Recipe Fridays: Reinventing the TV Dinner, pt. 3

Another Thursday has come and gone, which means another TV dinner!  This was one of the simpler ones (from almost a month ago, actually), but it made me pretty happy that night.  Pretty healthy, too. 

A quick tortellini soup I threw together, with store-bought three-cheese tortellini in a broth I made.  I actually made the soup a few days before Thursday, and was eating my way through it slowly, so when Thursday came around, I took some soup and heated it up for my dinner.  Honestly, that’s how I usually do it for my Thursday night ritual – heat up some leftovers, plate it, take a picture, and there you have my whole meal without much fuss. 

Quick n easy tortellini soup

Carrot, diced
Garlic, minced
Onion, diced
Celery, diced
Red pepper flakes (optional)
Kosher salt & freshly cracked black pepper
1 package three-cheese tortellini, I used Bertolli brand cuz it was on sale (and I discovered that the Stop&Shop store brand, while cheaper, tastes really bad)

In the bottom of a large pot, heat a bit of extra virgin olive oil.  Add the carrots, allowing to brown a little, stirring occasionally.  Once softened a little, add garlic and onion, stirring till all are pretty fragrant.  Add celery, red pepper flakes, and the salt/pepper.  Once the veggies are softened a bit, add water (or chicken stock, if you like, though with water, this is a vegetarian soup) to fill the pot 3/4 of the way.  Bring to a low boil, and then lower heat to a simmer for about 10 minutes.  Add tortellini and cook according to instructions in soup (I think mine said 7-10 minutes).  Taste for seasoning, adjust, and then enjoy! 

So easy and delicious, healthy. 

Next up: clementine cole slaw.  I think this recipe needs tweaking, so I’ll just say that I took some of the clementine relish from the first TV dinner and mixed it with shredded cabbage that I buy by the bag at Trader Joe’s.  It was a little too bitter from the cole slaw… I think I need to mellow the cabbage before I make slaw next time. 

Cuz I like to be healthy 😉 I also stuck a salad on the side.  Well, really, it was because that’s what I had on hand, and I didn’t want the soup to make me so full that I’d struggle to eat whatever was on the side.  This is just cut up Romaine lettuce, some marinated artichoke hearts, and Girard’s creamy balsamic dressing (which I really like).  Yummy and light! 

A salted caramel espresso bar (that’s not fungus on top, it’s sea salt). 

Before cutting the bars…

and after.  I actually used Giada’s recipe for these, with a few modifications.  I didn’t feel like making caramel myself and I have a jar of salted butter caramel from Petrossian sitting in my cabinet, just wasting away, so I used that for the caramel layer instead… and I didn’t use smoked salt because I find that tends to overwhelm whatever it tops.  Just regular sea salt.  The bottoms were a little too gooey for me, and I didn’t really like these much… but everyone I’ve given them to so far has raved to high heaven and back about them.  So… success! but yet another item I’ve made that didn’t do it for me.  Ah well. 

Last but not really least were these mini baguettes I bought at Trader Joe’s.  $2.99 for a bag of 6, you can either defrost them or warm them for a few minutes in your oven (I have a convection toaster oven, so I have no problem using my mini oven when I don’t want or need to heat the big one).  These are actually really good, surprisingly; the crust is perfectly crisp, while the inside yields to a fluffy, hot and moist bready center.  Love.  Having mini baguettes minutes away from hot goodness in my mouth is totally worth the $2.99 price tag.  I will be stocking my freezer with this from now on (among many other Trader Joe’s goodies).  Yum!

I’m having a lot of fun with this Reinventing the TV Dinner series.  Any other suggestions for what I should put on my plate?  Thanks, and

HAPPY EATING!!!  🙂