Treasure Hunt Noodles

     The Azuki BeaN Mamas search to find MAGIC while cooking!  Today we're planning a meal that is beautiful, nutritious and fun!  It's called

Treasure Hunt Noodles

with Roots, Fruits, Stems, Leaves, and Flowers

1/4 C water
1 crown of broccoli (broken into small pieces)
1 carrot  (thin circles)
1-2 stalks of celery (cut at a diagonal)
1/2 red bell pepper (cut vertically)
1-2 stalks of green onion (1 inch rods)
3 cups fresh spinach leaves only
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/4 tsp garlic powder
2 cups cooked noodles (chuka soba or buckwheat noodles work well)
2 T Memmi (Japanese Noodle Soup Base - looks like soy sauce)
1/2 tsp sesame oil

Start with a 1/4 C of water in a hot fry pan
Add broccoli, carrots, celery, bell pepper and garlic powder in pan.
Cover and steam for 3-5 minutes.
Add spinach, mushrooms, green onions, and noodles and gently stir.
Add Memmi and sesame oil.  Heat for 2 minutes or until heated through, gently stirring and soon it's ready to serve.

     This is a beautiful dish with shapes and colors.  It can be served with rice as a meal or as a side dish to chicken.  Garnish with edible flowers if you have them. We used zucchini flowers from the garden.

     Now for the fun part!  This dish is filled with different plant parts and one ingredient that is not in the Kingdom Plantae at all.  As a fun activity you can have the kiddies (Little BeaNs) search for Roots, Stems, Flowers, Fruits and Leaves in the Noodles.  You can also have them find the one ingredient that is not from the Plant Kingdom.  Then they need to try them all!

Answer Key:
Plant                            Part of the Plant
Carrots                            Roots
Celery                             Stems
Broccoli                          Flower
Bell Pepper                     Fruit (to a scientist--remember anything with seeds inside is a fruit)
Spinach                           Leaves
Green onion                    Leaves

Noodles are made from plants - Wheat, buckwheat or rice
Mushrooms are NOT in the Plant Kingdom but are actually Fungi.

     The different shapes we created make it fun to look for the treasures.  You can try your own and if you have older kiddies that help in the kitchen they can see what shapes they can create.  Hopefully by playing the treasure hunt game they will want to try all the roots, fruits, stems, leaves and flowers in the dish. A quick, easy, beautiful meal with a treasure hunt game...and maybe, just maybe, the little BeaNs eating all their vegetables and a Fungus ...this would be Truly Magical!!!!!!