Easy Italian Wedding Soup

I love the ease of soups. One pot for cooking, one bowl for eating. Plus it's a comfort food, especially when the soup has pasta in it!
 
Ingredients

• 1 lb sweet Italian sausage, casings removed (I used turkey sausage)
• 1 lb Ditalini pasta, uncooked
• 2 handfuls of fresh baby spinach
• 32 oz of chicken broth
• 1 can navy beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 tablespoon onion powder (not salt!)
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder (not salt!), divided in half
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon basil
• salt & pepper, to taste
• olive oil

Directions

Fill a stock pot with water and 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder. Bring to boil and cook pasta according to directions. Add splash of olive oil to boiling water, to keep pasta from sticking.

While water is boiling/pasta is cooking, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large sauce pot or dutch oven. Cook sausage with onion powder and remaining garlic powder, oregano and basil. Salt & pepper to taste.

Once sausage is browned, add spinach and stir to wilt. Add chicken broth and beans and bring to low boil. Turn down to simmer, add half of the cooked and drained pasta (reserve the other half for pasta salad or just to eat alone for lunch with some cheese sprinkled on top). Heat through, then taste and adjust salt & pepper accordingly.

Very yummy, especially with sweet Abernathy biscuits.

Enjoy!

Abernathy Biscuits

These are a Scottish treat, and they were supposedly named after a Dr. Abernathy, who created them for aiding digestion, instead of for the town of Abernathy in Perthshire, Scotland. 

Regardless, they are yummy! Like a cross between a shortbread cookie and a biscuit (as we know them), they are great with a cup of tea. You can make them without the caraway seed, but I encourage you to try it (even if you do not like seeded rye bread) because the caraway adds a great taste to the biscuits without overpowering them.

Here's my take on the classic recipe:

Ingredients

• 8 ounces of flour
• 3 ounces of butter, diced
• 3 ounces of raw sugar
• 1 free range egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of caraway seed
• 1/4 cup skim milk
• dash of salt

Directions

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Place flour, baking soda, dash of salt and butter in food processor fitted with "S" blade. Pulse until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Pour into mixing bowl.

Stir in sugar and caraway seed. Add beaten egg and milk, and stir with a fork just until combined. Mixture will seem dry and be a little crumbly.

Turn out onto a floured surface and form into a round disk, careful to handle dough lightly (do not knead; biscuits will be tough). Roll to 1/4" thickness and cut into 2 inch disks (or with other shaped cutter desired) and place on baking sheet lined with parchment. (I used one of the sheets with the air pocket on the bottom to prevent things from over browning.)

Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until ever so slightly brown around edges. Do not brown the tops or they will be too crisp. Cool on racks and store in sealed container.

Great plain, or with a light schmear of butter or your favorite jam or marmalade.  And, of course, serve them with tea. :-)

Enjoy!

Linking up with others at:

Easy Baked Tilapia

When I was a gym rat (before marriage and kids), I would always eat fish for dinner. I mean, like every evening. That's why you can't get Orange Roughy anymore; I ate it all. :-) Anyway, we have been going beef and pork free in our home (alas, bacon, I do miss you), and we've been feeling SO much better because of it. I am getting tired of chicken, so I remembered that I would cook fish, years ago, from frozen. So, I tried it with Tilapia and it is very tasty and tender and not dry. And not fishy tasting either, which is nice because fishy fish isn't good, even though it is fish.

Ingredients

• frozen Tilapia filets (see below for how many)
• garlic powder (NOT salt)
• Old Bay seasoning
• cooking spray

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Spray a large baking dish with cooking spray (I used an 11 x 15). Place desired amount of filets in dish. They can overlap a little, but you cannot double layer them, as they won't bake properly. They will shrink as they bake, so halfway through you can scoot them around so they are all flat on the bottom of the dish.

Spray filets with cooking spray. Sprinkle desired amount of garlic powder and Old Bay on fish. Stick in oven and bake for 17 minutes. Rearrange a little, if necessary; bake 5 more minutes (or until fish is white and flakes with a fork).

Fish will continue to cook some in dish, so it doesn't need to be super flaky when you take it out. Mostly just needs to be opaque (all white) and tender .

Serve with rice and steamed broccoli or a spinach salad.  Yum!