Snowman Soup: Two Kinds

I love making these snowman soups as holiday gifts.  They always make the recipients smile and it gives them something yummy to fix themselves too.

This first one is a sweet snowman soup, which is basically a hot cocoa mix:

25 1/2 oz. powdered milk

16 oz. mini marshmallows

12 oz. mini chocolate chips

3 c. powdered sugar

3 cups Coffee Mate

1 1/2 cups cocoa

Just mix it all together – this recipe makes about 50-60 servings!  Use about 3 T. of mix per mug of hot milk or water.

When you package this up as snowman soup you need one of the poems to go with it such as:

Was told you’ve been real good this year

I’m really glad to hear it!

With winter weather drawing near

You’ll need to warm your spirit.

So here’s a little snowman soup

Complete with stirring stick,

Add hot milk and sip it slow,

It’s sure to do the trick.

Note: I always include instructions on the back of the poem letting them know how much of the mix to use and that hot water will work well too!  When you package this up, you need to include a candy cane to serve as the “stirring stick”.  I’ve packaged this in snowman shaped jars, white or clear mugs that I painted snowman faces on, or as you can see here, I’m using a CD envelope as my packet and the candy cane as the closure on it.  On the following two sites there are snowman soup printable tags with poems on them (2 different versions): 

http://nicholeheady.typepad.com/capture_the_moment/files/snowman_soup_free_download.pdf

http://christmas.organizedhome.com/printable/gift-tags/snowman-soup

This other version of Snowman Soup is a savoury one.  I often included both versions in a gift package together – they made great teacher gifts because both could be kept at school in their classrooms and then all they needed to make them was some hot water!  These also make perfect gifts for college students as they’re so quick and easy for them to make!

Savoury Snowman Soup

Version 1:

Mix all ingredients together:  1 3/4 cups instant mashed potato flakes, 1 1/2 cups powdered milk, 2 T. instant chicken bouillon powder, 2 tsp. dried onion, 1 tsp. parsley, 1/4 tsp pepper, 1/4 tsp. thyme, 1/8 tsp. turmeric, 1 1/2 tsp. seasoned salt (you can add other spices and herbs as is your preference).  To serve, use 1/2 cup mix per 1 cup boiling water.  Simply stir until smooth.  Again, some kind of snowman themed presentation is nice for this gift.  If I were presenting one serving to someone, I could use the same CD envelope as above but I would probably put a snowman cutout over the window so that when the white soup is in there, it shows through the snowman shaped opening.  Here I’ve put it in a large ziploc bag and then covered that in a piece of snowman themed fabric.  I painted some bread tags as snowman faces to use as the closure.

http://www.craftsbyamanda.com/2010/12/recycled-bread-tag-snowmen.html

Version 2:

Use 1 box of sour cream and chives potatoes (like the type Betty Crocker makes), the packet of sauce mix from the box of potatoes, the packet of cheese sauce mix from Kraft Dinner or a similar macaroni and cheese mix (or at our bulk food stores, you can buy that cheese sauce mix on its own), 1 tsp. bacon bits.  Break up the potatoes from the box so they are in smaller pieces.  Mix with the rest of the ingredients.  To serve, combine the contents of this mix with 2 cups milk and 1 cup water.  Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer for 8-10 minutes.