Bean soup mixes
Okay, the quantities listed below are for one recipe. What I do is make an assembly line. I line up all the canning jars. Fill each one in turn with beans. Then, I take little plastic baggies and put them in small-ish glasses (wrapped around the outside to hold them open). Then, I take the first ingredient, measure 1 Tbsp (or whatever) and put it in each baggie, down the line. Next ingredient, etc. It makes quick work of making a bunch of them at once. Tie up the spice baggie with a ribbon and place it on top of the beans. Measure out the barley into a plastic baggie, tie with ribbon and place on top.
Here is a picture from last year. I created a recipe card in my photoshop software using some digital scrapbooking elements and a picture of my boys. Then printed that out on photo paper and backed it with a scrapbooking paper mat. It was really cute.
Picture of jarsPicture of the attached recipe card
The bean measurements are weird because I took a bigger recipe, cut it down, then changed things up a bit. Please let me know if anything is confusing or you have a question!
4 Bean Soup Mix to give as gifts, by Tinasquirrel
¼ + 1/8 cups dried pinto beans
¼ + 1/8 cups dried navy beans
¼ + 1/8 cups dried light red kidney beans
¼ + 1/8 cups dried black beans
Pick through the beans to make sure there aren’t any rocks, etc., but do not wash them. If you wash them first and then put them in the jar, they could develop mold if the person doesn’t use it soon. Layering the beans in the jar makes a nice presentation. For 8 jars, I used about 2 bags of beans each. I used Quart sized canning jars with a square of fabric over the lid and a nice bow to tie the recipe card to the jar.
Seasoning mix:
1/8 cup dried minced onion
¼ Tbsp paprika
½ tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp mustard powder
1/8 tsp granulated garlic
½ Tbsp chicken bouillon powder
1 cube beef bouillon
¼ Tbsp dried parsley
1 Tbsp bacon bits (make sure to get the kind that don’t have to be refrigerated after opening)
1 Tbsp mixed vegetable flakes*
Barley packet
Barley is just half a cup of pearled quick barley. Make sure it’s the Quick kind that cooks in 10 minutes. I found that in my grocery store by the beans, or in another grocery store, it was by the dried soup mixes.
* Vegetable flakes. I can't always find vegetable flakes at my local grocery store. They might have them at a bulk food spice type store, but we didn't have one of those where we used to live. So what I did was buy Knorr’s Vegetable soup mix in a box. Then I ran it through a fine mesh strainer and got rid of all the powder stuff and was left with all the dried vegetables! It worked perfectly. I needed approximately 2-3 packets for my 8 jars.
Instructions for cooking for the recipe card:
Four Bean Slow Cooker Soup, serves 6
1.Soak beans overnight
2.Combine the following in the slow cooker:
a.Soaked beans
b.Six cups of water
c.Seasoning packet
d.One 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes
e.1 Tbsp. oil
3.Cook on low for 8-10 hours.
4.Half an hour prior to serving, add the barley.
5.Serve and enjoy! Tastes even better the next day!
)
I have a lot on my plate all of a sudden so I'm making and planning as much as I can as early as I can.
