simple cheese tortellini soup

I haven’t been food shopping in a little over a week – I ran in quick over the weekend and grabbed some fruit + veggies but was in no mood to be making it into an entire 2 hour shopping trip so needless to say I’m low on dinner ideas. on days when I’m prepared with ingredients and know what I want to cook – I’m eager to get into the kitchen and make whatever said meal is but on the days when I’m not prepared.. dinner can get dragged out to later and later because I have no motivation to get up and rummage through the pantry trying to find a substantial meal to call ‘dinner’. yesterday was almost one of those days – but after making a lunch that I was not so impressed with I knew I needed to get an early start figuring out dinner.

a pantry staple for me is chicken broth (well any kind of broth really – it’s such a great/simple way to add flavor.) immediately I grabbed two boxes (8 cups) and checked the dates to not get my hopes up too high. and I knew I had some pre-packaged tortellini in the fridge. generally I wouldn’t make soup in summer but like I said.. choices were limited and this was just too light + simple to pass up. plus after making this - i'll probably be making more soups all through the year.



- chicken broth (8 cups)
- tortellini (2 packages – I used one whole wheat + one spinach)
- basil leaves
- fresh ground pepper (to taste)
- parmesan
- bring the broth to a boil + season with pepper to taste. cook the tortellini in the broth until cooked through (about 8 mins – according to package). while tortellini are cooking – shred some parm + chop some basil. divide the soup. top with parm + basil.

** season to taste – I used low sodium chicken broth so this dish could have used a pinch of salt. next time I’ll keep that in mind. depending on the broth you use you may want to add salt.
** feel free to use any fresh herbs you have on hand – we have basil growing on the back porch so that’s my go to at the moment.

I love being able to ‘shop my pantry’ and find a meal.

what’s a meal you can almost always make with your pantry items?