Friday, January 27, 2012

Slow Cooker Italian Tortellini Stew


So it's that time again, ladies and gents...I know I'm excited!  :)  It's another slow cooker meal from last night...gotta love those slow cooker meals!  Turn it on and forget about it and when you come home there's a delicious meal waiting for you!  Not to mention, I was out of chicken broth, as the recipe will call for later, so this meal was basically a vegetarian meal!  So, for all you non meat eaters, have at this recipe!
First thing's first, I chopped up a half of a large onion, as well as halved a squash and sliced the halves.  The recipe called for zucchini but the store was out of them so I had to work with what they had!

Then I put those into the slow cooker, along with 2 3/4 cups of water (the recipe called for chicken broth but I was out!  This is where the vegetarians out there will be happy about), 1 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes, 1 15.5 ounce can of great northern beans (make sure these are drained and rinsed!), and 1/4 teaspoon of EACH salt and pepper.



Then I went to work for eight hours (I seriously love slow cookers)!  When I got home I added 1 tablespoon of dried basil,
and a package of fresh cheese tortellinis.
You can usually pick up fresh tortellinis in the deli section where they have the pesto sauce and freshly sliced deli meats, or you can also get dried tortellinis from the pasta section.  Those are usually in a bag, but use whichever is your preference!  I turned the heat up to high and let that cook for about 20 minutes and voila!!!
I added a little sprinkle of some grated parmesan cheese and it was readt to be served!!  The best part was this meal was only 170 calories!  Honestly, without using the chicken broth it was probably even less than that, and everyone ate it up!  My suggestion, though, if you have bigger eaters, is to double the recipe.  Everyone went back for seconds and there weren't any!!  It was also only $2.56/serving!
Here's the recipe:

1 small onion, finely chopped 
2 medium zucchini, halved, cut into 1-inch slices 
2 (14 1/2-oz.) cans ready-to-serve vegetable or chicken broth
1 (28-oz.) can crushed or diced tomatoes, undrained 
1 (15.5-oz.) can great northern beans, drained, rinsed 
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper 
1 tablespoon dried basil leaves 
1 (8-oz.) pkg. cheese-filled tortellini


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