valasa soup

Growing up I always had a love of food and cooking. I would watch my dad in the kitchen just throwing things together and making a meal. He could turn random leftovers and pantry items into a tasty dinner just with his own imagination. Watching him I learned a lot and now I'm able to do the same. He passed those skills down to me. 

Now as an adult, my stepdaughter Meli expresses that same eagerness to be in the kitchen and create meals. I want to be able to pass those skills to her and foster her love of cooking. She has been helping me cook and bake and keeps mentioning this soup she wanted to make for us. Normally, we don't eat a lot of soups since it's hot over here, but this past week George and I have been battling a nasty cold so soup sounded just right.

meli's recipe

I told Meli to write down the ingredients she needed and we would go to the store and buy them. I had her write the recipe all by herself, pick out the ingredients all by herself and cut up the ingredients by herself (with a butter knife and under supervision of course!). I had to help her do some of the cooking because the stove isn't kid friendly but I was under her direction the entire time!

look at that fast paced chopping!!

Here is Meli's recipe:

Valasa Soop [soup]

nootlls [noodles]

carots [carrots]

chiken broth [chicken broth]

chiken squars [chicken squares]

prepping the ingredients

cutting the chicken into little squares

The directions are to boil the noodles, cut up the carrots and chicken and then add everything to the chicken broth. Easy peasy! The only trick is to add the carrots at the very end, after the stove has been turned off. Apparently cooking the carrots at all will ruin the soup.

the final product

kiera enjoying her sister's soup

We all had a bowl for dinner and even her little sister, Kiera, enjoyed it!