Cabbage Meatball Soup

This is a story about one pound of ground beef.  My husband, Mike, thawed out the other day a pound of ground beef with the hopes of surprising me with a meatloaf.  Due to the weather, plans changed because of my schedule.  So I thought of something to use that ground beef for.  I instantly thought of stuffed cabbage, in the crock pot, cooking all day.  Mike still has a garden going with some winter vegetables, including cabbage.  So I asked him to go out and get a head of cabbage for dinner.  He came back inside and said the cabbages are kinda small I don't think they will work for the stuffed cabbage.  So I immediately thought of soup.  I was sure that I could do something with the cabbage and the beef.  This soup is what I came up with.  The ingredients are an approximate of what I used, but you could certainly tweak this recipe for your tastes.

Cabbage Meatball Soup
For the meatballs:
1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground pork
2 eggs
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 cloves crushed garlic
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 onion, finely chopped
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  Place all the ingredients into a large bowl and mix thoroughly with your hands to incorporate the ingredients.  Roll meatballs into about a golf ball size.  Place meatballs onto a greased cookie sheet and place in oven.  Bake for 30 minutes.

For the soup:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, diced
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon paprika
6 cups homemade chicken and vegetable broth (I used 4 cups chicken broth and 2 cups vegetable broth)
1 - 14 ounce can diced tomatoes
2 small heads of cabbage, chopped
Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium high heat.  Add the onions and carrots and cook until soft, about 5 minutes.  Add spices and garlic, stir.  Add tomatoes and stir.  Stir in cabbage.  Cover and cook for 30 minutes.   When the meatballs are done, add them to the soup and cook for about 10 minutes longer.  Serve.