WG asked for budget-friendly, healthy recipes and it just so happens I’ve got a file box full of them! This time of year, my family eats a lot of soup, and not simply because of the weather. We eat soup because it’s also one of the most economical meals to make and, in these weeks when I find myself trying to cut our finances as much as possible so we can pay taxes come April, I try to pinch every penny I can.

As it happens, this is also a very quick recipe to whip up, so it’s one I turn to on nights when I’m just too tired to do anything fancy. Not that my family knows how easy it is: I let them think I’m slaving away in the kitchen but, truth is, this meal takes less than 10 minutes to put together and another 20 on the stove. Plus, thanks to the tomatoes and spinach, it’s full of vitamins and anti-aging anti-oxidants.

Not that they need to know that, right?

Tomato Tortellini Soup
Serves: 4-6
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes (simmering)
Calories per serving: 312
Fat calories per serving: 89

Ingredients

1/2 small onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
5 cups chicken broth*
1 can (14 oz.) diced tomatoes OR 2 whole tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 pkg. fresh tortellini (9 oz.)
10 oz. chopped fresh or frozen but defrosted spinach (I use fresh)
Salt and pepper to taste
1/3 c. freshly grated Parmesan cheese
cooking spray

Directions

1. Spray large soup pan with cooking spray. Heat on medium high. Sautee onions and garlic until onions turn translucent. (About 5 minutes.)

2. Add broth and tomatoes. Turn to high heat and bring to boil.

3. Add tortellini. Cook 5 minutes.

4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

5. Add spinach and adjust seasonings. Simmer 2-3 minutes.

6. Serve in soup bowls and sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top before serving.

I usually serve this accompanied by a green salad and/or steamed zucchini, and my family doesn’t even realize they’re eating meat free for the night.

* A note on broth: I’m in the habit of saving chicken, ham and beef bones as well as vegetable scraps in the freezer. About once every couple of weeks I make a pot of broth by simmering chicken bones, for instance, with an onion (cut in halves), two stalks of celery and a whole carrot for a couple of hours. Strain the liquid and let cool, then freeze it in a muffin tin sprayed with cooking spray. Each muffin space makes 1/2 cup of frozen broth. This is so much more economical than buying broth from the store and it tastes better, too!

I’ve never understood how a woman could find anything remotely attractive about Jack Nicholson, an actor known in part for the number of women he’s bedded over the years. (Now that the man has no functioning saliva glands, I’m betting there are quite a few more women disenchanted with him, too.)

That said, I can guarantee that, his senior citizen status aside, I’d wallop him to kingdom come if he tried using his purportedly favorite pickup line on me:

He says, “You walk up to someone you like and you’re feeling relaxed, they think, ‘Oh, here comes the shark’ and you say to them, ‘When did you get pregnant?’”

Seriously, are there really women who’d find this charming?

Which is not to say that I’d turn down baby gifts, mind you. I’d simply eBay them… along with photos of Nicholson sprawled out on the floor. Us chubby girls can put a lot more oomph in a right hook than Hollywood’s skinny mini’s, after all.

Did you know it’s National Pancake Day? Me, either. Not even when I was making pancakes for the Big-Eyed Boy’s breakfast this morning. (This might be a good argument for why I need a performance management system.)

Had I known (as you do now), I’ve have simply hopped into the car — with him, of course — and headed over to iHop where they’re giving away free pancakes.

I’m a huge fan of just about every flavor and form of tea you can imagine: black, white or green; bagged or loose; hot or iced. I’ve long considered tea to be the second-most perfect beverage (martinis being the first), even before scientists and magazines began touting its health benefits.

As to those benefits, well, there’s no disputing that our bodies need hydration and tea’s an excellent way to deliver that. On top of it, tea contains flavanoids — plant-derived compounds that reduce allergies, infection, and microbes. They’re powerhouses in the fight against cardiovascular disease and cancer, too. The anti-oxidants in tea improve artery function, help reduce LDL cholesterol (the bad stuff) and increase HDL cholesterol (the good stuff).

In other words, tea does your body good. Ever since I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, I’ve been drinking tea like it’s going out of style. Which, of course, it’s not, particularly now that more people (including fibro sufferers like me) are discovering how tea consumption can alleviate joint pain while delivering those other remarkable health benefits, too.

