Italian Wedding Soup

This soup was pretty good... I would need to tweak it some to feel like it deserved a spot in the permanent recipe rotation, but it's definitely a good soup...

The pic is while is was still cooking on the stove, but it's just hard to get a pretty pic when it's soup... (and I ate it out of a plastic container - who wants to see that!)

Italian Wedding Soup serves 8
1 pound extra-lean ground beef 93/10 or 95/5 if you can find it
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup oatmeal
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese (*) fat free if you can find it
1 teaspoon dried basil
3 tablespoons minced onion
2 1/2 quarts chicken broth
2 cups spinach - packed, rinsed and thinly sliced
1 cup ww seashell or other small ww pasta
3/4 cup diced carrots

1 In a medium bowl, combine the beef, egg, oats, cheese, basil and onion. Shape mixture into 3/4-inch balls and set aside(Mine made about 24 meatballs). In a large stockpot broth to boiling; stir in the spinach, pasta, carrot and meatballs. Return to boil; reduce heat to medium. Cook, stirring frequently, at a
slow boil for 10 minutes or until pasta is al dente(be careful not to overcook the pasta). Serve hot with Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.

**Notes - I added salt to the soup when boiling as well as pepper... I even threw in a little bit of ground nutmeg and 2 bay leaves for some extra flavor.
I might consider making the pasta separately and tossing it in during the last few minutes. I also might consider baking the meatballs first because I think it would give it more flavor.