Tuscan Tortellini Soup

So I have been traveling a lot for work and we are very much in the holiday season, so life is busy!  With that, you eat more deserts, you go out to eat more due to the lack of time, and home cooked meals get forgotten.  This week, we decided we would try a couple new meals, so that we make sure we have time to sit down and eat dinner and enjoy some time together.  It may not be cold out, but I can use any excuse to make a good soup.  Since it is December now, why not make soup and pretend it is winter!  So, we tried a new soup, that is quite healthy and amazing!  It is hardy so you don't have to make anything with it, except maybe some rolls.  This is really one of my favorite new meals in a while and it is healthy, so enjoy!

Tuscan Tortellini Soup
 

Ingredients

• 1 ½ lbs. Italian chicken sausage
• ½ red onion, chopped
• ½ yellow onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 (28 ounce) cans crushed tomatoes
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 4-6 cups kale, roughly chopped
• 1 cup of milk
• 1 box package of cheese tortellini
• 1 cup + more for topping parmesan or asiago cheese, grated
• Salt & white pepper to taste

Directions

In a heavy-bottomed pot,  heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil and Italian chicken sausage. Once completely cooked, drain and set aside. Then in the same pot, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil, add onions and garlic and cook until tender. Once onions and garlic are caramelized, add crushed tomatoes, chicken stock, browned ground sausage & kale. 

Bring to a boil- stirring frequently, add pepper and salt to taste.  Continue to boil 5-10 minutes to allow flavors to merge. Add cheese tortellini and cook until al dente (read package for time). Add milk  and parmesan cheese. Simmer for a few more minutes.

Remove from heat & serve. 

Burlap Wreath DIY

I made a wreath in the summer (which I will post later), but recently I wanted to make a more fall wreath for our door.   Burlap gives such a fall feeling, so I set out to find a webpage that helped me make a DIY wreath.  It is actually quite simple and the whole project can be completed within an hour.  Michael's is normally my go to store since they are just down the street and always have coupons, but I bought my colored burlap off Amazon.  You don't need much, so I will start with a shopping list.  Below is what you will need for your wreath.

• 2 x 10 yard rolls of burlap (4 or 5 inches wide, I used 4)
• Wire wreath base - I used a 18"
• Wire or twine used to fasten burlap to base
• Decore as desired (below is what I used)
• 5 yds Orange Burlap (4" wide)
• 2 fall colored flour bunches
• Wooden Initial (8")
• White Paint 
• Paint Brush
• Hot Glue

Now that you have everything you need, I will start by showing the links I used to better understand how to make the base of the wreath. Depending on how tight you wind the burlap, you may need 1 or 2 of the 10 yd rolls.  I used about 1 1/2 but mine were pretty close together.

YouTube Video
Written Instructions

Between these two videos, I thought I had it under control.  I was worried about messing it up, but there really is no way to mess it up!  Some loops can be a bit bigger, some can be a bit smaller, in the end it balances out.  I also had a random pattern when doing the wreath so that it did not get too structured.  No joke, you can do it however you would like and it turns out great!

After the wreath was complete, I took white paint and panted the wooden initial.  I wanted it to stand out so I just painted it with a simple acrylic paint.  While the letter was drying, I made a bow.  I had made several bows in the past year for various projects, so you really can Google bow making and find one to your taste. I made a bow similar to the below.

How to Make a Bow

Once that was set, I cut the flowers off of the bushels I had bought.  I chose red, yellow, orange, and white as the base of this wreath to make it very festive for fall.  Now that everything was ready to decorate, it was time to fasten.

Using a fastening wire, attach the bow and flowers to the completed burlap wreath.  The letter is a bit harder to attach, so I went ahead and just glued the letter to the wreath, then weighted it with a book for a couple hours and it was stuck on there forever!  And here you go, my completed fall wreath!

Healthy Italian Wedding Soup

We all know that with the weather getting colder, it is finally soup weather again.  Soup is one of my favorite things to make!  It is so comforting in the fall and winter, and normally quick to make!  I had wanted to make Italian Wedding Soup for quite some time, but as you all know, dinner time for us is healthy for the most part.  I traveled quite a lot the past couple months, so with a week from home, I definitely wanted to make some soup.

