1 pound of ground beef, seasoned as meatballs to your liking (I season mine with garlic, italian bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper, mixed with 1 egg)

2 chicken breasts (or you can use canned chicken)

1 head of escarole, chopped and rinsed

1 large can of chicken broth plus a carton of chicken broth

chopped celery and carrots

1 small onion, minced

salt/pepper to taste

about 1 cup orzo pasta

1. In stockpot add broth, escarole, celery, carrots and onion. Set pot to simmer.

2. Begin forming meatball mix into tiny meatballs, dropping in the pot as you form them.

3. Once soup is simmering, season with salt/pepper and add chicken breasts.

4. Cover and simmer on low for several hours.

5. When meatballs are cooked through, boil water separately and cook orzo pasta according to package directions (approx. 9 minutes).

6. Drain and rinse orzo and add to soup.

(Note: the broth is not an exact science. Add more water/chicken broth to your liking. And keep an eye on it while the soup is simmering to make sure it doesn't evaporate.)

Enjoy with a sprinkling of cheese, and some buttered crusty bread!

Beef Stew

Who doesn't love a big bowl of beef stew? Well, my husband, but he doesn't count. So I was on my own for dinner this week, again, and had some beef cubes in the freezer, so I figured it was about time to make the stew.

1 package beef cubes

1/2 bag potatoes, peeled, cut into large chunks

1 small bag baby carrots

1 can of baby peas

beef broth

salt & pepper to taste

cornstarch for thickening

1. Place potatoes, beef cubes and carrots into crockpot.

2. Cover with beef broth.

3. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

4. Thicken with cornstarch and add peas.

5. Season with salt and pepper - a little onion powder is also good.

Nothing special, but always good, and I like it with a few splashes of hot sauce and soft buttered bread. I use fake butter of course.

WW Friendly Baked Ziti

I'm trying to eat healthier (if you're reading this, please pay no attention to all of the baking that I do) so when I came across the Foodie Fashionista Blog I was inspired. I found Dori's baked ziti to be the perfect meal for a week where I would be eating dinner by myself. I couldn't find fat-free ricotta, so I used part-skim ricotta, which brought the points value to 7 WW points per serving.

You can find the recipe here. Enjoy!

Chicken Noodle Soup

There's not much to say about homemade chicken noodle soup, except that it's comforting and delicious. And there's no way you can mess it up. So here's my version:

2 large cans of reduced sodium low-fat chicken broth

1/2 bag baby carrots

5-6 stalks of celery

small onion

2 trimmed, boneless, skinless chicken breasts

bag of yolk-free egg noodles

Salt & Pepper to taste

1. Pour broth into soup pot. Set over medium-low heat.

2. Cut up the baby carrots and celery stalks into desired size. Dice up the onion. Add to the pot.

3. Drop in the chicken breasts.

4. Cover and simmer for a few hours.

5. Remove chicken breasts and cut up into small pieces.

6. Season soup with salt and pepper.

7. Cook egg noodles according to package directions. When done, drain and rinse under cold water.

8. Add noodles and chicken to soup pot. Stir.

So easy, so simple, so good.

Guiltless Mac & Cheese

And so some Nesties were talking about mac & cheese one day - so I searched for a guilt-free mac & cheese recipe - here's what I found:

MACARONI AND CHEESE
Source: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=332681

Here is MY rendition:

4 cups cooked elbow macaroni (about 2 cups uncooked)
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese (I used a bag of shredded cheese - next time I will grate my own cheese)
1 cup 1% low-fat cottage cheese
3/4 cup nonfat sour cream
1/2 cup skim milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 egg, lightly beaten
Vegetable cooking spray
Paprika

Combine first 8 ingredients and spoon into a greased 2-quart casserole dish coated with the cooking spray. Sprinkle lightly with paprike. Cover and bake in preheated 350 oven for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 5 - 15 minutes.

Yield: 6 servings
Serving size: 1 cup
Calories: 356
Fat: 11.2 g
Protein: 24.9 g
Fiber: 1.2 g

Picky Husband Rating: "We'll definitely eat this again."

I had a hamslice I intended to cube up and mix in, but I forgot! I'll definitely remember to do that next time!