Italian Wedding Soup

Fixins

Meatballs

1 pound ground beef 80-20
1 pound of pan sausage or ground pork
2 eggs
1 tbsp dried parsley
1 tbsp dried basil
1/2 cup of grated Parmesan/Romano cheese
Black pepper to taste


Soup

1 onion chopped
1 cup of matchstick shaped carrots
1 head of celery chopped
3 tsp minced garlic
10 cups of low sodium chicken broth
6 cups water
1 1/2 cups of acini di pepe pasta (little bitty stuff)
2 packages of baby spinach
1 tbsp dried parsley
1 tbsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano

Your Concoction

In a large bowl combine all the ingredients for the meatballs. Mix well. Shape into 1/2" or 3/4" meatballs. Around 60 meatballs or so. Place on an oven tray.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place meatballs in oven and cook for 25 minutes.
Pour about 4 tbsp of grease from the oven pan into a  medium sized stock pot.
Add onions. celery and carrots. Cook over medium heat stirring frequently until veggies are soft. About 5 minutes or so.
Add garlic, basil, parsley and oregano. Cook for 2 more minutes stirring.
Add the chicken broth and water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and cook for 30 minutes or so until carrots are soft. This is your food of love stage so baby it stirring the love into it often and tasting a carrot for softness now and again.
Lower heat to low. After a low simmer is obtained add your meatballs to the pot. Whoop!!
Cook for 10 minutes.
Increase heat to medium low until a  low boil is obtained.Add the pasta and cook stirring often for 10 minutes.
Add the spinach and stir in until wilted. Turn the heat off, cover the pot with a lid. The longer it sits the more food of love goes into it. Garnish with shaved Parmesan cheese.
Serve with garlic bread! Oh yea! Enjoy!