Recipe: Easy Italian Wedding Soup

I happen to be one of those people who eats soup no matter the weather.  Freezing, chilly, warm, sunny, snowy, hot and humid... doesn't matter. I LOVE soup.  Since Mother Nature apparently didn't get cc'd on the Groundhog's memo, it was cold here for the end of April.  

I have to admit, this recipe is not the most complicated thing.  It is a little tedious, but the steps are not difficult.  Usually I prefer recipes with a little more depth, but I was tired after work today and que sera sera.

I also tried to remember to take pictures along the way.  Key word here is tried.

Ok. Step 1- Find a really cute apron especially if you are prone to spills/constantly misplace your dishtowel.

Cheesy and corny, yes I know.  Please ignore the dark circles and lack of make up.  Today was a very trying day in the 5th grade. We did a lot of math.  And I had a first period prep.  Although I did get to go to the ice cream party in the 4th grade because I did my homework. (Actually, I didn't do my homework. Oh well, too bad, so sad).

Step 2- Gather your ingredients.

1. Pasta (amount depends on how many servings you are making), I used 1/3 cup ditalini

2. Chicken broth (homemade or whatever you prefer. I happened to have some homemade leftover and some store brand leftover so I just combined what I had.)

3. Spinach.  If your local grocery store happens to have fresh spinach that looks good, by all means, get that.  If it looks soggy and gross, then do what I did and buy some frozen chopped spinach.  I really like spinach so I put about 1/4 cup into each serving of soup.

4. A combo of ground beef and ground pork (for the meatballs)

5. Breadcrumbs

6. An egg

7. Seasonings- kosher salt, fresh pepper, basil, oregano, parsley

8. Onion and garlic, finely minced and sautéed briefly in just a smidge of olive oil

9. A few drops of balsamic vinaigrette 

Basically what I do is start heating up the broth/stock in a pot on the stove while I am preparing the meatballs.  Turn it on to a really low simmer so the contents will be boiled just about when you start to cook the meatballs.

Step 3- Get dirty. Seriously. I know that raw meat scheeves some people out, so find gloves if you want.  Otherwise, just start mixing all your meatball ingredients together.

I went a little heavy on the breadcrumbs because I wasn't paying attention.  That's what I get for being debriefed about Game of Thrones while cooking. Oh well. My literary palate deserves just as much deliciousness in terms of books as my actual palate does food.

I made this batch of meatballs normal sized, forgetting that I was putting them in soup. (Again, Game of Thrones. Whatever.)  The second batch I made were much smaller- maybe about half a teaspoon.  However there is no picture of the teeny tiny little meatballs because my hands were covered and I wasn't about to touch my phone.

Into the non-stick fry pan you go!

Whoops, some got a little too brown.  This time it was because I was having a dance party in the kitchen.  Wooden spoons make great microphones.

By now your pot of soup should be boiled, dump in the macaroni, stir, set your timer, with a few minutes left toss in your spinach, taste, season, toss in a few meatballs, done!  I was so tired and ready to eat that I forgot to take a picture of my soup before I started eating.  

Oh, and I sprinkled some freshly grated parmesan cheese on top.  

Delicious.  This mug (compliments of my bff Allison) is my favorite mug ever and I use it for everything.  It is huge and holds an entire bowl of soup or about 2.5 cups of coffee. All of these things are necessary to my survival (bff, coffee, soup. In that order.)

I have a feeling that I will not be cooking tomorrow.  Depending on this ridiculous weather I will most likely just make some more soup.  Cooking today used up almost all of my spoons [See The Spoon Theory, an excellent analogy about living with chronic illness/disability], gardening took up a few more, blogging a few more... and I have a crazy early wake up call tomorrow.  

So on that note, I'm over and out.

More Seeds!!!

I just got home from work and opened the mailbox... and my edemame seeds have arrived!!! More to plant :)

Have to take a quick trip to the store, this chilly weather has me in the mood for some homemade Italian Wedding Soup and I need some ingredients.

When I get back:
-An updated gardening post with my newly planted soybeans
-A recipe post for Italian Wedding Soup
-Day 9 of the 30 Days Challenge

Adventures in Pinning!

I have exciting news! After many attempts for success in my Pinterest life, I am finally victorious! This happens rarely (aka, NEVER), so I am over the proverbial moon (even though it is only 6:24 pm).

