My Personal Chefs

Last week I was when dreading trying to figure out what to cook for dinner, I remembered this wonderful book that my sister, Sasha, gave Kobe and Ellie for their birthday this year.  It's called Pretend Soup and is written by Mollie Katzen, author of one of my long time favorite vegetarian cookbooks,  The Moosewood Cookbook.    The cookbook is written for preschool age + children and has picture versions of recipes so the kids can understand the recipe.  It is a wonderful cookbook, filled with lots of fun and easy recipes for kids.  If you have a preschooler who likes to cook, or one on your Christmas list, this would make a wonderful gift.  Here is the soup Kobe and Ellie made us for dinner.  They also made some bread in the bread maker and the meal turned out great.  Kobe and Ellie were very proud to have cooked a meal for the entire family.  Unfortunately I have no way to show the pictures, but this recipe would still be fun for kids none-the-less.  The recipe yields 3 or 4 small servings so I tripled the recipe in order to have enough for the whole family.  I used Westbrae Instant Noodle mix which they carry at the Co-op.   It's a little healthier than the .25 kind that I lived off of when I was in college. 

Noodle Soup

1 package ramen soup mix

6 fresh spinach leaves, washed

3 mushrooms

1/4 cup of corn (fresh or frozen)

1/4 cup of peas (fresh or frozen)

2 cups of water

1. Break up the noodles and put them into the pan.
   
2. Tear the spinach into bite-size pieces, and slice the mushrooms.  Add these to the noodles, along with the corn and peas.
3. Add the water and the contents of the little envelope of seasoning that comes with the soup mix.  Stir.
4. Turn on the heat and bring to boil.  Lower heat and let simmer about 8 more minutes. 
5. Ladle into bowls, blow on it 20 times, and eat!