April 1, 2015

Hey everyone! Can you believe it’s April already? I certainly can’t. Time’s just flying and I still haven’t made much headway in the wedding planning: no date picked, no location picked, nothing. *Sigh* Eventually we’ll get it figured out, right? Right.

So, now I can focus on something I can do something about right now. More one pot dishes – and this one in particular is super easy, with a few simple tricks like premade meatballs. Are you ready for it? It’s orzo pasta and meatball soup.

Here are some of the problems with the wedding planning. The first problem is that the majority of my family is still lives in the midwest, Sean’s family lives in Trinidad & Tobago and our friends are in Atlanta. We know that our immediate families are the people we want most at the wedding, but where do we do it? In Atlanta, a destination wedding, what? Then the next question is when?

Problem number two: he’s Catholic but I’m Christian. I’d love to have my college pastor preside at the ceremony (depending on where it is), but it’s important to him that we’re married by a priest. And I researched if a pastor and priest could tag team the ceremony, but that doesn’t seem to be an option.

And problem number three: how do we do it? Honestly, neither of us wants a big wedding, which is what would happen if we started inviting everyone beyond the immediate family – just from extended family invites alone, the guest list would be over 100 – not that everyone would come, but still.  Getting married and going into debt over it is not an option. So do we do a small ceremony, then have a big reception later for all the friends and family not invited, do we have a big engagement party before then the smaller wedding? I have no idea.

Any suggestions from people who’ve already done this whole wedding thing would be greatly appreciated – in case you can’t tell, I was never a girl who had her wedding planned by the time she was 14, this whole process is totally overwhelming me…

Now to turn to a topic I can talk about: cooking an easy orzo pasta and meatball soup.

Orzo Pasta and Meatball Soup

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

• 1 red onion
• 4 tsp. minced garlic
• 2 tsp. olive oil
• 24 oz. premade Italian-style chicken meatballs (I love Aidell’s Italian Style with Mozzarella Cheese Meatballs)
• 1 can (28 oz.) of whole, peeled tomatoes crushed
• 1 carton (32 oz.) of reduced-fat, low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 c. uncooked orzo pasta
• Optional: 1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Chop the onion, and saute the onion and garlic over medium heat with the olive oil in a large pot or dutch oven for about 4 minutes.
2. Add the meatballs and cook until browned – about another 8 – 10 minutes.
3. Stir in the tomatoes and chicken broth, and bring the whole thing to a simmer.
4. Reduce the heat to just below medium, depending on your stove’s strength and simmer the whole thing, covered, for 25 minutes.
5. After the 25 minutes, increase the heat to medium and add 2 cups of water along with the cup of orzo.
6. Stir well and bring the soup to a boil for 8 minutes to cook the orzo through.
7. Divide the soup into 6 serving bowls (this will give you between 5 or 6 meatballs per bowl), and add parmesan if you desire.

Note: If you save the orzo and meatball soup for later, it will become more like orzo and meatball pasta as the orzo will absorb most of the extra liquid the longer it sits. This isn’t bad – it still tastes great as pasta, it just won’t be soup-y at that point.