15-Minute Chicken Soup with Tortellini

It was raining yesterday, so I decided I wanted homemade chicken soup. Right after I had my son I'd gotten some chicken soup with tortellini and loved the tortellini twist. This recipe is super easy and super fast!

Ingredients
One pre-cooked rotisserie chicken (I got mine at Smith's)
3 celery ribs
2 cups carrotts
1 medium onion
6 10 1/2 oz. cans low-sodium chicken broth (or 8 cups chicken broth)
1 9-oz package cheese tortellini (or however much you like)
1 t Italian seasoning
salt & pepper to taste

Cooking Instructions
Bring chicken stock to boil in pressure cooker. While starting to boil, chop up carrots, celery and onions. Place veggies in pressure cooker with seasonings and lock on lid. Bring to full pressure and cook for 6 minutes. While the vegetables are cooking, separate the meat from the skin, bones and fat. Use quick release method after the veggies are done cooking. Remove lid, add tortellini and bring to boil again until tortellini is cooked (for me this was 7 minutes). During the last 5 minutes of cooking add the shredded chicken. Salt and pepper to taste. So good!

yield: 6 servings
calories: 330
carbohydrates: 26g (2g fiber, 5g sugar)
protein: 30g
sodium: 1617mg
cholesterol: 91mg

Stuffed Peppers

I made homemade pizza the other day for my kid-food-loving husband and found that I didn't use about half the sauce I made. By pressure-cooking the sauce it tasted like it had been simmering for hours on the stove. I decided to use the leftover pizza sauce to make stuffed peppers. Even my pepper-hating husband loved them! It's a great way to integrate your whole grain, vegetables, and protein serving into one dish.

Sauce
(I only pour half of this into the stuffed peppers. You can freeze the rest for later if you like):
3 8-oz cans tomato sauce
4 packets Purevia (or 3 T sugar)
1 T extra virgin olive oil
1 T garlic salt
1 T Italian seasoning
3/4 t lemon juice
1/2 C water
1 6-oz can tomato paste

Peppers
4 large green bell peppers
1 lb extra lean ground beef
1 C cooked brown rice (you can also pressure-cook the brown rice prior in the pressure cooker)
1 small onion, diced
1/4 t garlic powder
1 egg
salt and pepper to taste

Cut the tops off the four peppers and clean out the insides. Set aside. In a large bowl combine ground beef, rice, onion, garlic powder, egg, and salt and pepper. Stuff the meat into the four peppers. If you have leftover meat, form into little meatballs. Put into pressure cooker.

In separate bowl combine ingredients for the sauce and mix thoroughly. Pour half of the sauce (or the whole thing if you like LOTS of sauce) over the peppers. Cover pressure cooker and cook on high for 15 minutes. Let the pressure come down for 5 minutes on its own and then use the rapid release. Sprinkle lightly with Parmesan cheese, if you like.

Yield: 4 servings.
Calories: 348
Fat: 9 g
Carbohydrates: 38.1 g (6.8 g fiber, 9.9g sugar)
Protein: 30g
Sodium: 214 mg
Cholesterol: 119 mg