Tortellini Soup

This photo is an example. This is not my soup or my photo.

While Pinteresting (verb), I came across a recipe for a spinach tortellini soup. It involved using store-bought alfredo sauce, chicken broth, tortellini, mushrooms and spinach. It was pretty good. But it was really salty. And my husband wished it had some meat in it.

So tonight I made a version of this tortellini soup using ingredients I had on hand instead of what the recipe told me to do. (though I did purchase the tortellini at the grocery store last weekend in preparation for this meal). Cooking is all about improvising and using what you have, anyway.
I give to you, my recipe for fast and easy tortellini soup. In parentheses I put the brands and prices of what I actually used. But use whatever YOU like.

--TJ's = Trader Joe's--

TORTELLINI SOUP
Prep time: 5 minutes
Total Time: +/- 30 minutes

Chicken Broth (Better Than Bouillon chicken base, Costco, ~$5)
White Button Mushrooms (TJ's, < $2)
Squash of your choice (yellow squash, < $2)
Bag of Spinach (TJ's organic, ~$2)
Leftover cooked meat of your choice! (rotisserie chicken, Costco, $5)
1 bag dry tortellini (TJ's Mixed Cheese, $1.99)

Bring a few (or several) cups of water to a boil. Add chicken base. Amount is really up to you and your taste. Cook tortellini according to directions on packaging in the broth. While broth and tortellini are boiling, slice your vegetables. Toss all veggies and meat of your choice into the broth roughly 5 minutes before tortellini is to be finished. Once the tortellini is cooked, turn your stove on low or warm. The last step is to put a whole bunch of spinach into the soup. It will look like a TON for about 2 minutes. Then you will wonder where all the spinach went. Seriously, where did it go?

Et viola! You have a hearty delicious soup! And you can control the salt based on how strong you made your broth. If you buy prepared chicken broth, buy the low-sodium variety and add salt to taste. I think it would be really yummy with some leftover ground meat or meatballs!

Total price is roughly $8, I'd say. Since most of those items I have on hand, or are purchased mostly for other meals. It's like a leftover cleanup soup!

Enjoy.