I always try to have some kind of vegetable in my food. Especially in Pasta as it is my kids’ favorite food. They will eat any kind of pasta, which works for me perfectly.

Ingredients:

Carrot- eggplant- zucchini – celery – onion- garlic – tomato sauce – tomato paste-  dried oregano – salt – pepper- cumin and, turmeric.

Grill the eggplant and zucchini skin on, clean celery stalks and skin carrots. Then when the eggplant and zucchini are ready throw them in the food processor and mix them well until you get a paste

Meanwhile you can chop up the onion and sauté until golden brown, and then add finely diced garlics. When you can smell the garlic is a good time to add your tomato sauce and tomato paste. Let the sauce warm up a little then you can add you veggie mixture.  Add the spices and let the sauce thicken up.  Make sure that the heat is low, tomato sauce has a tendency to burn quickly and as the sauce is already thick it will burst and you will have sauce all over the place, like a little volcano of your own.  So stir as much as possible.

I created this pasta sauce out of the veggies that were going to go bad soon. I don’t like wasting food so from time to time I come up with a new idea how to save the produce from going bad. In this recipe, I didn’t give exact amount of each ingredient, because first you can change the veggies as your family’s liking, and second the amount is based on how much you are making.

You can add other herbs to this recipe like adding flat leaf parsley or dried Basel and celery seeds.  Or you can just make it with Carrots and celery or add your favorite veggies to the mix.

I made this sauce to keep in fridge and use for couple of months as pasta sauce, pizza sauce, and adding to my meat sauce.  I used carrots and celery each double the size of eggplant and zucchini, one onion and few cloves of garlic, and couple of hand full of dried oregano.

The sauce will have a reasonable amount of water in it because of the veggies, if you are using the sauce immediately it’s fine. If you are making a big batch to keep for months, you want to make sure to reduce the water as much as possible and add a little bit more salt to prevent the sauce from going bad.

Until later,

Although we are heading towards fall, I still like a cool drink in sunny warm days. I made this drink for the kids a few days ago and they love so much so that they keep asking for it.

I filled a toddler size glass in half, added one scoop of vanilla ice-cream, then for the look, and to make them feel special added a little bit of cool whip and a drizzle of chocolate sauce.

Try it; it may work for the kids who don’t like milk.

Until later,

This recipe is wonderful when you need to make something quickly for those little hungry fellows.  Or when the play date gets to stay for lunch at the last minute.

I make this recipe with all kinds of pasta, even spaghetti, but my favorite type of pasta is Rotini Vegetable pasta. I like this type mostly because it has vegetable powder and is lighter to my taste (less starch) and the shape holds more sauce and cheese. It is also colourful and fun for the kids to enjoy their meal visually.

A few days ago I had to make a quick lunch, both of my kids were starving when we arrived from park. So I came up with this quick recipe the whole process took about 15 minutes which worked for me because both loved it.

Here it is: ( the amount of ingredients are approximate as there was no time to meager )

Direction:  Pre heat oven to 450

Cook pasta as per package. A few minutes before draining the pasta add frozen vegetable to the pot. Drain pasta and vegetables and transfer to an oven safe dish, then mix in the sour cream, salt and pepper, mix well but gently to avoid breaking the pasta. At the end, mix in ½ cup of cheese when well mixed, spread the rest of cheese on top. Place the dish in the oven on the lowest rack for about 5 minutes or until the cheese is melted but not colored, then quickly change the setting to broil to create that golden color and crispy cheese factor, for about 1 minutes.

Finished, lunch is ready, kids and mom are happy

Bon a petite

If you have a quick recipe for kids or have another version of this dish, feel free to leave your link here.

This easy, fast and healthy for our lovely toddlers.

Here it is:

Direction:

Cook the pasta as per package, add the frozen vegetable to pasta for the last three minutes.

Rinse pasta and veggies with cold water; let the water run a little, to get the ingredients cool and stop cooking. Pour in to a bowl I just add the seasoning and mayo on top of the pasta and mix, to save myself cleaning another dish. You can mix the sauce separately and add to pasta.

That’s it. My kids love this as a light lunch or a side dish to chicken, winners, or fish.

Bon a petite,

Lately because of the heat, I can’t get the kids to sit at the table and eat their lunches properly. They run around in their under wears – which I hate – and I’m lucky if they have a bite. Yesterday I experimented something that worked. I know just because it was new, I don’t think they will fall for it for long.

So as usual, they were running around when I asked my son if he wants to be the chef today and cook us some omelette. He screamed yes from top of his lungs, with a look in his eyes that said: what’s happening to my mom, is she sane?

Well I asked him to first put some clothes on (in my favor ) and wash his hands and then I helped him with the apron. Which he loved, he thought he was so special and grown up with that little apron!!

It was a simple sausage and tomato Omelette. I had cut up all the ingredients and whisked the eggs. Everything was ready to go in the pan. I explained to him about the heat and that he could burn himself. The only thing he had to do is to stir the sausage and tomato. I added salt and pepper and then WE added the egg. The hard part was to keep him from stirring for a minute for the eggs to cook.

It was fun and he learned a lot about kitchen and the heat of the stove. He was very careful and of course I was there watching him like a Houck to make sure he is safe.

Unfortunately, I don’t have an after picture. At the end my daughter came and wanted to help too. Then they couldn’t wait to eat the omlet, there was no time for picture, I had hungry little excited toddlers to feed. They had their lunch AT the table, without the fuss that we are dealing with lately.

Until later,