Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Meatball Veggie Soup


The end of winter is finally near and I've never been happier. While I've spent my fair share of years north of the Mason Dixon (including my birth if we're being honest), my heart sings happy tunes in warmer weather. That's not so say you won't hear me complain when we consistently top over 100 degrees this summer. Let's just say I don't like extremes - clearly,  I need to live in Hawaii. At any rate, a couple of weekends ago our temps dropped rather low again and I couldn't resist another go-round with a steaming pot of soup. We actually eat soup year round, but with exceptional frequency in the colder months. You can find additional soup recipes here, here, here, and here

For this meatball-veggie-pot-o'-crazy, I started with lots of good things....In the bottom of a heavy pot place:

4 TBS butter
1 large onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
2 jalapeno's seeded and chopped
4 medium sized potatoes, cubed

Saute and stir often until onions are transparent and veggies begin to wilt.


In the meantime, assemble your mini meatballs. In a mixing bowl combine:

1 lb. lean ground beef
3 cloves minced garlic
1/4 cup italian bread crumbs
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. peper
Dash of Worcestershire

Mix well with your hands and roll into quarter-size meatballs.


Place meatballs on sheet pan and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until no loner pink in the center.


The meatballs will appear to be too dry - you want this. They are going into your soup and need to be slightly dry so they can absorb the liquid in the soup without falling apart.


As soon as your root veggies begin to soften add to your pot:

2 cartons of beef broth (approximately 28-32 oz. each)
1 can of tomato sauce
1 cup frozen corn
1 cup frozen green beans
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp dried oregano

Bring to a simmer and gently stir in your meatballs.



Top with fresh grated parmesan and parsley. Enjoy and stay warm - summer is almost here!!

xox,
A

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Has It Really Been Three Years?

I feel as if I just shot these one-year photo's last week...but somehow three years have passed in a single heartbeat....




My fourth and final child continues to grow cuter by the minute and proves to be our silliest offspring at times. We can't help but smile at his antics and goofball nature and are already preparing for numerous visits to the principals office sometime in the future. He may just be the class clown. Here are few of my fave pics from the past couple weeks as we countdown to turning 3.....