Meatball Soup

While I'm not a huge fan of cold weather, I do love cold weather foods.  I modified this soup recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book, to make it low fat and I added a little more flavor. So yummy!

Meatball Soup

Meatballs:

2 egg whites

1 pound lean ground turkey

1 cup bread crumbs

1/2 finely chopped white onion

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 tsp sausage seasoning (we got ours from a meat market in TX)

Soup:

4 cups beef broth

1 can tomato soup

1 cup diced tomatoes

1 15 oz can of great northern beans, rinsed and drained

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp sausage seasoning

1 cup water

1/2 cup pasta (we used some small curly noodles)

3 cups fresh spinach, rinsed and torn

Salt and pepper to taste

In a bowl, combine egg whites, garlic powder, onion, bread crumbs and pepper. Add ground turkey, mix well. Shape turkey mixture into 1 inch meatballs (makes around 4o meatballs).

Coat a large skillet with cooking spray. Cook meatballs over medium heat, turning often so that they brown evenly. Set meatballs aside.

In a large pot, stir together beef broth, tomato soup, tomatoes, beans, water and spices. Bring to boil then add pasta. Simmer covered for about 10 minutes, or until pasta is al dente.

Stir in meatballs and spinach. (I ended up only using half of the meatballs for the soup and I froze the rest after I cooked them.) Cook for about 2 minutes, or just until spinach wilts.

Served with a little parmesan cheese.

Low Fat Chicken Tequila Fettucini

I found a recipe for California Pizza Kitchen's Chicken Tequila Fettucini stuffed away in my recipe box a few days ago and I almost threw it out when I saw that it called for butter and heavy cream. It just sounded way too fatty for us, since we typically try to eat only low fat foods. But, I decided to make it anyway and see if I could modify it to be a low fat recipe. Success! This was packed with flavor and spice!

Low Fat Chicken Tequila Fettucini

1 16 ounce package of dry spinach fettucini

1/3 cup chopped cilantro (I cheated and used frozen cilantro cubes)

2 tablespoons garlic, minced

2 jalapenos, minced (you can use less jalapeno and remove the seeds to cut down on spice)

3 tablespoons Can't Believe It's Not Butter Fat Free Spread

approximately 1 1/2 cup unsalted chicken stock

approximately 1/3 cup tequila

approximately 1/3 cup lime juice

3 tablespoons soy sauce

1 pound chicken breasts, cubed

1/2 red onion

1 red bell pepper, sliced

1 green bell pepper, sliced

1 yellow bell pepper, sliced

1/4 cup asiago cheese

In a small bowl, mix chicken, soy sauce, 3 tablespoons tequila and 3 tablespoons lime juice. Marinate in the fridge for about an hour.

Saute 2 tablespoons butter, cilantro, garlic and jalapeno for about 5 minutes. I included the seeds from one, for extra spice.

Add chicken stock, remaining tequila, and remaining lime juice. Add additional stock, tequila, and lime juice as you see fit. I added more of each because I wanted more sauce.

Bring mixture to boil and thicken sauce for about 5 minutes.

In another pan, saute onions, peppers and 1 tablespoon of butter until cooked through, but be sure to not overcook them. A little crunch in the peppers is really nice in this recipe.

Add chicken and marinade, mix well.

Add sauce from other pan, bring to a gentle boil until chicken is cooked through.

Add asiago cheese and stir until well blended.

Prepare pasta as directed.

Add pasta to the chicken and veggie mixture.

Squeeze some fresh lime juice in at the last minute, for a little more flavor.

Isn't the green pasta fun?

Serve and top with your favorite cheese. I used asiago, again.

Whew! This stuff was spicy, just like we like it! I've never had the CPK version of this dish, so I can't really compare my recipe to theirs, but this was definitely delicious without the fatty butter and heavy cream! I want to try this recipe again soon and add some more veggies. Maybe some artichoke hearts? Any other suggestions?

CrockPot BBQ Pulled Pork and Homemade Mac & Cheese

Stop whatever you are doing, right this instant.

And go make this.

Seriously, it is that good.

I found two recipes for pulled pork last week, here and here, and then sort of combined the two to into what turned out to be a super yummy recipe. We ended up eating dinner at 5:30 the night I made this because the delicious smell made us SO hungry!

