Friendship Soup Mix in a Jar

 
 
I pulled this recipe right off of allrecipes.com and am super excited to do it in my MOPS group this week!
Ingredients:

1/2 cup dry split peas
1/3 cup beef bouillon granules
1/4 cup pearl barley
1/2 cup dry lentils
1/4 cup dried onion flakes
2 teaspoons dried Italian seasoning
1/2 cup uncooked long-grain white rice
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup uncooked alphabet pasta
Directions:

In a 1 1/2 pint jar, (I used a quart-canning jar and it worked just fine) layer the split peas, bouillon, barley, lentils, onion flakes, Italian seasoning, rice, and bay leaves. Wrap the pasta in plastic wrap, and place in the jar. Seal tightly.


Attach a label to the jar with the following instructions:
Friendship Soup ADDITIONAL INGREDIENTS:
1 pound ground beef, black pepper to taste, garlic powder to taste, 1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes - undrained, 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste, and 3 quarts water. TO PREPARE SOUP: Remove pasta from top of jar, and set aside. In a large pot over medium heat, brown beef with pepper and garlic; drain excess fat. Add diced tomatoes, tomato paste, water, and soup mix. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Cover, and simmer for 45 minutes. Stir in the pasta, cover, and simmer 15 to 20 minutes, or until the pasta, peas, lentils and barley are tender.
Each Jar serves about 16 people, it was quite exciting to have all the bags of ingredients to do this with almost 80 moms... if you have a Winco in your area, its a GREAT place to get all the ingredients you need in the perfect quantities :)

Have fun and enjoy :)