Good Day, Good Dish!

Good evening everyone! Today was a good day. A very good day in fact! On a personal level, Maggie learned today that she has a clean bill of health - there was a little concern for a while with us that she may need a major surgery, but results came back today that indicated that surgery is 99.99% unlikely and nothing major is wrong - always a good thing. Secondly, I received a promotion today! It's a nice boost up the corporate ladder - and it has better hours too - that means more time to cook! Finally, we finalized something big for the blog - something that our fans are going to love - something that Maggie and I are extremely excited to share...but we can't yet. Rest assured, it's a very exciting and very impressive for a little blog - but we can't disclose what it is until after the new year. And mom(s) - that means you too. You can call and ask all you want - but we cannot disclose this announcement until 2011. Stay tuned for that!

Back to the reason why you are all here - Maggie took to the kitchen tonight continuing the health focused recipe week (we're calling the anti-Christmas meal week) with a very unique dish. Clocking in at just over 200 calories per serving, this savory and delicious dish is certain to become a household favorite both for your tummy and your waistline. I'll turn the keyboard over to Maggie and let her share tonight's recipe:

The Recipe: Tortellini Florentine Soup
Original Recipe Found In: The Food section of yahoo.com

What You'll Need:

9 Ounces Refrigerated Three Cheese Tortellini
14 Ounces Reduced Sodium Chicken Broth
10 Ounce Refrigerated Light Alfredo Pasta Sauce
2 Cups Shredded Deli-Roasted Chicken (Roasted is key)
1/2 Cups Oil-Packed Dried Tomato Strips, Drained
3 Cups Lightly Packed Packaged Fresh Baby Spinach
1 Ounce Parmesan Cheese, Shredded

Hi all!  As Tyler mentioned, it was a very exciting day in the Trimble household for a lot of reasons, and it didn't snow either, so the Great Day quotient was bumped up a little bit more.  But back to our cooking, I found this recipe about two weeks ago and I thought it sounded really delicious.  I am a huge fan of tortellini - I find the concept really stellar: stuffed pasta that isn't too heavy with ingredients, like ravioli.  That and you can have tortellini by itself or use it in a recipe like this - it's a great item to have in the fridge/pantry for a quick fix.


I started this evening by cooking the tortellini in a four quart Dutch oven, according to package directions (about nine minutes for mine.)  Drain and set aside.  In the same Dutch oven, combine the chicken broth and alfredo sauce.  Stir in the chicken and tomato strips.  Heat to just boiling; reduce heat.  Simmer uncovered for five minutes.

Add the cooked tortellini and spinach to chicken/broth/sauce combination.  Cook for 1-5 minutes (I left it on the heat for 4 minutes) to heat through and wilt spinach.  Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and serve!

The End Result:

The flavors of the tortellini, chicken, and the broth/alfredo sauce worked superbly.  It was an incredibly tasty dish and not much cooking time was involved (30 minutes all together.)  Also, it's only 286 calories so it was easy meal on the tummy.  It's definitely something quick, easy, flavorful, and yields leftovers if cooking for less than three people.


Thank you Maggie. There is a lot of room for creativity with this dish as well. As always, we like to follow the original recipe (with a few deviations here and there as necessary) on the first go-round - that way we can see if the concept is something we want to further pursue. Now that we know this is a solid dish - we could get creative and add some bacon bits or a little red pepper. I'd like to add flour to the broth and make the soup more of a thick stew - essentially turning the cheese into a sauce. The possibilities are endless - you can bet that we will be returning to this dish in the future.

 That's all we have for you tonight. The anti-Christmas meal week continues tomorrow night as I take to the kitchen and attempt yet another variation of a dish I've made at least three different ways on the blog already. (No, it's not potato soup this time!) Tune in tomorrow night to see what I've got cooking. Until then,

~Cheers