One of our favorite places to be is in the kitchen. We love to bake and cook and it all stemmed from our mom's passion of cooking. She would find a recipe that she loved, and then make it all year long. We used to say, "That was the year of the cheesecakes" or "That was the year of cinnamon rolls." Some of our fondest memories revolve around cooking together in the kitchen. We love to get together as family and contribute our best recipes for the meal. And we are constantly calling each other saying, "You've got to try this recipe!" We'd like to share our favorite recipes with you. So, happy cooking, happy baking, happy eating, and then happy exercising afterwards to burn those calories!


Thursday, January 12, 2012

Friendship Soup


When I had come home from the hospital after delivering my baby Claire, my dad and stepmom Carol came down to see her. I was happy enough that they came down, but Carol went above and beyond and brought some food for us that we could have in the weeks to come. One of my favorite things she brought was something called Friendship Soup. It came in a canning jar with all these layers of wholesome yumminess. When I was ready to make it, all I had to do was brown some ground meat, and mix it with the jar and canned tomatoes in some water. Easy Peezy. And my kids LOVE this! I have some picky eaters who aren't too fond of chunky stuff in their food, and everything in this soup is so small. It just tastes so good and I feel good feeding this to my family. It's also fun to give to friends, hence the name: Friendship Soup.

Friendship Soup




INGREDIENTS FOR JAR (measure ingredients and pour into a quart size canning jar):
- 1/2 cup split peas

- 1/2 cup pearl barley

- 1/2 cup lentils

- 1/2 cup long grained rice

- 1/3 cup beef or chicken bouillon soup base

- 1/3 cup dried onion flakes

- 2 Tbsp. Italian Seasoning

- 2 bay leaves

- 1/2 cup uncooked pasta (package in a separate baggie)*


OTHER INGREDIENTS:

- 1 lb. ground beef, ground turkey, or ground chicken breast

- 26 oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained


DIRECTIONS:

Brown 1 pound ground meat. Season with salt, pepper and garlic to taste; drain excess fat. Add diced tomatoes and simmer for 10 minutes. In a six quart stock pot put 4 quarts (that's 16 cups folks) of water and the jar of soup mix. Set the small packet of pasta aside for now. Mix in the browned meat and tomatoes. Bring to a boil, and then reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes. Stir in the pasta, cover and simmer for an additional 20 minu
tes. Enjoy!

*Below is the pasta that I like to buy. It is at the grocery store in the section where they sell Mexican food. In fact, sometimes they have the rice, split peas and lentils in the Mexican food section and it can be cheaper from time to time.

at 3:25 PM

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