Fiery Meatball Stew

This is a recipe that is just easy to throw together and still creates a tasty simple stew.  I normally have all the ingredients lying around.

I try to follow  the plate model when I eat, which means a quarter of my plate is protein, a quarter carbs (with fibre), and half a plate of veggies.  I can't sort through stew that way on my plate, but I can think of those terms when it goes into the pot.  From experience a pound of ground meat is about 2 cups, a cup of dry pasta is 2 cups cooked, therefore to balance out this recipe I want at least 4 cups of veggies in the recipe.  This recipe has about 5 cups plus the veggies in the salsa.

Fiery Meatball Stew

• 4 cups beef broth (water and 2 bouillon cubes)
• 1 cup whole wheat/whole grain/smart pasta
• 1 lb meatballs
• 3 cups frozen mixed vegetables
• 1 cup diced peppers
  
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
  
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1 cup salsa
• Any kind of hot peppers/hot sauce/seasoning to give it the heat you like
• 4 cups water
  

Bring broth to a boil in a large saucepan. Add pasta, mixed vegetables, peppers and onion and cook for five minutes. Add meatballs and bring to a boil and cook for ten minutes. Stir in Salsa. Add up to 4 more cups of boiling water at any point as needed to get desired consistency.

If I don't have time to make meatballs, and I have none sitting in the freezer I will just start by taking a pound of ground beef (or any other ground meat) and scramble frying it kind of chunky, then I adding the broth and go from there.  It doesn't look as pretty but gives you more meat in every bite.  I'll be honest I could rarely be bothered to make meatballs for this.  In a pinch I have used spaghetti sauce instead of salsa.