Enrichment Night...really enriching??

It was Enrichment Night tonight. I am on the committee and had the assignment of food. Because I am a dingbat and can rarely find the phone I missed the meeting that assignments were given out...if you don't want to be in charge of food you should really show up. They decided on soups and left the rest to me. Ok...I can do this. How hard can soups be?

I assigned out the breadsticks because I am yeast challenged. So far so good. I asked 2 others to help with the soup and 1 other person to help with dessert. I'm thinking to myself that this is going to be an easy, breezey no worries kind of assignment! Yay!

Unfortunately 2 full hours of my carefully scheduled day were taken over by a doctor's appointment. Ok, not to worry, I can still do this! And then, because I am apparently recipe comprehension challenged I had to make a flying journey to Walmart for critical forgotten elements. Panic is starting to set in. Can I still pull this off?? Who knows? I am tripling recipes and cooling cake and dirtying every pot in the house.

Thanks to the people that I gave earlier assignments to I managed to finish in the nick of time. So I was dressed a little casual? Who really wants to fire me?

My portion of the dinner was a couple of big pots of Pasta e Fagioli, salad and a pan of Raspberry Supreme. The soup was yum, I am eating it again today. The salad dressing was as good as Olive Garden I think. And Raspberry Supreme is never bad, ever.

So, here is the recipe for the soup. It was really good, I will be doing it again. Sorry, Brianne. :)

And yes, I guess that Enrichment Night is really enriching even with the panic previous to it starting!

Olive Garden Pasta e Fagioli
1 lb ground beef
1 small onion, diced (1 cup)
1 large carrot, julienned (1 cup)
3 stalks celery, chopped (1 cup)
1 cloves garlic, minced
1 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes
1 15 oz can red kidney beans (with liquid)
1 15 oz can great northern beans (with liquid)
1 15 oz can tomato sauce
1 12 oz can V-8 juice
1 T white vinegar
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 t oregano
1 t basil
½ t pepper
½ t thyme
½ lb (1/2 pkg) ditali pasta

1. Brown the ground beef in a large saucepan or pot over medium heat. Drain off most of the fat.
2. Add onion, carrot, celery and garlic and sauté for 10 minutes
3. Add remaining ingredients, except pasta, and simmer for 1 hour
4. About 50 minutes into the simmering, cook the pasta in 1 ½ to 2 quarts of boiling water over high heat. Cook for 10 minutes or just until pasta is al dente, or slightly tough. Drain
5. Add the pasta to the large pot of soup. Simmer for 5-10 minutes more and serve.
Serves 8 (big servings)

Calories 610; Total Fat 5.4g; Total Carbohydrates 96.0g; Dietary Fiber 22.1g; Protein 46.2g