Some days, Hubby and I like to order take-out, which may not be nutritious enough for the kids e.g. pizza. In times like this, I’d resort to a vegetarian soup base, which is delicious enough to cook a porridge for toddlers too.
I love the simplicity of this dish because all you need are carrots, celery and potato, which you can buy easily from the supermarket.
Nutrition-wise, the potato provides complex carbohydrates and quite a number of minerals while the celery packs a powerful punch of vitamin C and the carrots are full of vitamin A.
Don’t you just love how fresh the 3 colourful vegetables look? Cooking is so therapeutic especially when I’ve got your favourite songs blasting in the kitchen 
In fact, I have to chase the 2 kids out coz our kitchen is so, so, so tiny I can even trip over the toddler!
To estimate the amount of vegetables to prepare, I usually allocate a handful of veggies for one kid for two meals. The photo above shows the portion I once cooked for the toddler’s lunch and dinner.
Here’s how you prepare the porridge:
1. Cut the carrot, potato and celery into cubes and throw them into a pot.
2. Pour water into the pot until the water level reaches a height of about 2.5 inches above everything. Err…I hope that makes sense!
3. Start the fire and then wash a handful of rice, if you’d like to cook a porridge with the soup. If not, skip this step.
4. When the water starts to boil merrily with big, happy bubbles, turn the fire down. Simmer for about 20 minutes until the carrots and potatoes are tender. Half cover the pot with a lid to save energy. Later, you can test the carrot and potato with a fork to check if they’re done.
5. Then, add the washed rice to the soup and stir to mix everything up. Leave the pot half covered again.
6. In about 10-15 minutes’ time, the porridge will be done when the rice grains split. You’ll see about 1/3 of water left in the pot and big, frothy bubbles. Turn off the fire and cover the pot to sort of “pressure cook” it a bit. Let the porridge cool down a bit before you serve.
Here’s the yummy porridge:
Easy, right? 
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