Our weeknights are rushed at best. Due to my part-time job, Hubs job and his martial arts class many of our weeknight meals are eaten late at night, after the boys have gone to bed. If I’ve had the time to prepare a meal ahead of time, we quickly put the finishing touches on it. If I haven’t, we make something fast with whatever we happen to have at the ready. Then we collapse on the couch with our dinner, browsing through our stash of recorded TV.
Wait, it’s not nearly as sad as the that sounds. We do actually talk to each. While we gather our meal, we discuss our days. Work. The boys. Our parents. The next days plans. The upcoming weekend. We connect in bits and pieces over the evening. We enjoy some TV together. And then, some how, the night is over before it really has begun.
Like I said, our weeknight evenings are rushed.
When I was challenged by Bertolli to create a special weeknight meal, with the help of one of their super-easy-to-prepare, restaurant-quality soups, I wanted to do something that would help us slow down just a little. So we could connect all at once, instead of 5 minutes here, 30 seconds there, 10 minutes here.
The best part about this challenge, aside from the wonderful soup, was that we only had one hour to prepare the meal. This came as a relief. When you get home late at night, have a overtired and hungry baby to put to bed, followed by a cranky preschooler, the last thing you want to do is prepare an elaborate meal.
I decided to make this as easy on myself as possible. The day we had planned to do the challenge, I had to work two shifts at my part-time job at our local YMCA. I work with kids, which means the noise and activity level often reaches a dizzying pitch, leaving me exhausted at the end of the one shift. Now, when I work two shifts in one day, exhausted doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel. What better day to complete the challenge than one when I know I won’t have the energy to prepare an elaborate meal.
I preplanned the evening as much as possible. I of course choose bread to accompany our Tomato Florentine and Tortellini with Chicken soup, since it’s pretty much law that when you have soup, you have to have bread. But I didn’t want to just grab a frozen garlic bread and pop it in the oven. I also didn’t want to make French bread from scratch. I needed a happy in between place, which I found in the form of a fresh bakery loaf of bread, some garlic butter and lots of cheese. Warm, buttery, crusty bread paired with hot soup, it’s the really the only want to get every last drop of soup out of the bowl. When it came time to prepare the meal, all I had to do was add a touch of water to the frozen Bertolli soup, slice the bread, slather it in butter and cheese, and bake it until it was bubbly. So super easy. And really, so super tasty.
The thing that really made the night special was that Hubs and I sat down together, at our dinning table. No TV. No phones. No distractions. Just one of our favorite bands playing in the background while we talked and listened to each other. We enjoyed some tastes-like-homemade Tomato Florentine and Tortellini with Chicken soup and some semi-homemade bread. It was one of the best, most relaxing evenings we’ve had alone together in a while. Almost like dining out, without all of the noise of a restaurant or the inconvenience of leaving our home on a snowy winter evening.
I do have to confess that even though the dinner was wonderful, it wasn’t 100% perfect. Not because of the food. The food was wonderful. LIfe with kids is always a little, unexpected, and in the background for half of our meal we had a crying, overtired baby who just couldn’t settle, and I had a lovely winter cold complete with a saucy, raspy voice. So, no, it wasn’t perfect. But it’s about as perfect as we get.
You can learn more about Bertolli’s soup-meals, including delicious flavors like Tomato Florentine and Tortellini with Chicken, Tuscan-Style Beef and Vegetables, Chicken Minestrone, and Roasted Chicken and Rotini Pasta, from their web site, villabertolli.com. Or connect with them on Facebook at facebook.com/Bertolli and follow them on Twitter at twitter.com/Bertolli.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
that soup looks really tasty and hearty.
LOVE me some soup in the winter
It was. And so good, just like homemade.
These really sounds delicious! Perfect for a winter meal.
That looks and sounds so YUMMY!
Snow Bunny or Not?
I had the Florentine/tortellini soup and absolutely loved it!
Me too! So very good.
Any moment to spend one on one with the hubby is always special when you have kids. Good for you for sneaking in a little adult time to just chat without tv’s, etc. Sounds like a lovely quick dinner!
It really was. We actually had dinner this same way a couple more times this week. It was lovely.