This soup turned out absolutely amazing.  It is so quick to make, and was so healthy.  The meatballs take the longest to make, but can be made before hand if you need to.  Because I do not like beans, that was skipped on our end, but most recopies call for beans!  It is such a hardy soup that you really don't need to make anything else with it.  It will fill you up more than you think!  It makes about 6 servings, depending on how much you eat, but it is easy to make it a larger or smaller batch.  So, here we go!

Italian Wedding Soup

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

Soup ingredients:
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1-2 large carrots, sliced
1 large onion, chopped
1 medium zucchini, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp dried basil
1 1/2 tsp dried Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1/4 cup white wine (optional)
8 cups chicken broth (low sodium)
6oz baby spinach, chopped
1 1/2 cups pearl couscous (found near the rice in grocery stores) or small pasta


Meatball ingredients:
1lb ground turkey
2 tbsp milk
1 egg
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
3/4 cup whole wheat breadcrumbs
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic pepper pepper
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning

1. In a heavy-bottomed soup pot, heat olive oil. Add carrots and onions; saute for 5-8 minutes or until softened. Add garlic; cook 2 minutes more.
2. Add wine; cook down for 2 minutes. Add broth, heat to slow boil.
3. Add zucchini, seasonings, pasta/couscous, and meatballs. Cook for about 10 minutes, or until your pasta is tender.
4. Add chopped spinach, stir through until wilted, about 2-4 minutes.
5. Serve - some people prefer to add cheese on top, fresh Parmesan is the norm!

Meatballs

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with a SilPat or regular foil and coat with non-stick spray.
2. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients well. Using a rounded 1 tbsp measuring spoon or small melon baller, scoop out meat; shape into small balls. Makes roughly 100  meatballs, depending on how small you make them.
3. Place meatballs on baking sheet, making sure they don’t touch. Bake for 10 minutes.

Recipe adapted from here

Roasted Red Pepper Soup

It has been quite some time since I have been home for a full week, so needless to say, I am excited to try some new recipes this week because I have a FULL week at home!!!  It is getting to be spring time but I love making soup, so I took advantage of a colder day today and found a new soup recipe to make.  I got an immersion blender off of our wedding registry during a wedding shower but had not found the opportunity to use it.  I was incredibly excited to put it to use for a very healthy soup recipe!  We have been trying to eat healthy since we are just 40 days away from the wedding, so hopefully you see a trend of helthy(ish) eating!  A change that I will make in the future now that I know the taste is adding shrimp or a mussel type seafood.  I think it will compliment the flavor very well! Enjoy!!!

Creamy Roasted Red Pepper and Cauliflower Soup with Goat Cheese

Ingredients

• 4 red bell pepper, cut in half and seeds removed
• 1 small head cauliflower, cut into florets
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 teaspoon thyme, chopped
• 1 pinch red pepper flakes (do not overdo because a little goes a long way!)
• 32 oz. chicken broth
• 8 ounces goat cheese, crumbled

Directions

1. Place the red peppers on a baking sheet with the cut side facing down, broil until the skins are blackened, about 10 minutes, place in a sealable container (i.e. Tupperware) and let 'steam' for 20 minutes before pinching the skins off and dicing.  If all of the skin does not come off do not fret!  It will still make a very smooth soup.
2. Meanwhile, toss the cauliflower in the oil, place it in a single layer on a baking sheet and roast in a preheated 400F oven until tender and caramelized, about 30 minutes.
3. Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat and cook the onion until tender, about 5-7 minutes.
4. Add the garlic, thyme and red pepper flakes and cook until fragrant, about a minute.
5. Add the roasted red peppers, cauliflower, broth, and goat cheese and simmer for 10 minutes before pureeing to the desired consistency with a hand blender.  I make it a very creamy consistency because I do not like chunky textures!
6. Season with salt and pepper (I did not add any because the flavor was already great) and serve garnished with goat cheese.