Prior to today I had two Pinterest wins and several (dozens) of fails. My first win was sugar scrub, which I happened to use this afternoon. (Oh. You know what this means. It isn't just sugar scrub. It is magical Pinterest success sugar scrub!!! Ahem). The second was a creamy garlic pasta recipe. Yumm.

The fails have included more DIY beauty treatments than I care to admit. One was a foot soak to get rid of beachy feet. One was a face mask to clear my pores. Another was a recipe for cheesy zucchini rice (three of my favorite things, how wrong could it be? VERY. But that's another story for another time). I tried to make a healthy shake once. I threw it out after two sips.

Anyway, today I decided to tackle a food recipe.

Okay. I lied. I have a few more wins than I remembered: birthday swirly cupcakes, homemade refrigerator pickles, jello shots. I've only discovered this since I flipped through my pins to find the link for today's adventure in pinning.

Now I don't have a job this year, unfortunately. I didn't have enough seniority to keep my job (two other teachers got excessed too).  So I'm back to volunteering/subbing.  The days when I volunteer I can go into school in jeans and a nice top with my hair pulled back and no makeup on.  I'm basically just tech support the first few days anyway, and that requires crawling under tables that are too heavy to move.  I'm not getting dressed up to do that.

This also means that I don't have to get up at 5:30 am. I can get up at 6:15 instead. I can get up at 6:30 if I don't have to make breakfast. Enter the adventure.  A while ago I pinned this link to my Pinterest Recipe board.  Seemed easy enough. I grabbed my post-its, made my shopping list and went to the store. I didn't buy anything on sale because nothing I needed was on sale, but if you are going to attempt this, definitely get your ingredients at a reasonable price.

I forgot to take a picture of all my ingredients (so shoot me, I'm new at this recipe-progress-blogging thing), so I'll make a list of them instead!

To make 20 breakfast burritos:

• 20 Tortillas (I used Mission brand, soft taco, medium size)
• 8 extra large eggs
• 8 oz. egg whites (to stretch the eggs without the added cholesterol)
• 8 oz. shredded cheese (whatever kind you like. You can also buy a block and shred it yourself)
• 1 frozen package of pork sausage (or you could make ham or bacon, your choice)
• 1 pound shredded potatoes

First I defrosted the sausage and tossed it into the biggest non-stick fry pan I have.

Brown it up. Empty the fry pan over a paper towel to get rid of some of the excess fat.

Now I know I said you needed shredded potatoes. But the store didn't have any, they had these pseudo-Latkes. Found them in the frozen aisle. I popped them into the fry pan still frozen.  I didn't want to cook them all the way through, just enough to chop them up. I used 9 out of the 10 in the pack (I saved one to eat for dinner!!)

Roughly chop.  No need for perfection here.

Chopped. I dumped them back into the container they came in as I was chopping because I ran out of space very quickly on my cutting board.

Transfer the chopped potatoes to your fry pan.  I added a smidge of oil oil and a tablespoon of butter to get things going. Optional, of course.

While the potatoes were browning up and cooking through, I scrambled my eggs.  Make the eggs however you like them. I mixed egg whites with regular eggs, added about 3/4 cup of milk (I don't measure, ever. Just eyeball it), salt and lots of pepper. Mix it up.

I poured HALF of the egg mixture into the frying pan and cooked the eggs. Just as they were about finished I added HALF of the potatoes and HALF of the sausage.

HALF. This part is important because:
    a) It won't all fit in your fry pan unless you have one that is about 36 inches in diameter
    b) It will make assembly easier.

Mmmm. Good enough to eat right out of the pan (which, of course, I did. I had to make sure it wasn't poisonous).

Lay out your tortillas on a nice clean counter space.  I divided the contents of the fry pan in half and did 5 burritos at a time.  Sprinkle your cheese on top. Fold and roll and fold and roll your burrito. This was the hardest part for me, since apparently I can't fold a burrito to save my life.

Wrap well in saran wrap.  Transfer to freezer safe ziplock bags. Write the date on the ziplock bag (and what's in the burritos) so you don't get confuzzled.

TADA!!!!!!! SUCCESS!!!

(To reheat: Unwrap from the plastic [plastic in the microwave is bad], wrap in a damp paper towel, microwave for 30-45 seconds, unwrap, throw out paper towel, microwave another 30-45 seconds until hot).

BON APPETIT!