CrockPot BBQ Pulled Pork

4 pounds pork shoulder (ours was bone in, but you could use boneless)
1 white onion, sliced in rings

2 cups ketchup
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup worcestershire
1 tbsp ground mustard
1 tbsp garlic powder

1 tsp McCormick's Montreal steak seasoning
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp liquid smoke

5 splashes of Tabasco sauce
Dash red pepper flakes (we like things spicy, so I used about a teaspoon)

Salt and pepper to taste

Start by adding everything but the meat and onions to the CrockPot. Thoroughly whisk together.

Add meat to CrockPot and turn it a few times, to coat each side with the sauce. Then throw the onions into the CrockPot as well.

Cook on low for 8 hours.

When cooked through, place meat onto a cutting board to shred. The meat is so tender that it will literally fall apart when you touch it. Discard any bones and fat (or give them to the dog - made Shiner's day!). After the meat is shredded, place it back into the pot and cook it for another 30 minutes or so, just so that it can soak up a little more juice.

Be warned that this makes A LOT of food! We've eaten pulled pork 4 times already and there is still a ton left.

That face means that my recipe was a success. :)

I also used all of these ingredients (minus the pork and onion) and bottled up my own BBQ sauce! I added about the same amount of everything that the recipe called for and then just played with the ingredients until I liked the way it tasted. SO GOOD!

I served the pulled pork with some mac and cheese I whipped up from ingredients we had laying around the house.

Homemade Mac & Cheese

2 cups elbow noodles (we were out, so we had flower shaped macaroni. Ha!)
2 cups shredded reduced fat cheddar cheese
1 cup skim milk
1/4 cup fat free sour cream
3 tbsp butter (I used fat free Can't Believe It's Not Butter)
1/2 white onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp italian seasoning
1/4 tsp ground mustard
Salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup bread crumbs

Cook pasta as directed.

In a saucepan, sauté onion and garlic in 1 tbsp butter until golden.

Add spices, milk, sour cream, and 1 3/4 cup cheese to saucepan. Mix until creamy and cheese is melted.

Add pasta and mix well.

Spray an 8x8 baking dish with Pam. Add pasta and sauce.

Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup cheese and 1/3 cup of breadcrumbs on top.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350.

The final product! Also served with potato bread and baked beans. Not the healthiest meal out there, but it was worth it. Oh, so worth it.

Basil Pasta

We are HUGE pasta lovers in this house and since I have an abundance of delicious basil, I jumped at the chance to make basil pasta! A few months ago I ate some of Tiffany's delicious homemade pasta and I've been dying to make some ever since!

Start out with these 4 ingredients, plus a little water. Who knew pasta was so simple?! Not me! I doubled the original recipe to make 4 servings, so that we can get two different meals out of one batch of dough.

Basil Pasta

1-1/2 cups chopped fresh basil
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 egg
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/4 cup water

Finely chop the basil in a food processor.

Add the flour and pulse just until combined. I had to scrape the basil off of the side of the food processor a few times.

Add the eggs, olive oil and water. Mix until dough forms into a ball.

Place dough on a piece of plastic wrap that has been sprayed with Pam, wrap it up, and throw it in the fridge for an hour.

Divide the dough into about 10 equal pieces and roll them out seperatly, instead of trying to roll the whole dough ball at once. So glad the original recipe included this step, or else I would have had a mess on my hands.

Be sure to coat the surface you are rolling your dough out on with flour, as well as your rolling pin. Unless have a fancy pasta maker. ;) I don't own a pasta maker (yet, hehe), but it was fun to make it all by hand!

Cut the pasta into strips or whatever shapes you want! I made linguini (some were more like fettucini) and pizza cutter did just the trick!

Allow the noodles to dry for at least an hour. I dried mine for about an hour and a half.


Throw into some boiling water, cook for about 5 minutes, drain, and serve.

I just mixed the pasta with some olive oil and italian seasoning and then topped it with asiago cheese. The flavor of the pasta is so fantastic that I didn't want to hide it behind a heavy sauce.

I served it with herb roasted chicken and cherry tomatoes.

This pasta was seriously yummy and I highly recommend it! I think Patrick cleaned is plate in about 10 seconds last night!

Now that I know how to make pasta, I'm thinking of all sorts of fun dishes to prepare! Tomorrow night I'm going to attempt to make ravioli with the left over dough, so wish me luck! :)