Recipe and Image changed slightly from here

 

Embracing Nature for A Weekend

This week was an exciting week traveling to Alabama and being able to drive on a trip instead of heading to the airport early Monday morning!  After coming back from Alabama Thursday afternoon, it was finally time to get our granite installed. Joe and I had been piecing together our downstairs bar in our living room and had put together a cabinet and bought the wine and beer fridges a while ago.  After that, it was time to pick our what top we wanted.  After looking at some places, we finally settled on a white marble with black specs in it to tie in all of the white furniture and then darker kitchen counter tops.  The installers arrived minutes after I got home, and were done literally in about 5 minutes!  It was so exciting seeing the counter tops finally go up because we had been waiting on them for quite some time!  We still have a lot to do with the bar and we have to lay a back splash, put up some shelves, and raise the fridges, but it is all slowly coming together. 

Thursday night was also the GT vs. Clemson game, so around 7, Joe and I headed to Deck and Kayla's house for dinner and game watching.  Although they live really close to us, it took us an hour to get there because we were stuck in the worst traffic ever!  Once we finally go there we enjoyed an amazing meal!  They made caprese skewers and pomegranate chicken pasta which was absolutely amazing!  Although the game didn't turn out the way we wanted (and I will admit that Clemson is definitely the better team), it was such a fun evening.

Before we knew it, the week was over and it was time to head up to the Blue Ridge Mountains to enjoy a weekend in a cabin with Joe's family.  We rode up with Joe's parents and enjoyed an amazing meal of coleslaw, brisket, brats, and so much more.  Joe's dad is an amazing cook so there is always so much food to eat and it is always amazing.  We headed to bed fairly early, since we knew we would be up the next morning.

After a relaxing Saturday morning, we enjoyed a French Toast Casserole and some meats for breakfast.  After breakfast Joe and I headed out for a walk that might not have been long, but was extremely hilly!  It was good to get out even though it wasn't the most amazing weather.  Once we got home, Matt and Kim made a realy good snack that was a ricotta honey spread, prosciutto, and cantaloup on top of toasted french bread.  It was an amazing combination of flavors! We then watched the beginning of the UGA vs. Auburn game and then had a wine and cheese tasting.  The tasting was put on by Joe's dad, Jim, and he was so knowledgeable about how wines are made, what to eat with them, what flavors we should taste, etc.   Although I am not a huge cheese person, it was really interesting tasting the wine and cheese flavors mix and I think we all definitely learned a lot!  Next time we might drink a bit slower but it was so fun.  We took a break after the wine and cheese to let it all sit before having round two of appetizers, grilled shrimp. After watching the end of an incredibly exciting game, it was dinner time.  For dinner, we had steaks, hash browns, and mushrooms which were all amazing (I told you we ate a lot)!  After dinner we went to the hot tub to relax for a bit and let the food set.  Then it was game time, and we all played Yahtzee.  Kim and I had never played so it was quite a learning experience but a very fun game! I may or may not have had beginners luck on my side, and I won!!!!  Below you will see how much I beat Joe by :)  After game time it was cake time to celebrate Jim's birthday.  I had made a cake from Southern Living that was a combination of Red Velvet Cake and Cheesecake with White Chocolate Icing and it was amazing (and huge).  After cake, we headed to bed after a fun day of eating and relaxing.

6 Wines...6 Cheeses :)

Sunday morning was another relaxing morning with a frittata and pork roll for  breakfast.  After getting the cabin packed up, we headed to an apple orchard  and explored the store before hitting the road and heading home. After getting home we relaxed for the remainder of the evening, and I am contemplating heading to the gym and swimming off some of the food form this weekend!  Although it wasn't beautiful weather, it was a very relaxing weekend with so much amazing food and great company!  Now, off to get ready to go to Florida for the week (and enjoy Disney behind the scenes to look at some gauges and transmitters :) )

Apple Orchards

Greek Lemon and Orzo Soup

It's finally getting cold out in Atlanta, and soup is one of my favorite things to make.  I love making soup because it is a lighter meal but always so soothing.  The recipe below is a Rachael Ray recipe that I modified to be a bit more filling.  I tend to make soup as a main dish so I always want some sort of protein to be involved.  Below is an absolutely amazing soup recipe that is light, healthy, and very easy to make! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!


