Easiest Potato Cheddar Soup

This recipe I am going to share comes from my Mother-in-Law. While we were down in Idaho, my MIL managed to have 26 people at her house for Thanksgiving without going crazy. That's quite the accomplishment if you ask me. I wasn't even in charge of the dinner and thought I might go crazy. Hats off to her! Once most people had left and it was just the immediate family at the house, she made this yummy soup for us. She got home and 25 minutes later dinner was ready. SERIOUSLY. I was absolutely amazed and the soup was so yummy! I asked her for the recipe and I have to share it with you. The only picture I have of it is the picture of the jar that we are giving away as Christmas gifts this year. I am so tired of giving/receiving plates full of cookies that nobody eats. Or that I eat and I just feel sick after... Ugh...

I thought this was a great idea to give as a Christmas gift without overloading anyone on more SWEETS!

Here are the ingredients:

2 cups potato flakes
2 cups coffee creamer
3/4 cup powdered cheese
1/2 cup imitation bacon bits
1 tsp Mrs. Dash
2 Tbsp. dried parsely
1 tsp dried minced onion
1/2 tsp. pepper

Add all ingredients to 6 cups boiling water. Mix well and let stand 5 minutes before serving. Depending on the potato flakes you use, you may have to use more water. My MIL uses the potato pearls from the church and it uses more like 8 cups water. I would start with 6 and see how its thickening up.

Here's a couple tips:
1. If you are making this as a gift, be sure to use IMITATION bacon bits so that whoever you give this to can put it on their shelf until they want to use it, instead of in their refrigerator.

2. The only thing I had a hard time finding was the powdered cheese. If you live where you have access to a WinCo, my MIL says that they sell it in bulk there. I couldn't find anywhere that sold it, so I had to order a #10 can of it off a website I found.

3. Also, if you are making this, use the wide mouthed quart jars and use a little less than 2 cups of the potato flakes and creamer. Be sure to jam your hand down in it and compress the flakes as much as possible in order to fit everything. I pushed and pushed and pushed in order to make everything fit.

I have this in my crockpot right now for a luncheon I'm going to today and I cannot wait to have it again (especially since I'm lactose intolerant.... and the coffee creamer is lactose free!!)