Paleo Italian Wedding Soup

We've been in a different food territory for about the past two weeks. For about the past year, we've had some different digestion issues going on, and I finally felt ready to tackle them. I'll try to get into it more at a later time, but right now I'm still processing, and slightly overwhelmed. For now, we're pretty much eating paleo, minus sweeteners and fruits...which leaves.....meat, vegetables, and healthy fats. It hasn't bothered me too much, except that we can't even do eggs, which makes breakfast really really hard. No scrambled eggs, no egg and veggie muffins, no butternut squash pancakes (which are seriously delicious and totally fall-ish.). We're mostly eating leftovers and soup right now, which is really ok...I just miss pancakes and baked oatmeal :)

I've been experimenting a lot with soup lately, because it's so easy, and super quick. I can pretty much just throw whatever into a pot with some chicken stock, salt and pepper, and call it good. Thankfully, it's soup season, and everyone in my house loves soup...even Hannah was sipping on some chicken stock the other day!

Tonight for supper, I made my own version of Paleo Italian Wedding Soup. It was so yummy! I don't know why I haven't thought of putting meatballs in soup earlier. It makes a LOT of meatballs, so save some for lunch tomorrow! Or freeze them!

Italian Wedding Soup

Serves 6

Meatballs:

1 lb. ground beef

1/2 lb. ground pork

1 Tbsp Parsley

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp. Salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1/4 onion, chopped finely

Soup:

6 Cups chicken stock (divided)

1/2 bag of frozen broccoli

1/2 bag of frozen cauliflower

1 1/2 Tbsp pesto (I used homemade, dairy free pesto, but you can use whatever you have on hand.)

Mix ingredients together, and form into balls. Heat a large stock pot over medium high heat, and drizzle in some olive oil. Once the pan is heated, put half of the meatballs in the pan to brown. After about a minute, flip onto the other side. You're not looking to cook the meatballs, just to get a good amount of caramelization on them...and to get some brown bits stuck on the bottom of the pan. Remove, and do the same for the other half. Take 1 cup of chicken stock and pout it into the pan (it will be loud and steamy! That's what you want!). Use a whisk to scrape the brown bits off of the bottom of the pan...that's where the flavor is! Add in the rest of the stock, the meatballs, and the veggies. Cover and let simmer for about 10 minutes, or until the broccoli and cauliflower are cooked through, and the meatballs are floating on top. Finish the soup off with the pesto, and salt and pepper to taste... And maybe some parmesan cheese if you can ;)

Note: feel free to add whatever veggies you'd like! Carrots, and potatoes would be good, or even some white beans to stretch it a little further. Next time I'll be adding some chopped kale for some more greens!

Enjoy!

Changes

How funny that my last post was almost exactly a year ago! I was just telling Mike how I don't remember very much of this time, last year...other than being sick. It was just kind of a blur! :)
Life has been crazy, busy, loud, stressful and wonderful this past year. Our sweet Hannah has brought SO much joy into our lives, and we are so thankful for her!

Brand New, Hannah Joy

We MOVED!! We put an offer in on a house just hours before Hannah was born, and moved when she was 4 weeks old. I don't want to do that again. But, we're settled, and absolutely loved having a large backyard all summer. The kids were outside all day long most days, and wore themselves right out. We've moved so many times within the last 6 years, it's such a strange feeling to know that we're staying put for awhile! And, I don't have to listen to anyone stomping on my ceiling :)

We had a couple of big birthdays...Maddie celebrated her golden birthday in September, and Charlie turned 4 in August! People say that time flies...well, it really does!

Birthday Kids!

We're getting ready for Thanksgiving this week...and boy am I ready. I'll have my thanksgiving pants on, and plan to pig out! **Bonus points to anyone who gets that reference!** I'm looking forward to this next season, even with the snow!