 Greek Lemon and Orzo Soup

Ingredients

• 8 cups chicken broth (64 ounces)
• One 2-inch strip lemon peel and juice of 1 large lemon
• 1 bay leaf
• A pinch of mustard powder
• 1/2 lbs chicken, diced
• 1/2 cup orzo
• 2 large eggs plus 3 large yolks
• 2 drops hot sauce
• A couple generous handfuls of flat leaf parsley, chopped
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• Pita chips (any flavor), for serving,  I use Stacy Simply Naked chips because the soup already has so much flavor

Preparation

In a soup pot, bring the broth, lemon peel, bay leaf, diced chicken, and saffron to a boil. Stir in the orzo and boil for 5 minutes. Cover, remove the pan from the heat and let the orzo steep for 5 minutes. Discard the lemon peel and bay leaf.

In a bowl, whisk the eggs and egg yolks, lemon juice and hot sauce. Whisk in 1/2 cup soup to temper the eggs, then whisk the egg mixture into the soup. Cook on low heat, whisking, for 5 minutes. Stir in the parsley; season with salt and pepper. Serve with pita chips.

Everyone is in the ATL!!!!

This past week was a week working from home, catching up on emails and planning the remainder of the year.  It is crazy that it is already November!  Pretty soon it will be the holidays :)  This weeks weather was very much fall weather and it made for perfect pumpkin carving, tailgating, and outdoor activities!

The excitement of the week was Wednesday, when Kellie Ann and Reza came over for dinner and then pumpkin carving.  We had bought the pumpkins while up at Helen so we were finally getting around to carving them, just in time for Halloween!  Dinner was homemade baked sweet and sour chicken with rice and Kellie Ann brought over Joe's favorite buffalo chicken dip that he had been craving all week!  After dinner was done we grabbed some wine and headed to the rooftop to carve our pumpkins!  Kellie Ann and Reza decided to do a ghost while Joe and I decided to do Buzz and a GT in honor of homecoming weekend!  We figured that way we had an excuse to light it after Halloween had passed and we could show off our Tech spirit!  We had such a good time carving pumpkins and roasting pumpkin seeds!

Final Product of our Pumpkin!!!

Before we knew it, it was the weekend again and the festivities began.  This was homecoming weekend for Georgia Tech which always means that everyone comes back into town!  On top of that, it was Alumni weekend for the swim team so I knew we had an exciting weekend in store.  Friday, the house was all decorated for fall and ready for all of our visitors!   Courtney was the first to arrive so it was great getting some time with her to catch up and take Rox on a walk since we wouldn't have too much time for her this weekend.  After our walk we got dinner in the oven and cupcakes made so that we were ready for everyone else to arrive.  Joe and I had dinner before getting ready for the evening full of fun.  A couple swimmers were staying at our place for the weekend so we opened some bottles of wine and enjoyed the rooftop on a brisk evening.  Some of Joe's friends came over as well, and Dillon, one of Joe's best friends was in town so he had a great time catching up with him. We then headed out to Ivy for a night of dancing and fun!  We had a lovely NYU BFF reunion at Ivy and it was so good FINALLY getting to see Sarah Anderson even if it was only for a little bit!

NYU BFFs!!!

LOVE these girls :)

Saturday morning came way to quick and we got up  bright and early to head to the pool for the Alumni Meet.  The swim team always has a meet where the Alumni swim the current team and I must say I am quite impressed with the Alumni and their swimming abilities post college!  I sat out this year so that I didn't injure my already hurt ankle any further but it was so good catching up with old friends and being by the pool again.  After the meet we headed to West Egg right by campus where we waited quite some time to seat 16 people, but since the weather was beautiful outside, it wasn't all that bad!  After a long wait we finally sat down and enjoyed an amazing brunch!  Then Courtney and I headed home and took Rox on a walk, took a quick 20 minute nap, and then got ready to head to GT's campus to tailgate!

