My daughter woke up with a case of the sniffles and whineys  and I wanted to cheer her up a little.  One of her favorite movies is Ponyo and I usually make her a Ponyo lunch when she is feeling down.

Today I was making a crock pot of beet chili and  since I had an extra beet I decided to experiment a bit with tinting her udon noodles pink. She was quite excited when her lunch came out all pink and pretty and she ate 3 bowls and was back to her chipper self in  no time.

Ponyo lunch is always easy to make and this  beet broth udon lunch is just as easy. It is a quick way to get a full belly and a good excuse to pull out those chopsticks you never get to use. The best part of this lunch is that you can really add anything you like- edamame, chicken, ham or even leeks. Be creative!

What you need

• udon noodles
• 1 organic beet,  peeled
• handful of organic spinach
• 2 cups  organic chicken broth
• 2 hard-boiled eggs

How to make

• Chop beet into chunks and boil in chicken broth until soft but still a bit hard, you don’t want them to mush up
• In another pot boil udon until tender, I usually put the eggs in with the udon to cook as well to save time, drain and rinse in cold water
• Put udon in a bowl  and pour beet and chicken broth over
• Add spinach and let wilt
• Top with beet chunks and hard-boiled egg sliced in half
• Enjoy!