the one where i cook spinach tortellini soup!

My favorite web site to get recipes from is budgetbytes.blogspot.com. The recipes are budget friendly, fairly healthy, and since there are step by step photos, never daunting. There's a huge variety of food to be found and some of our menu staples came from that site. I honestly have no idea how I initially found it, but the same can basically be said about all of my favorite blogs!

Anyway, today, the lovely author posted a recipe for spinach tortellini soup. I had a sneaking suspicion I had most of the ingredients on hand, and sure enough, I did! A grocery store trip was in order anyway, so I just picked up the tortellini and some garlic bread to go with it too.

You can find the recipe here, but also, here it is for your convience:

Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 small yellow onion
4 cloves garlic
1 28 oz can tomato sauce
1 28 oz can crushed or diced tomatoes
28 oz water
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
15-20 cranks fresh cracked pepper
1 12 oz package tortellini (check the dried pasta, frozen, and dairy/deli sections for the best deal)
1 10 oz box frozen spinach
salt to taste

Directions:
1. Dice the onion and mince the garlic. Add to a large pot with the olive oil. Cook over medium low heat until the onions are transclucent.

2. Add the can of tomatoes, can of tomato sauce, and 1 can of water to the pot. Add the basil, oregano, and pepper to the pot. Increase the heat to bring the pot to a simmer.

3. Add the tortellini and spinach (no need to thaw if frozen). Cook until heated through, the spinach is full incorporated, and the tortellini is tender. Season to taste with salt.

Serve with crusty bread and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese! Yummo!

I added about 2 cups of beef broth because I felt like it need a tiny bit more depth of flavor. I had a bowl with S (his had very little broth but he gobbled the tortellini and spinach right up!). I'm going to let the soup cool off and put half in freezer bags and in my new large-ish freezer. I'm so excited to be able to freeze meals as I go and make things a little easier and cheaper in the meal department of my life!