GT Alumni Meet!

Part of the Table at West Egg

We got to campus and headed to the bridge to see some of the track alumni and then headed to the Swim Team Alumni tailgate.  There we enjoyed catching up with everyone that we hadn't seen in a while and then met up with Joe's parents for a bit.  After eating and catching up with Joe's parents I got to see Sarah Anderson for about 2 minutes before going back to the Alumni Tailgate for a bit.  We then decided to skip the actual game because it was getting to be very cold.  We headed to Big Kahuna where Dillon was was holding a Miami Donor watch party to watch that game and track the GT game as well in a warmer environment!  At halftime we headed home to finish watching the game and get ready to go out for the evening.

Love :)

Best Friend I ever Had :)

Some of my favorite Alum :)

Sun Setting At Tech!

We headed to 5 Paces this time around and met up with a lot of the younger alumni and older current swimmers.  It was so much fun dancing the night away and bar hopping in that area.  Although we got an extra hour at the bars, we were exhausted fairly early into the evening and headed home to enjoy an extra hour of sleep!

Sunday morning we got up and said our goodbyes to everyone that had stayed at our place this weekend and after breakfast went back to bed.  We must have been exhausted because we woke up and it was lunch time.  After relaxing for a bit, Andy and Meredith stopped by so we caught up with them.  We then planned meals for the week and headed to Kroger before eating dinner.  After a long and exciting weekend, it was nice to have a low key Sunday so that we are ready for another week! It was so fun getting to see everyone in town this weekend and I was so sad to see everyone go.  Why can't everyone just live in Atlanta?  Now, an early bed time is much needed to get ready for another week of work!

Enjoying Fall in Georgia...

This past week was quite a crazy week of travel for work, and I must say maybe the busiest of the year.  I started the trip Sunday evening by heading to Ft. Worth, then from there traveling to Brownsville, TX, El Paso, TX, and Phoenix, AZ before heading home.  After a lot of flights, time changes, and beautiful scenery, I was very ready to get home and enjoy a weekend with Joe and friends.

Sunset when landing in Brownsville, TX

Cactus in Phoenix!!!

Sun Setting between two layers of clouds in ATL

Earlier in the week we had made plans to head up to Helen for October Fest.  Saturday morning, Joe had tennis, so after the tennis match, we met up with Kellie Ann and Reza and hit the road to Helen.  For those of you that don't know, Helen is a small town in North GA that is a replica of a German village.  They have October Fest every year and this was a big weekend for people to go.  After checking into our hotel we headed to Helen for a fun afternoon and evening.

We started the day at the beer hall where they sold beautiful ceramic mugs and had live German music and dancing.  After sipping on some German beer we headed too dinner where we had some brats, sauerkraut, Reuben sandwiches, and much more on a small restaurant that sat on the river.  After dinner we met up with Rialda, Elliot, and their friends for some more drinking and dancing the night away.  After we had our fill of dancing, we headed to a small ice cream parlor and enjoyed funnel cakes (yes plural) and FRIED OREOS!  They were so good, and of course after the food was gone, Kellie Ann, Reza, and Joe had a little fun throwing powdered sugar on each other.  After that we headed back to the beer hall for some more genuine German music before heading to the hotel.

Fried Oreos!

Funnel Cake :)

After a great breakfast the next morning (Joe and Reza were overly excited about waffles in the morning) we hit the road and made a pit stop at a farm.  There we found the perfect carving pumpkins and decorative pumpkins.  After getting our pumpkins, we headed to the petting zoo so that Kellie Ann could feed the pony, Short Cake, before hitting the road back to Atlanta.

After getting home it was time to cheer on the Falcons and will now head up too Joe's parents house for dinner before getting ready for another fun week of work.  It was such a fun weekend spent in north Georgia with amazing friends enjoying the perfect fall weather that we are having in Atlanta currently.  So, with that,  another weekend has passed, so Happy Week everyone :)