Souptacular: Albondigas Soup

This fall/winter I have decided to dapple in making soups. As a kid, I never liked soup. When I was sick, I would ask for chili instead because I hated soup so much and it was as close as you can get, without getting the real thing. It wasn't until I went to a cooking class with a friend of mine that I realized, I don't like canned soup. Homemade soup is awesome! This had me excited for the weather to get cold so I could experiment with different types of soup. Look forward to more souptacular to come!

The first soup I decided to try came from my crock pot cookbook. Lately, I haven't been best friends with my crock pot. I have found that some recipes are simply perfect, while others are terrible. I've tried several chicken recipes and, even though they have different flavorings, they all tasted overcooked and bland. This made me stop using my crock pot for a while, but I brought it out for my first soup recipe, thinking crock pots were made for soup! I wish I had some special reason I picked this recipe, but it was mainly because I had some leftover pasta sauce that I didn't have any use for. Also, with all the vegetables, it seemed healthy. I made some changes to the original recipe, so here is what I did:

I had some chicken broth left over, but beef broth was on sale at the store, so I used half of each.

Then add chopped celery and carrots.

Add frozen corn.

This is why I picked this recipe actually. I had some of this spaghetti sauce left over from another recipe and didn't really know how to use it up (my husband doesn't like tomato sauce). Since this recipe has very little to just add some flavor, I don't think he even noticed it and I thought it was delicious.

Then add some meatballs. These were actually really good! I was expecting them to be sort of dry for some reason, and they were the opposite.

This is what it looks like once everything is poured in, before it is cooked.

Then wait.

The finished product!

Albondigas Soup:

4 cups chicken/beef broth

1 cup chopped carrots

3 celery stalks, diced

1/2 cup frozen corn

1/4 cup prepared pasta sauce

One package frozen meatballs, Italian or similar

1 cup frozen peas

shredded cheese (optional garnish)

Put broth, vegetables, and pasta sauce into your slow cooker. Stir in the frozen meatballs. Cover and cook on low for 8 to 9 hours. Stir in frozen peas 20 minutes before serving. Garnish with shredded cheese is desired.