Chicken Meatball Soup with Veggies and Noodles

A testament to how great it was visiting with Joelle over dinner last night...no photos! Durn!
Because now I have the perfect recipe to share with you and it calls for only 3 ingredients.

a great friend (or friends)
a communal food platter that's close to everyone's paws
no utensils!

I'm pretty sure this will work every time you make it. Although it's been tested just this once as written, I plan on recreating it over and over...just to make sure it's a sound recipe. :-)

Last night we enjoyed (besides, the great conversation, good wine, good music...) a centrally placed dish of baked chipotle shrimp. I thought it was much better this second time. I used 1.5 lbs of large shrimp instead of the mediums (baking them a little longer) and used a fuller bodied red wine in the broth. We couldn't stop sopping up the sauce with hunks of the multi-grain baguette. Too yummy. We also each had our own big artichoke served with a lemony mustard-mayo sauce. Again...too yummy. No room for the salad I'd planned, so we saved any room we had left for devouring fresh fruit crisps. We just used the strawberry crisp recipe substituting ripe peach slices and fresh blueberries for the strawberries. The Monster decided he liked those even better than when they're made with strawberries, so now I'll be using whatever fruit looks most luscious at the store in the future.

And now, on to the recipe for today's recovery. This is one of my favorite healthy soups.
The chicken breast meatballs have a nice texture from the masa harina and the carrots, kale, and leeks should leave you feeling quite virtuous. Really any vegetables will do, I just happen to like this combo and the kale holds up nicely in the broth. I use a handful of spelt egg noodles to add a little more body to the soup, but you can leave them out altogether if your need for atonement runs deep.

Chicken Meatball Soup with Veggies and Noods:

1 lb ground chicken breast
2 cloves minced garlic
1-2 Tbs. grated onion
pinch of herbes de Provence, or Italian seasoning
4 Tbs Masa flour
1 tsp kosher kosher salt
ground black pepper

2-3 leeks, white and light green parts only, well washed then sliced
1 cup organic baby carrots, halved
12 cups organic chicken broth (3 cartons), or homemade.
1 bunch of organic curly kale, chopped (this time I'm using ~2 bunches of lacinato kale because I'm tired of all the work it takes to wash the bugs out of the curly stuff!)
~1 cup spelt egg noodles

Saute sliced leeks in knob of butter (or olive oil) with a little salt for ~5 min, add carrots and cook a minute more.
Add chicken broth and bring to boil.
While broth is coming up to a boil, combine first 7 ingredients and make 1 inch meatballs. Dipping hands/fingers in warm water in between each will make it easier to roll them. Set aside.

Once the broth is boiling, reduce heat and slowly add meatballs one at a time. Simmer on low for ~30 minutes, occasionally skimming any foam that might rise to the surface.
Add kale and egg noodles and cook ~10 min more.

And just to see if I can get ANYONE to make our favorite pancakes...I really can't believe no one has tried them with all my pleading. This is from our Sunday breakfast. Oatmeal pancakes topped with agave sweetened Greek yogurt and fresh nectarines with blueberries. Just nix the ginger from the original recipe, and use about 1 Tbs of Sucanat instead of 2 tsp.
You really don't know what you're missing if you don't give these a shot! :-)