Roasted Tomato Soup with Healthy Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Ingredients for soup

1 dozen Roma Tomatoes
1 bulb of garlic
1/4 cup of heavy cream
2 cans of petite diced tomatoes
1/4 cup olive oil
4 ounces of goat cheese* (Optional)
salt, pepper, thyme, dried basil, and onion powder to taste.

For the soup, preheat oven to 400. Slice the Roma Tomatoes length wise in half and place on foiled baking sheet. Add olive oil and salt and pepper to taste over each tomato half. Next, slice off the top 1/4 inch or so of the bulb of garlic. Add olive oil, salt and pepper to the exposed top of the bulb and wrap entire bulb in aluminum foil.

The garlic bulb goes into the oven for the longest amount of time, 30-40 minutes or until the consistency of butter. (You should be able to squeeze the garlic out from the skins when done). Put the tomatoes in the oven and roast for 25 minutes.

In a blender, add the roasted tomatoes and the roasted garlic and liquefy. Add contents to a large soup pot. Then add the canned tomatoes with the juice into the blender and liquefy. Add contents to the soup pot. Stir together and add salt, pepper, onion powder, thyme and dried basil to taste.

Simmer for 30 minutes and add the cream (as much or as little as you'd like) at the end. Break off little chunks of the goat cheese and stir into the soup until it's all melted.

Ingredients for Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Freshly baked bread ;-)
4 slices of any cheese (yellower cheeses melt faster than orange ones)
2 TBSP of olive oil

Using a non-stick pan, add 1/2 a tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat. Use the remaining olive oil (I eyeball it) on the 'outside' of the bread. I oil one side, place the oil-side-down into the pan and then press firmly on the top of the sandwich with a spatula. Before you flip it, be sure to add olive oil to the top of the bread. Flip and press down firmly with the spatula until the bread is crunchy and all of the cheese has melted, about five minutes total.

Italian Sausage Risotto

Simmering in the wine

Adding stock to risotto

Adding sauce to browned sausage

Adding cheese at the end

Final product!

YUM! I love this recipe! I think I made it up, but I doubt it, I'm sure someone else has done this.

Ingredients

1 package of Italian Sausage (I use mild, use any kind you like, can use turkey or pork)
1 can of plain tomato sauce
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup of wine (white or red, or you can use water)
1 cup of risotto rice
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
6 cups of chicken stock (Low sodium)
-salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder to taste-

Instructions

In a large, non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat, add the wine and 1 tbsn olive oil. Once simmering, add the sausage and cover with the lid.

In a medium sized, non-stick pot on medium heat, add 1 tbsn olive oil and the 1 cup of risotto. This is called 'toasting the rice'. Do this for about three minutes or so, and then ladle in one ladle-full of warm chicken stock and stir. You have to keep stirring the entire time you're cooking it.

Meanwhile, turn your sausages over, put the lid back on and continue to cook until all of the wine is cooked off.

Ladle in more stock every time the risotto begins to look dry. In the end, you will use approximately 4-6 cups of stock.

When all of the wine in the frying pan is absorbed, add 1 more tbsn of olive oil and lower heat to medium. Keep turning the sausage so all sides of the casing brown, keep the lid on to speed up the process.

When all sides are browned, add one can of tomato sauce to the frying pan. Add salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder to taste, and lower heat to low. Put the lid back on and continue to cook until the sausage is done.

Taste your rice after about 15 minutes for texture. Towards the end, add salt, pepper, onion and garlic powder to taste. When the risotto has reached your desired texture , add the shredded mozzarella cheese. Stir in and serve.

Top with the sausage-sauce and sausage. Slice into chunks and top with freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Enjoy!