Creamy Tortellini Soup - Pinterest Pick #24

Two years ago I made a delicious tortellini soup (you can find that recipe HERE). Because the weather has actually been pretty cold this winter in FL I was looking for comforting soup, stew, and one pot meal recipes. I came across this recipe on Pinterest for CREAMY tortellini soup and I remembered how good my other recipe was, so I decided to give it a try. Both hubs and I loved it! And it fit the bill for a comforting soup dinner on a chilly night.  Not to mention you make it in your slow cooker so it's super easy as well. I made a couple of adjustments, as I always do. Instead of both cans of diced tomatoes I only used 1 can and then a can of plain tomato sauce. I used frozen spinach instead of fresh. And because my diced tomatoes were plain and not Italian style, I spiced up the soup with a couple of dashes of garlic salt, a big pinch of Italian seasoning, and lots of black pepper. Also, I made this soup without meat for meatless Monday, but you can easily add in some chicken or sausage if you choose. You can find the original pin HERE and the original recipe is listed on the pin, it does not link to a website. 

Creamy Tortellini Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 bag of frozen tortellini
• 1 box (10 oz) frozen spinach (or a bag of fresh baby spinach)
• 2 cans diced tomatoes (or 1 can of diced, and 1 can of tomato sauce)
• 1 block of cream cheese, cut into 4 chunks
• 1 carton chicken broth
• garlic salt
• black pepper
• Italian seasoning

***Parmesan cheese for topping (optional)
***Garlic bread for serving (optional)

Directions:
Put all ingredients in the slow cooker. Cook on low for 4 hours. Enjoy!

Stuffed Tuscan Chicken - Pinterest Pick #23

New ways to eat chicken are always on my mind when I am browsing the internet for recipe ideas. I came across this recipe and when I saw that it had both cheese and sundried tomatoes, I was in. This is a great low carb, gluten free option that is pretty filling. We had ours with salad and that was enough for a dinner.  You can find the original pin HERE and the recipe HERE. The one shortcut I took was instead of making the garlic herb cheese myself was that I used Alouette garlic herb cheese that you can find in your deli's cheese section. 

Stuffed Tuscan Chicken

Ingredients:

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 2 tbs Cajun seasoning (I use Slap Yo Mama - I find it at Walmart)
• 1 tbs Italian seasoning
• 1 tbs paprika
• 1 tbs onion powder
• 1 container Alouette garlic herb cheese spread
• 1 small container of sun dried tomatoes (chop all the tomatoes and reserve the oil)
• 1 10 oz pkg of frozen spinach, thawed & drained
• 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan

Directions:
Butterfly all of the chicken breasts, being careful not to slice them all the way through. Rub the chicken with the reserved oil from the sun-dried tomatoes. Season the chicken with the Cajun spice, Italian spice, paprika, and onion powder. In a separate bowl, mix together the spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic herb cheese, mozzarella, and Parmesan.  Add a heaping tablespoon of the mixture to each chicken breast and press both sides together to close (use toothpicks to seal so the mixture doesn't come out. Bake at 350 for 30-40 mins (the original recipe calls for searing both sides of the chicken in a pan for baking but I did not find this step necessary, especially on a weeknight). Let rest 5 minutes before serving. Enjoy!