Creamy Meatball Soup

I was inspired to make meatball soup at home after hubby ordered a bowl of it while we were out in town. I had never thought of using meatballs in soup before, but it was so yummy and filling I came right home and googled a meatball soup recipe. This soup sort of tastes like a grown up version of SpaghettiO's, as it combined orzo pasta with diced tomatoes and of course meatballs. It was super easy and made a huge batch! If you are only serving two people, I recommend cutting the recipe in half unless you want lots of leftovers!  

Creamy Meatball Soup
From Delicious Meliscious
Printable Version
Makes 8 single bowl servings 
Ingredients
16 meatballs - baked according to directions
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 8 ounce can tomato sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
2/3 cup fresh basil coarsely chopped
3 cups chicken stock
1 cup raw orzo cooked according to package directions
1 cup half and half
1/2 stick unsalted butter
Salt and pepper to taste
Grated Parmesan cheese for garnish
Chopped green onions for garnish, if desired

Directions
Combine diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, chicken stock, and garlic in a large stock pot or Dutch oven. Bring to a boil and simmer for fifteen minutes. Add basil. With an immersion blender, blend until smooth or desired consistency is reached (I left mine chunky)/ Add butter and half and half and whisk until well blended. Add meatball and orzo. Scoop into individual bowls and serve with Parmesan cheese and chopped green onions. 

Scentsy Giveaway Winner and Orzo Alfredo with Bacon and Peas

Thanks to everyone who entered the Scentsy Giveaway! I used Random Number.org to choose the winner and here are the results:

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:9Powered by RANDOM.ORG

The ninth person to comment was one of my favorite food bloggers, ButterYum!

ButterYum said...

Neat giveaway. I've never heard of Scentsy before. They have a lot of neat looking stuff on the website. I like the sound of the Cinnamon Vanilla. The warmers are neat too - I don't like the idea of burning candles, so they sound much safer.

:)
ButterYum

November 7, 2010 9:02 PM 

Butter Yum - you are in for a treat! You are going to love your new Scentsy products, just in time for the Holidays too! :) Thanks again to my awesome cousin Lindsey for helping me host this giveaway! Be sure to visit her site to check out the great things that Scentsy has to offer to make your house smell amazing!

Speaking of amazing, you  are going to want to go ahead and make this Orzo Alfredo with Bacon and Peas right away. I came across the recipe on A Whisk and A Prayer, who found it on Food and Wine Magazine. It's so creamy and buttery and the combination of peas and bacon is so delicious, even though I'm not a huge bacon lover. I really like using Orzo pasta for a change too. Do yourself a favor and double this recipe when you make it because you are definitely going to want more and more and more.

Orzo Alfredo with Bacon and Peas
From A Whisk and A Prayer
Serves 3
Printable Version

Ingredients
1/2 pound orzo
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 1/4 cup oeas
2 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for garnishing
5 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Cook orzo according to directions on box. In a heavy bottomed sauce pan mix cream, peas, butter, Parmesan, and bacon. 

Heat over medium low heat, whisking constantly until Parmesan and butter have melted. Combine with orzo.

Season with salt and pepper and serve with additional Parmesan cheese.