Meatball Soup

I saw a recipe for this at a website called "The Pioneer Woman Cooks" under "Italian Meatball Soup". She has some awesome recipes. Anyway, I was intrigued. It sounded very good, but a bit too much work. For some reason I cannot make my own meatballs, they fall apart or are gross. And, I have no idea where to even purchase cheesecloth and didn't have any of the herbs on hand (the first time I made this I used Italian dressing seasoning and it was good. If you want more flavor, try that). So, here is my simplified version, and it was really good. This picture does not do it justice. The first time I made it I added the pasta (whole wheat spaghetti) and then went outside to play in the snow with the kids. When I came back inside and hour later my soup had morphed. It looked like canned pasta and meatballs. The kids still liked it, but I didn't like the mushy pasta. Lesson learned - cook the pasta and add it to the soup when you are ready to serve it. The second time was so much better and I am excited for left overs tonight.

Ingredients:
1 large onion (I prefer the big sweet onions)
1 large red pepper
3 large carrots
Olive oil
3 cans of beef broth
At least 1/2 jar of your favorite pasta sauce (After I dump the sauce I rinse it with about 1/2 cup water to get the rest that is in there and add it to the soup. You can use a full jar if you want. I had 1/2 a jar, so that is what I used.)
1 16 oz bag frozen meatballs (or 1/2 a 32 ounce bag, what I had)
small pasta of your choice, about 2 cups, cooked. (If you want more, add it)
cheese for topping
optional - fresh spinach (Frozen would work too, but fresh looks so pretty. I didn't have any this time, so my soup looks kind of blah, but it tasted awesome. ALL of the kids liked it.)

Preheat oven 425 to 450 (some cookware is not designed to cook above 425, if yours is not roast these veggies at a lower temp.) Cut up the onion and pepper, peel and slice up the carrot. Put them in a 9 by 13 pan and drizzle with 2 to 3 Tablespoons of Olive oil (or less if you want). Roast veggies in oven for 35 to 40 min, stirring once. In the meantime heat up broth and pasta sauce. In a skillet, heat up 1/2 cup to 1 cup of the broth mixture and add meatballs. Simmer meatballs until they are fully cooked. I spooned them out onto the cutting board and cut them in 1/4's so that there were more. Cook pasta. When veggies are done roasting, puree them in blender. Add veggies to broth mixture. Heat through. Add meatballs and spinach and cook for a few more minutes. Add cooked pasta right before you serve the soup. Top with Italian blend of shredded cheese. Serve with some yummy garlic bread. Enjoy!!!