Unfortunately, here in my little town it’s hard to get some of the flavors of tea that I love the most. Previously, I’ve had to rely on the kindness of my friend Kim to do my tea-shopping for me at an Asian grocery store in her hometown. Getting a package from Kim is, for me, like enjoying Christmas all over again: I always know there’s going to be something good in it, and I practically tear open the box the instant it arrives. Within minutes, I brew a pot and find something to keep my son occupied so I can hurry down to my office and enjoy a nice, leisurely cup while reading a good book.

You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve found myself reaching the bottom of one of those cups and wishing I knew how to read tea leaves. That’s the frustrating thing about drinking the loose stuff: even with a fine-meshed infuser some of the leaves escape. Sure, I could switch to regular tea bags but usually it’s hard to find quality tea in that form.

Recently I learned about Revolution Tea, a premium tea company that created a unique, pyramid-shaped, biodegradable tea bag. It’s such a superior tea bag design, in fact, that a certain big-name company is now using a similar design for their teas.

But if you’re a tea fan you know that the stuff the big-name companies sell is stale and relatively tasteless. In other words: they may have ripped off the tea-bag design, but they just can’t match the flavor of master-blended Sencha tea, for instance.

Like all high-quality green tea varieties, Sencha leaves are steamed and withered instead of fermented. That process — when performed correctly — delivers a true natural, inimitable taste. There is, after all, a reason why it’s called “green” tea: properly manufactured and prepared, it almost tastes like you’re drinking the plant itself. Meanwhile, in addition to hydrating your body and upping your flavanoid intake, you’re also getting a dose of catechin, a natural compound that contains remarkable antibiotic properties.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not about to give up my beloved martinis — or even my morning dose of coffee. But those are things I drink to get me through my day. I drink tea because it’s health benefits ensure I’ll have plenty of more days to get through and, besides, it gives me the perfect excuse to lock myself in my office while I savor a cup or two.

Interesting news today for those who believe switching to diet soda is a way to cut calories: you may actually be increasing your chances for “metabolic syndrome”.

Researchers tracked 9,500 men and women for a period of nine years and found that the risk of developing Syndrome X — as metabolic syndrome is sometimes called — was 34 percent higher for those drinking even one can of diet soda daily than for those who didn’t drink diet soda at all. (For contrast, people eating diets high in fried foods only experienced a 25% risk.)

Metabolic syndrome is believed to affect 50 million Americans. Its symptoms include abdominal fat, high blood pressure, insulin resistance, decreased HDL cholesterol (the good one) and elevated triglycerides. It’s associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver syndrome, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) and iron overload, along with making weight loss darn near impossible.

Maybe it’s a good thing I can no longer find my beloved TaB soda in the store anymore.

Back in the 80s, when women actually believed we could have it all and anorexia was something only fading singers and women on SNL endured, there was a saying that “You can never be too rich or too thin”. Naturally, we’ve all since learned otherwise. Which is not to say that most of us wouldn’t still mind being rich. Or thin.

But, if you had to pick one of them, which would you choose: a million dollars or a having Jennifer Aniston’s bikini body?

A recent survey asked 6,095 women that exact question. The results? Seventy-eight percent of them would rather be rich. That statistic might actually reflect a bit of practicality, according to one of the survey authors:

“They’re probably thinking, ‘I’ll take the million dollars, I’ll use part of it to pay a trainer to get me into shape, and I’ll have some money left over,’ ” she said.

That’s exactly what I figure, too. Oh, sure, I’d like to suddenly wake up one morning and find myself thin. Who wouldn’t? But I know darned well it wouldn’t last long. Between working at the computer all day long and trying to throw together dinner every evening before collapsing on the sofa in exhaustion, those pounds would pile back on in a heartbeat.

Meanwhile, that million bucks would buy a lot of liposuction and Lean Cuisines, while also ensuring that I didn’t find myself desk-bound (and relatively immobile) all day long. Which means I’d probably get thin again in relatively short time.

How about you? Which would you choose, and why?

I’ve lost six pounds in the last week. That’s usually a good thing, isn’t it?

Considering that I also had pneumonia and a fever hovering in the low 100s for six days straight, it’s really not so good. As nice as it was to get out of bed this morning for the first time in nearly a week to find a little extra room in the waistband of my jeans, the instant I looked around my house (dirty dishes, dirty laundry, dirty cat box), I started missing those six pounds.

But, hey, cleaning house burns calories, right?

So, I’m off to ensure my house passes minimal health standards, resume homeschooling (much to my son’s displeasure), catch up on email and do some blogging — all while daydreaming about checking myself into a Vegas hotel.

Something tells me that with the stress of juggling all those things I’ll be finding those six pounds again real soon.