After having this for breakfast every day this week:

love that my insulin pen got in the shot!

And hospital WW entrees like this one – baked ziti with steamed broccoli – 6 WW Points:

I needed real food.  I spent the day with Tony – he’s super tired and unfortunately very nauseous.  See that plate of ziti?  I asked him if it would be okay to bring my lunch back up since he’s only been eating ice chips and he said “that’s fine.”  But one whiff of that food and he felt like puking almost immediately!

I had to run my tray out of the room and finish in the hallway – poor thing!  He has no appetite, which they said would take a while to come back.  But can I tell you that they are thrilled that he is farting!  That’s the first thing the surgeon asked him today and that’s a great sign that things are moving in the right direction – no pun intended!

We even took two laps around the common area today too.  But we both quickly realized this is going to be much longer of a recovery than either one of us anticipated.  It stands to reason, I mean he was in surgery for 7 1/2 hours!  But I guess we thought the surgery would be the hard part.

So when at 7:00 p.m. last night (after he beat me in Wheel of Fortune – I thought I could win in his weakened state!) I told him I was going to go get something to eat, he said “go home.”  He was tired, he just wanted to sleep.  There was nothing I could do for him.  But I couldn’t help but feel like a bad wife for not staying with him.   I am going to work today, so I knew I needed the mental, physical and emotional break of just doing my normal stuff, which is being bizzy in my kitchen. 😀

I brought the Soups of the World book that Tony bought me for Valentine’s day to the hospital and pretty much read it cover to cover.  Yep, I am one of those people who reads a cookbook like a novel. 😀  One of the recipes called for a cream of red kidney bean soup.  I have never thought of that, and I started to think if I had all the ingredients to make it.

When I got home, I discovered I had some of the ingredients, and decided to tweak the recipe with what I had on hand.  And by some, my recipe in now way resembles the original one, but it sparked the idea!

Cream of Kidney Bean soup with Sausage

319 calories, 7.6 fat, 43 carbs, 10 fiber and 21 protein = 8 PointsPlus for two cup serving

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 2 teaspoons minced garlic
  • One 15 oz. can dark red kidney beans, undrained
  • One 15 oz. can diced tomatoes (I used ones with green chiles – it’s spicy – just use plain diced tomatoes for a milder soup)
  • 6 ounces sausage (polish, kielbasa, I used chicken sausage)
  • 2 cups fresh chopped baby spinach
  • 5 cups chicken broth
  • 1 cup water
  • 1/4 cup fat free half and half
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  1. In a stock pot, heat the olive oil and butter over medium-high heat, then add the garlic and cook about 4 minutes, just before they start to brown.  Stir in the kidney beans, canned tomatoes, chicken broth, water, and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.
  2. Remove from heat and using a stick blender, puree the soup.
  3. Cut the sausage into bite size slices and place in pureed soup and simmer just until sausage is warmed through.*  Add chopped baby spinach and cook until slightly wilted, one or two minutes.  Stir in half and half right before serving and season with salt and pepper.

* My chicken sausage is fully cooked – so if you use raw sausage, cook on the side separately and add it in the end.

And while this may not look that appetizing, it was comfort in a bowl.  The spiced canned tomatoes bring a pretty hefty spicy kick – and the sausage is great for texture.  And a soup that Tony wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole!

I am on my way to see Tony before work, then will visit him at lunch and then go there straight from work.  Can I just say I am thrilled he is at a hospital not only close to our house, but five minutes from my office!   When we had his knee surgery it used to take me sometimes two hours to get to him. 🙁

Don’t forget that it’s BSI – Green Beans!   And a quick apology to Sara for not adding her to the BSI page until today – sorry! 🙁

My entry is my Szechwan Green Beans – which I realize is not on my Index of Recipes – I’ll fix that!  (p.s. you’ll also find my recipe for crustless quiche on that post too!)

My project this weekend it to try to find a platform bed frame to make our queen size bed higher for Tony – I have no idea where to look though – any suggestions? If I could spend under $250, that would be a bonus! 😀

Happy Friday 😀