My Boy's Favorite Meal....Right Now

On their birthday we have always let the kids pick whatever they want to have for dinner - restaurant, favorite meal Mom makes, whatever they want really. A few days ago it was my son's birthday. Now, we are foodies - we love food. I love cooking. I love using fresh ingredients, I love making new things, and I love experimenting with foods we've never had before. I am always in search of a new recipe that everyone will love. And my biggest fan? Logan. While Brandon has definitely given me accolades throughout the years, and really every day, Logan is by far my most vivacious fan. He never fails to let me know how delicious the food I make is, or how lucky he is for having a Mommy that is such a good cook. Honestly, I'm getting worried for his future wife...hope she will have some talent in the kitchen!

Anyway, for my Logan's birthday dinner he didn't want to go to a restaurant, he didn't want hot dogs, or macaroni, or any other kid-type food, he asked for my Tortellini Meatball Soup!

Now I must give credit where credit is due. I started with this recipe out of the March/April 2009 issue of Country Home, but of course I've tweaked it a bit.

I encourage you to try it. It really is delicious....and fast.

Tortellini Meatball Soup

Ingredients:
8 oz. sausage (I use Jimmy Dean's)
1/3 c. breadcrumbs
1 c. chopped Walla Walla Sweet onion
10 baby carrots, quartered lengthwise and sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 1/2 quarts of water
6 teaspoons of beef bouillon base (you could use bouillon cubes)
12 oz. refrigerated tri-color cheese tortellini
1 1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning
3-4 c. fresh baby spinach, chopped
5 Tbsp. chopped bottled roasted red pepper
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
Salt and Fresh ground black pepper
1 Tbsp. fresh basil, chopped
8 oz. grated Parmesan cheese

1. First make the meatballs my mixing the sausage and the breadcrumbs together. Shape into thirty-six to forty meatballs (they should be fairly small).

2. In a dutch oven heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add onion, carrots and garlic and cook for about 3 minutes or until tender.

3. Add water and bouillon and heat to boiling. Add raw meatballs, tortellini and Italian seasoning. Return to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 4 minutes.

4. Add spinach, red pepper and lemon juice. Simmer, uncovered, for about 3 minutes or more or until tortellini are done.

5. Season with salt and pepper to taste and stir in fresh basil. Ladle into bowls and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Honestly, this soup is delicious. Paired with homemade beer bread (my sister's recipe is fantastic!), or fresh french bread you can't beat it. And it's even light enough to have in the summer!

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Was turned on to this new website tonight. I keep finding more and more blogs that I'd like to read now and then. This website will update you when a new blog post is up and help you follow the blogs you love!

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My Baby Boy is 8!

8 years ago today I got up in the morning, took a shower, curled my hair, put my make-up on and headed to the hospital to have a baby. Yes, Logan was a planned C-section. And after the 72 hours I was in labor with Lilly I was more than happy to have it this way!

He was born at 1:35 pm, on June 1, 2004. He was 8 lbs. 3oz. and was 21 inches long. At first glance he was a happy, healthy little boy. We wheeled back to our room and introduced our new son to our family who was there waiting for us. Everyone got a chance to hold him as he was passed around the room. In what seemed like only a second after I got to hold him (last of course!), the nurse scooped him up. "He's turning blue! We have to take him!" and off he went. Brandon scurried along with the nurse to the NICU. Turns out he had swallowed a blood clot on his way out and it went into his lung. They had to put him on an IV, and he had to stay in the NICU under an oxygen hood.

This was not the experience I had thought I would have when we got in the car at 5am that morning. Lilly had a little trouble when she was born but she was back in the room within a few hours. Logan ended up having to stay in the NICU for 8 days. When they discharged me after 3 days, I was adamant that I would not leave the hospital without my baby. For a few days they had an extra bed on another vacant floor that they allowed us to stay in but on day 5 there was a baby explosion and they were handling overflow from the birthing floor in the room we were staying in. Again, I refused to leave. Even after my Doctor told me that I better get home and recover myself I couldn't bring myself to leave that hospital. That night I slept on the couch in the waiting area. Every waking moment that we could spend in the NICU (they do shift change twice a day) we did.

Finally, after 8 days in the NICU, he was able to come home. He was 7lbs 13 oz. when we left the hospital on June 9th (Daddy's birthday).

When we went to his first visit with HIS pediatrician he was 10lbs 1 oz. They thought the hospital made a mistake! But I watched them weigh him both times and it wasn't any wonder to me. That first 6 days of only IV feeding had taught him a lesson, he was never planning to go hungry again!

Over the following 8 years we have had a million laughs with our little boy. Here are some pictures from the first few years:

Logan has always been excited about his birthday parties. This year though, this year he's been planning his birthday party since January....who he wants to invite, what he wants to do, the cake he wants, the toys he wants. We finally decided on a water fight birthday party. He and the hubs have been working on an obstacle course and war zone out in the yard for over a week. He CAN'T wait. Yesterday, after a long evening of running the obstacle course he desperately needed a shower. I was downstairs doing some work on my laptop. There was  such a racket coming from upstairs I had to run up there to check it out. Through the shower curtain this is what I heard:



It was so hard not to laugh out loud while I was sitting there listening. He still doesn't know I've posted it on Facebook (or YouTube) and now on the blog so SSShhhhh! He will kill me!

Happy Birthday Logan! You are my FAVORITE son!