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Comfort Food With Meatballs: No Elastic Waistband Needed

December 9, 2013   9 Comments

Can you go wrong with meatballs and pasta? Everyone in my family will eat it.

Meatball Soup

But, let’s face it, they all love it for a reason. Meatballs tend to be salty and fatty – and pasta – well, that stuff is simply yummy – wish I could eat it all day.

This recipe features al fresco chicken meatballs and only ¾ cup dried pasta for four servings. The chicken meatballs are 160 calories for four and low in saturated fat. They are flavored with tomato and I love how they taste (you won't notice they aren't beef!).

I added celery and carrots to bulk up the soup without adding many calories and they add a nice flavor.

The serving size is large here (you get four meatballs and a cup and a half of soup) but you won’t be stuffed like when you eat a ton of spaghetti and meatballs.

Eat this for dinner or for lunch. It heats up nicely in the microwave and everyone at work will be jealous of your lunch (you can share if you are feeling generous).

To find al fresco meatballs check out their Store Locator.

This product was received for review consideration. No other compensation was provided.

Meatball Soup Recipe

1.6 from 24 reviews

Makes 4 large servings

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Ingredients

1 medium onion
2 large carrots, peeled
2 stalks celery, washed
2 teaspoons olive oil
40 ounces (5 cups) unsalted chicken broth
3 ounces (3/4 cup) elbow macaroni
1-12 ounce al fresco Tomato Basil Chicken Meatballs

Instructions

In a food processor or on a cutting board mince the onion, carrots, and celery. Heat a large saucepan on medium, add the olive oil, and sauté the onion, carrots, and celery until softened.

Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Cook the elbow macaroni in the boiling broth until tender (about 6 minutes). Add the meatballs and heat for five minutes until hot. Enjoy!

Nutrition Facts

317 calories, 11.8 g fat, 3.4 g saturated fat, 28.6 g carbohydrates, 8.1 g sugar, 24.6 g protein, 2.4 g fiber, 569 mg sodium, 8 Points+

Points values are calculated by Snack Girl and are provided for information only. See all Snack Girl Recipes

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9 Comments:

I love all the recipes on here one of my favorite things to eat is noodles what kind of recipes do have with that?

@Shari - I only have one noodle recipe posted on the site - clearly I need to get to work. Here it is:

https://snack-girl.com/snack/week-dinner/

Mmmm. this bowl of soup looks so good! I'm reminded of a sort of italian wedding soup I make whenever I also put together a batch of meatballs for the freezer. It was created years ago when I hated to toss out the green water from spinach [which tastes great esp. with some added vegs - no chicken broth necessary]. This creates 2 dinners. Here is that recipe:

Dinner #1 Soup

Boil 1 bag fresh spinach [not baby type] in lightly salted water, about 8cups;

Remove with spider and chop [I chop into little squares which I find to be much easier when cooked].

To pot add about 1/2c tomato sauce,

1 large grated carrot, and simmer.

Slowly drop about 1lb of mini meatballs into rapidly simmering soup, [I make a 3lb batch and use small scoop about walnut-sized for soup meatballs]

Add handful [cup] broken angel hair pasta

Return most of spinach. Adjust seasoning and drizzle the really good green EVOO in each bowl, parmesan too.

Make whole loaf garlic br. for dipping [use only 1/3]

Dinner #2 Meatball grinders

Same batch of meatballs, using larger scoop, broil meatballs, add 3 mb's per person to pot of marinara sauce, gently cook 10-15 mins. Cool. Make grinders on next night using remaining garlic bread.

Freeze leftover soup in single-serve containers. Freeze broiled meatballs separately for spaghetti and mb's another time. I pretty much just use 1lb mb's to feed a family of 4 each meal. I always have a freezer bag of mb's on hand for pop-ins because everyone loves them!

I'm going to try your version this week because I love to try something new!

I love the idea of putting meatballs in broth. I can't wait to try that!

I use this recipe often using ground turkey and form them into mini meatballs using a melon baller. They are the perfect size for kids (and adults), plus they cook even faster!

http://partykitchen.wordpress.com/2012/12/07/mini-turkey-me…

Where do you find these meatballs??? Here in WY we don't get many exotic foods.....sad :(

Hi Holly, I think the meatballs are on the hoof up there in WY : ) Otherwise, they may be found in the frozen food section of the grocers. I suggest making your own, that way you know exactly what is in them. I brown my before putting them in the soup and they finish cooking in the broth. We call our soup "albondigas" (meatball). We add chile powder, cumin and oregano to the broth. Sometimes we add hominy or corn and chicken or beef broth with no MSG. We don't add rice to the meatballs as is traditional because we are diabetic. Pasta in our soup is not traditional either but I like to sometimes add those tiny cheese stuffed tortellini or ravioli to ours. Dr. Oz recommends pasta al dente over rice for diabetics because it is digested more slowly curbing blood sugar spikes for those interested. Basmati rice mixed with wild rice is best for us too. If I use only white rice, I dry pan roast ours until it is opaque white, this converts the starch and does not cause us spikes.

I'm thinking I could try this with slices of my favorite Aidells chicken and apple sausage! Thanks - looks great!

Aidells makes chicken meatballs too. I like the carmelized onion ones.

@Holly - check out the store locator in the post to see if al fresco is near you. Thanks for your question!

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