Create My Own Soup

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Create My Own Soup

by Christine Steendahl

Children's meals have to be easy, delicious and nutritious. Getting kids to eat vegetables is a major task. Finding a way to get vegetables into the mouths of kids is easy if they are part of the fun. Creating ways to get kids to help with the preparation and the cooking of kids' recipes is part of the fun. Kid friendly recipes will allow you the comfort of knowing your children are eating healthy and the kids will like feeling in control of what they are being fed.

Take your little ones shopping with you. Let them pick out the fruits and vegetables that they enjoy. This is always the best way even with children as young as 4 years old. Children learn to eat healthy when they participate in the cooking and the shopping for the family.

Children adore color. Even with fruits and vegetables, kids will first look, smell, and lastly taste. So a variety of color in meal planning is great. Eating a mixture of foods greatly improves the chances of getting all the nutrients you and your family require to achieve optimum health.

A great way to get your kids to eat vegetables is to use the vegetables as part of a project. Kids get to count, make shapes, and then eat what they have created. You get the reassurance of knowing that you are including nutritious foods into their diet.

Kids Recipes for Create My Own Soup

Have the children separate the carrots and celery pieces. Let them spell their names with the noodles if you have alphabet noodles. You can find other kid-friendly noodles like car shapes, etc. Create a topic of the soup project.

Cut various shapes out of the carrot slices and zucchini (using an aspic cutter) then set to the side.

Ingredients:

1-2 carrots

1 zucchini

4 cups low sodium chicken broth

1/4 cup shaped pasta

Dash of sage

3/4 cup chopped, cooked chicken

Salt and pepper to taste

Bringing it All Together:

Let the kids help you wash the vegetables. Once finished you can wash the carrots and zucchini softly with a vegetable brush.

Cut the vegetables into 1/4-inch slices.

Cut various shapes out of the slices, and set them aside.

In a medium sized pot, bring the broth to a simmer over medium heat.

Add the carrot stars and simmer for about 20 minutes or until the carrots start to become tender.

Add the pasta, zucchini and chicken. Continue cooking the soup for another few minutes, stirring occasionally, just until the pasta is done. Makes 4 servings.

Let the children find their names or count the number of stars in their soup bowl. The children will like the exciting activity and fun, you will feel good knowing they are eating their vegetables.

About the Author:
Need more Kid-Friendly Recipes? Christine Steendahl - "The Menu Mom" - invites you to visit Kid Approved Meals at www.kidapprovedmeals.com to claim your personal 13 week breakfast and lunch menu made just for kids!

kids-image Let's Get Cooking!

While there are many reasons for teaching kids to cook -- less expensive than eating out, preserves family heritage, etc, the most important reason is that by teaching your child to cook, you're giving him a better chance to be a healthy grown-up. Enabling your child with the ability to appreciate freshness and to transform ingredients into tasty foods opens their eyes to making wiser choices about what to eat...

::Click here to start the experience!

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