Capsicum and Carrot Soup with Meatballs

Welcome to my new kitchen.

A home that we have been waiting for. We finally moved into our home around a week ago. Thankfully, and praise God that it went smoothly and we are slowly settling into our space. My favourite room(s) in the house would be our kitchen and bedroom. Kitchen, in particular feature my 1.5 oven, massive pigeon pair fridge and freezer and the ultimate.... a dish washing machine.

I am always a hand washing kinda gal, but this machine is totally a God-sent. I meant, we calculated that we saved over 30-45 mins a day by just having this aid. why we didn't have one of those earlier, I have no idea.. no wait, I do know... it is because we were on a total budget and couldn't bear the thought of spending more than what we needed to.

So much to do, so little time. As I write, I'm sitting our our dining table- would you believe we NEVER had a dining table? What a luxury right? By no means we are still pinching ourselves that we are savouring our little reward of a home from the years of thinking/saving/budgeting. It keep us grounded for sure. This home means we can actually have friends over, and family can actually stay with us (and no, it was really a space reason and not because we don't want you here!!). (just in case one of you are reading this! LOL). And a proper table to have dinner on.

These things count no? :)

It's full blown winter here now, and I find myself making more soups in our kitchen. The space helps, and having a fridge and freezer means I can properly cook in bulk and freeze. I love the our kitchen bench as it means I can spread it out as I bake or when I have multiple things going on at the same time. Take tonight for instance, I had soup simmering on the stove and a casserole cooking in the oven.

Yes. Someone told me there is never such a thing as too big a fridge and freezer. Do you agree?

The soup that I do want to tell you about today, is this heart warming capsicum and carrot soup with meatballs. Fresh vegetables blended together and simmered with a hint of chill. I love a good bite in my soup, so I decided that I could shape some pork meat balls to go with it.

I also found a very handy helper- my hubby is meticulous and actually did shape these meatballs for me. I would have just thrown it in the soup. He actually made it look pretty.

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be slowly changing the focus of this writing space. Just to reflect where I am right now- 90% clean eating and 10% treats that I eat without guilt. Of course, there could be more treats than clean eating posts at times- no guarantee there. But I thought I could also share with you some of my lifestyle changes and hopefully, a few little projects around our home.

Change is exciting no? :)

Capsicum and Carrot Soup with Meatballs (serves 6)
1 kg of carrots peel and chopped
5-6 red capsicum
2 red onions chopped
1-2 tablespoon of garlic
4-5 chili padi
1 bunch of celery chopped
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
2 ltre of chicken stock

Meatballs
600 grams of pork mince
2 tablespoon of almond meal
1 egg
salt/pepper
2 tablespoon of crushed pistachios

greek yogurt to serve.

Marinate and mix pork mince. Set aside.

Saute onion, garlic and chill in a huge pot (or two pots if you are me) with tomato paste. Add in celery and cook till soft. Cook through other veges. Simmer with stock for around 10 minutes till cooked through. Cool and blitz it through hand blender or blender and return to pot. Meantime, shape meatballs and dropped into soup to cook.

Serve with a tablespoon of greek yogurt.