Chicken Meatball Soup

I was supposed to make a RR meatball-mac-and-cheese tonight, but I wasn't really in the mood for it. Besides, while my husband was out last night, I made boxed mac-and-cheese for me and Ryan, so I really didn't want to have that two nights in a row.

I already had ground chicken defrosting though, so I needed something to use it up, along with what groceries were left in my house at the end of the week. A quick search on myrecipes.com produced this recipe from an old issue of Cooking Light.



This wasn't bad, but probably not something I'd plan on making again. It was quick, and I had everything on hand, so that was good... but, to my dawg Randy Jackson, "it was just okay for me." First of all, the liquid is not NEARLY enough. I did halve the recipe, but I ended adding much more liquid than even the original quantity calls for - and I still didn't have enough. I've had better, I've had worse...

Ingredients

Meatballs:

• 3/4 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 1/4 cup (1 ounce) grated fresh Parmesan cheese
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 pounds ground chicken breast
• 2 large eggs
• Cooking spray

Soup:

• 3 cups water
• 3 (14-ounce) cans fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
• 2 cups chopped celery
• 1/2 cup chopped green onions
• 1 (16-ounce) package frozen mixed vegetables
• 1 cup uncooked small pasta shells
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400°.

To prepare meatballs, combine the first 10 ingredients in a bowl; shape mixture into 48 (1-inch) meatballs. Place meatballs on a jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes or until done.

To prepare soup, bring water and broth to a boil in a Dutch oven. Add celery, onions, and frozen vegetables; cook 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Add pasta; cook 8 minutes or until done. Add meatballs; cook 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Place 6 meatballs in each of 8 bowls; divide soup among bowls. Sprinkle evenly with parsley.

Yield

8 servings (serving size: about 1 1/3 cups)

Nutritional Information

CALORIES 302(13% from fat); FAT 4.4g (sat 1.5g,mono 1.3g,poly 0.8g); PROTEIN 36.3g; CHOLESTEROL 121mg; CALCIUM 109mg; SODIUM 920mg; FIBER 4.2g; IRON 2.8mg; CARBOHYDRATE 27.8g

Gloria Hafer , Cooking Light, OCTOBER 2004