Pasta and Smoothies

Lucas's vocabulary has been expanding exponentially lately. He says new words every day. His recent new word is also his recent favorite food. Pasta! He asks for pasta all day long. I started making this veggie pasta dish for him a few months ago and it is so easy. I just kinda threw stuff together and he loves it so I keep making it. I know people are always looking for ways to get vegetables in their kid's diets so I thought I'd share the recipe. It's not really a sneaky way to get kids to eat them, but Lucas literally asks to eat it all day, so I figured there might be some kids out there that would eat it even though you can see the veggies. Make sure to read through the recipe because there's more to it than just cooking pasta and adding veggies.

Veggies and Pasta

1/2 cup small bite sized pasta

1/2 cup chopped veggies (I've used just carrots or carrots with celery - you could use peas and corn, whatever your kids like)

Chicken, Beef, or Vegetable Broth - enough broth to just cover the pasta and veggies

Start by chopping up all the veggies, put them in a small pan and cover with chicken broth. Add a little extra for the pasta but not too much until you know how much you'll need. I never measure this part out and it always comes out just fine so don't worry too much about being precise. In fact, I never measure out the veggies or pasta either. Anyway, turn on the heat and let the broth come to a boil. Add the pasta and set the timer for what it says on the box. Make sure that there's enough liquid to just cover everything, if not add some more. You could use part water and part broth if you want, but the more broth the more flavor. As the pasta and the veggies cook, the liquid will be absorbed. Usually by the time the pasta is done cooking, the liquid will be almost completely gone. If you run out of liquid before the pasta is done cooking just add a bit more. Make sure you taste the pasta to see if it's done. It might take a bit longer than the package says because the liquid isn't covering the pasta the whole time. When it's done just let it cool a bit and then serve. I usually make a bigger batch than this and just refrigerate the leftovers. It reheats well and then I have lunch ready in 30 seconds.

Saying Prayers

Lucas has been pretty good at folding his arms lately. We get everything for dinner together and sit down and he instantly folds his arms cause he knows what's coming next.

Lucas's other favorite right now is a fruit smoothie. He gets pretty excited when I make them. And they are super easy too. Most kids like fruit, but this is still a good way to make sure they get their daily amount. I didn't really take this picture, but holy crap doesn't that look delicious?

Fruit Smoothies

3/4 - 1 cup frozen fruit

1 cup 100% fruit juice

1/4 cup plain or vanilla yogurt (optional, but I like to sneak as many healthy things into one dish as possible)

You could also throw in any fresh fruit you have lying around that you need to use up. I throw bananas in pretty often.

I buy the big bags of frozen fruit from Costco. It's just so much cheaper. And look how yummy it looks.

When measuring the fruit and juice, I usually just put the amount of fruit that looks good and then I cover it with juice. This way if you want to double or even just do a little bit extra, you don't have to measure everything out. I like to make extra for me too! And I usually just do this part in the blender.

Put everything into blender and blend. If you're having a hard time getting everything to blend like I do because I have a crappy blender, just add a bit more juice and that usually does the trick.

Sipping away at his breakfast smoothie. He doesn't quite have the hang of the word smoothie, but he's trying.