Creamy Tortellini Soup

[missyinacage]

This is what I'm making for dinner tonight. It's freezing here so soup is just the thing.

1lb Italian Chicken Sausage
1 Medium Onion; diced
3 Cloves Garlic; minced
1 t. Dried Basil
1 t. Dried Oregano
1 28oz can Crushed Tomato
2 C Chicken Stock
10 oz. Cheese Tortellini (fresh or frozen)
3 C Baby Spinach; chopped
1 C. Milk
1/4 C. Parmesan Cheese; grated
Salt & Pepper to taste

Brown sausage with the onion and garlic in a dutch oven.
Stir in basil and oregano.
Add crushed tomato and chicken stock; bring to a boil Add tortellini and cook for about 5 minutes.
Add spinach and cook for about 5 more minutes (until spinach wilts)
Slowly stir in milk; add parmesan cheese.
Salt & Pepper to taste.

 

[JudyNY]

Sounds good Missy!

 

[suzannethemom]

So, how much can YOU eat at your post-op stage?

 

[missyinacage]

So, how much can YOU eat at your post-op stage?

I am 18 months post op. It depends on the food. I can eat about a cup of this soup, but I do limit the tortellini. I can eat about a 1/2 cup of full fat cottage cheese, oatmeal, chicken, beans, basically anything really solid. Healthy proteins and veggies fill me up a lot faster. However, processed foods (low fiber/low protein) leave me hungry pretty quickly. So, it's more a how often I can eat issue than a how much. So, my best advice would be avoiding them all together. Pretend that tortilla chips don't exist outside of Mexican restaurants. lol

 

[suzannethemom]

I see, so even 18 months later you are still focused on quality not quantity. Good to know. I am reading about some WLS patients who did just the opposite and gained weight back.

 

[missyinacage]

I see, so even 18 months later you are still focused on quality not quantity. Good to know. I am reading about some WLS patients who did just the opposite and gained weight back.

This is just something I was told but .. A friend of a friend, was so frustrated by the fact that she could eat so little food, she went completely the other way. Instead of eating protein and veggies, she would eat 1/2 gallons of ice cream. Which if you think about it, once it melts, it's much less mass and is liquid, which you can have much more of. I do not doubt that it's possible. I personally have seen someone who had the sleeve eat 1/2 a pizza.

It really IS about choices. Not everyone who has WLS ends up with dumping syndrome or unable to eat certain or large amounts of food. It is absolutely a tool and not a cure. And all the problems I had in my relationship with food throughout my life, I still have to deal with. The beauty of WLS is it's a reset. There's quick weight loss, which is very motivating, and it gives you months and months to retrain yourself to make healthy food choices.