Progresso Italian Style Meatball Soup-alike

One of the reasons we started the blog in the first place was to cut down on our soup bill because we eat it so often. Naturally, you begin to crave the can of soup you would eat so often. One of the soups I used to eat most often was Progresso's Light Italian-Style Meatball soup. The nutrition facts for Progresso's version is below. Their version checks in at 180 calories per can. We ended up with more than that, but still well below our goal of 500 calories per serving. We ended up with a lot of meatballs in our version, so if you want to get closer to Progresso's "light", use half the amount of meat.

The recipe below was developed by Roger, and I have to say it came pretty darn close. It was really hard to get the meatballs as tiny as Progresso does, and if we could do it all over again, we might adjust the recipe so that we yielded a little more broth, but all in all, I would say it was a success. We forgot to put carrots in our version, so we've deleted them from the recipe. But add them in if it's a deal breaker!

Italian Style Meatball
less than 350 calories per serving
makes 12 1-cup servings
between $10 and $12

1 lb. ground beef
1 lb. ground pork
1.25 cups breadcrumbs
3 eggs
64 ounces (8 cups) beef broth
14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes
14.5 ounce can crushed tomatoes
2; 8 ounce cans (16 ounces) tomato sauce
1 cup onion
3/4 cup celery
1/2 lb. penne pasta (we prefer whole wheat, but Progresso uses regular)
salt, pepper and Italian seasoning

Combine beef broth, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, celery and onion into large stock pot; cover and simmer.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, then combine ground beef, ground pork, breadcrumbs and eggs in large bowl; season to taste. Lightly grease baking pan. Form mixture into half-inch meatblass and place in baking pan. Bake meatballs for 15 to 20 minutes.

Remove cover and bring soup to rapid boil. Add pasta with 5 minutes remaining on meatball bake time.

Let meatballs sit for 5 minutes, then add to soup. Remove soup from heat. Season to taste