“Creamy” Tomato Tortellini Soup (with Eggplant and Zucchini)

What’s that sound? Leaves cracking beneath my feet? A crisp wind rustling the trees? A bunch of mooncakes getting thrown in the trash? Yup. Fall is almost here. You know what that means…it’s time to board the soup train to comfy town!

Get out those scarves, boots, sweaters, pumpkin-spice lattes, picnic blankets, light flannel shirts, musky cologne, and chow down on some of this…

Ingredients

Boxed or fresh cheese tortellini
1 zucchini
1 eggplant
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cans condensed tomato soup
1 can chicken broth
1 cup skim milk
1 cup greek yogurt (plain, unsweetend)
Salt
Pepper
Italian or all seasoning
Basil flakes
Olive oil

Make It Happen

If you have boxed tortellini, cook completely first

(if you have fresh, you can just drop them in at the end)

While this is boiling, chop and cook the zucchini and eggplant in olive oil, salt, and pepper

Drain the tortellini

In a large mixing bowl, combine tomato soup (no water added), chicken broth, milk, and yogurt

Mix in some salt, pepper, italian or all seasoning, and basil flakes

Set aside

In a pot (large enough for a lot of soup in the end) sauté the garlic in a little olive oil

Watch for it to start to brown, but don’t let it burn

When that is ready, pour in the soup base (pour carefully)

Bring to a simmer on the stove

Add veggies, stir well

Add tortellini, stir well

Serve and enjoy!

30-Minute Lasagna Roll Ups

So I finally got my hands on some ricotta and the first stop was lasagna town. I wanted to make something with individual portions, and I saw a pin for lasagna roll ups a few weeks ago. With that inspiration, I ended up with this…

Ingredients

Lasagna sheets (smallish, or whatever is a good size for your baking pan)
Ricotta
Mozzarella
Marinara
Pepperoni
Salt
Pepper
Italian seasoning

Make It Happen

Bring a pot of water to a boil, and then turn off heat

One sheet at a time, soften but do not fully cook the lasagna sheets (seriously, just do one at a time. I tried to do a few at once– sneaky, sneaky– and they all stuck together. Also, while one is cooking you can be filling and rolling the other you just removed.)

When soft, remove sheet and cover in marinara, ricotta, mozzarella, and pepperoni (in the picture above I made two without pepperoni and they were good too. #cookingforvegetarians)

Salt, pepper, and Italian season to taste

Roll carefully, and place in baking pan (I used a bread pan and it worked nicely)

Repeat these steps for as many rolls will fit in your pan

When the pan is full, cover in more marinara

Top with mozzarella and more pepperoni (I’m all about a crunchy crust)

Preheat oven to 175C or 350F

Bake in oven for…I don’t know, I didn’t actually time it. But I’d say when it starts to make noise, or when the pepperoni gets on the verge of too crispy, it’s probably a good time to take it out.

Plate and serve (or serve right out of baking pan!)

The pictures above really don’t do it justice…its hard to see the individual rolls with their over-flowingly cheesy insides…Another great bonus is just like regular lasagna, it was even better the next day when reheated!

Enjoy!

Coconut Curried Chickpea, Mushroom, and Sweet Red Pepper

 
I saw a pin a few days ago for curried chickpeas, but didn’t have tomato sauce or red curry. I had green curry and coconut milk. And this is what transpired…

Ingredients

1 can chickpeas
Button mushrooms
1 large sweet red pepper 
Some green curry paste (I don’t really do measurements…)
Some coconut milk
Salt
Pepper
Parsley Flakes

Make It Happen

Drain the can of chickpeas and place in a medium-sized mixing bowl

Cut mushrooms

Cut pepper

Add to the chickpeas

Pour some (maybe 1/2 cup?) coconut milk into the bowl and top with a scoop of curry paste ( I think I put about 1tsp in and it was pretty spicy!)

Stir until well mixed

Salt and pepper to taste

Sprinkle in some parsley flakes for color

Plate and enjoy.

Simple, healthy, delicious! Perfect for an office lunch with a little spice!