It’s never a good sign when the news starts reminiscing about the Blizzard of 1967 when referring to our weather starting this afternoon into tomorrow.  Projections now say that our county will get up to 24 inches of snow, with 40 mph winds.  It’s February people!   I am so over winter.  I just want to be able to put our gazebo up, watch White Sox games and grill out. 😦

Okay, here is a breakfast you never would have thought I’d eat.  I saw it in our pantry and just had a taste for it:

I ended up doing 45 minutes on the treadmill, 3.8 mph walking with a 6 pound medicine ball tossing back and forth as I walked.  It is a surprisingly good work out!

Over the weekend I made another version of Italian Wedding Soup.  I had some ground beef and pancetta to use up, so I decided to make meatballs, which then turned into this soup.  While it seems like a lot of ingredients, it’s really pretty easy to make.

Italian Wedding Soup  (printer friendly version here)

Course: main meals

PointsPlus™ Value:    6

Servings:  10 (1.25 cups)

Preparation Time:  20 min

Cooking Time:  30 min

Level of Difficulty:  Moderate

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup(s) Panko crispy bread crumbs – plain
• 12 oz 85% lean/15% fat raw ground beef
• 1 Tbsp dried parsley
• 1 oz Parmesan cheese
• 3 Tbsp fat-free skim milk
• 1 item(s) egg
• 1 oz crisp cooked bacon
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 cup(s) Carrots
• 1 cup(s) celery
• 8 cup(s) canned chicken broth
• 2 cup(s) canned tomato sauce
• 12 oz fresh spinach
• 5 oz uncooked pasta
• 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning

Instructions

Place ground beef, panko bread crumbs, parsley, Parmesan cheese, milk, egg, and pancetta into food processor.

Mix until well combined, then roll into 40 marble sized meat balls.

Heat non-stick skillet over medium high heat. Spray with Pam and brown the meatballs, just until browned and half way cooked. Set aside.

In a stock pot, add olive oil and garlic. Cook for 2 minutes just until the garlic starts to brown.

Add chicken stock, tomato sauce and bring to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 7 minutes.

Reduce heat to simmer, add Italian seasoning, salt and pepper to taste and meatballs. Cook for 5 minutes to cook the meatballs.

Remove from heat, add baby spinach and serve immediately.

Garnish with shaved Parmesan cheese.

I like smaller meatballs in this soup – about the size of a marble – it made 40 meatballs.

I used to buy baby carrots because they were already peeled, but now realize the carrots with the tops on them are not only way cheaper, they taste so much better.

Tubetti is the pasta I used, but any small pasta would work.

And you can’t have soup without a grilled cheese 😀  My lunch comes in at 12 points.

My store had really good meat prices over the weekend.  I got chicken drummets for .49 cents a pound.  This is actually a WW recipe, but I need to tweak this recipe before I post it – they were good but needed a bit more flavor – Hoisin marinated sesame wings.   Dinner was 10 points.

Stats for Monday

• 30 points
• 45 minute treadmill workout
• average blood sugar 123

Good news – I was able to reschedule Tony’s CT scan for today instead of tomorrow.  Hopefully after this test we’ll get back with his surgeon by the end of the week with a game plan.  Thank you for your continued support and prayers for my Tony! 😀