Recipe(tried): Soupy Sunday (a day late) - Italian Wedding Soup and Garlic Bread (bread machine)

We had another little cold snap in FL again so I was again inspired to make soup. I ran a few suggestions by my husband and his final pick was Italian Wedding Soup. It's a favorite of mine so I didn't argue. We had it and I made a nice loaf of garlic bread in the bread machine - yummy! This is a recipe that I adapted from several others and made a little more similar to how I've had it in restaurants. THis is a double recipe so cut it in half if you don't want a bunch. Hope you enjoy before it warms up again...

Italian Wedding Soup

Meatballs:
2 lb. ground sirloin
1 egg
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp. each of garlic & onion powder
1/4 cup each of grated Romano and Parmesan cheese

Roll into bite size meatballs and for appx. 30 min.

Soup:
8 cans chicken broth
4 cans beef broth
2 cans water
2 boxes frozen chopped spinach
2 cups pastina (or other tiny pasta)
salt and pepper and addt'l seasonings as needed (I like to use Nature's Seasons since it's a nice combo or seasoning)

Combine broth, water and thawed spinach. You can put the spinach in frozen if need be and just let it separate in the mixture. Simmer for a bit and add in the pastina. When pasta is mostly done, add in the meatballs. Simmer for a bit to allow flavors to come out and mesh.

On a cool day like we had, I just leave the soup on the stove all afternoon and we eat whenever we feel hungry, again and again!

Garlic Bread

10 oz. Water
2 Tbsp. Butter or Margarine
3 1/3 cups Bread Flour
2 Tbsp. Dry Milk
1 Tbsp. Parsley Flakes
1 1/2 Tbsp. Sugar
1 1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Garlic Powder
1 3/4 tsp. Active Dry Yeast or 1 1/2 tsp. Bread Machine/Fast Rise Yeast

Add liquid ingredients and butter to pan. Add all dry ingredients, except yeast, to pan. Tap to settle dry ingredients, then level ingredients pushing some of the mixture into the corners. Make a well in center of dry ingredients and add yeast. Lock pan into bread maker.

My Westbend machine gets put on the Basic bread setting and I always set it for Light crust.