No, I'm not confused. They ate spinach. And squash. and a whole lot of other awesome things for them and they had no idea.I have two of the world's pickiest children (seriously, you can ask their therapists, grandparents, aunts, uncles and any baby sitter we've ever had). They have confined their diets to Lunchables, peanut butter sandwiches macaroni and cheese (the blue box), and chicken nuggets (like, only a few specific kinds, mostly the fast food variety). I've recently had a run of great success at dinner time, however.
It all started when, after myriad changes and additions to the school and therapy schedules of both younglings and much discussion with Jedi Dad, we decided I would quit work entirely and do the stay at home mom thing. One of the many awesome things about this new life of mine is that I have had the opportunity to have a little fun in the kitchen. I actually had no hopes at all of getting the kids to eat any of it (they've long rejected most foods), so I figured I'd just start making things that sounded good to the Husband and me. We are both fit and we spend a lot of our time working out, but we also love to eat, so any time I can find a way to feed us that is both healthy and satisfying it's a huge win. I also figured, since I'm going to the trouble of taking more than 5 minutes to heat food I should at least offer the opportunity to eat a real home cooked meal to our children. This started on Sunday and so far I'm on an amazing winning streak. My family has been happily devouring each meal so far, and they've all been surprisingly easy to make! I've been posting "food porn" pictures on my Facebook page for the last week and after multiple requests for the recipes, I've decided to share them here. I will say this, however, one element that has added to our success with meal time is that we are sitting down together, TV OFF, and eating as a family. (Those of you who were already doing this, stop judging me - and Mom, you were right.)
So, I will do this in several posts (yay, it's like a mini series!!!), b/c this is time consuming and I like to hang with my kids, but here's the first one..... (And no, I don't have "exact measurements" for any of this. I'm not Martha Stewart, so use your best judgement.)
"Twisty Noodles"
This is a baked pasta casserole and has, so far, been the favorite. This recipe will fill a deep 9x13 casserole dish.
In a pot combine one jar of Classico Florentine Spinach and Cheese pasta sauce (this has spinach, tomatoes, onion, and all kinds of other awesome veggies in it and it tastes so yummy), one can of Hunts four cheese pasta sauce and one larger can of Hunt's Tomato paste. Then add a tablespoon or so of minced garlic, sprinkle in some onion powder and Italian seasoning and cook until the entire thing is hot throughout and is all the same consistency. Then turn the heat to LOW and simmer. It can sit like this on the heat for hours so just leave it alone for the most part, but you should stop and stir it once in a while to keep it from sticking on the bottom.
In a large skillet brown 1-1.5 lbs of lean ground turkey adding again some minced garlic, onion powder and Italian seasoning. Drain away any fat or juices (but don't rinse it) and then add the meat to your sauce. The sauce can still just hang out on the heat.
While the sauce is simmering and getting tasty, boil some water. You'll be cooking two boxes of Mueller's Hidden Veggie twisted elbows (hence the name, "Twisty Noodles"). These are awesome, b/c unlike many other "veggie noodles" your kids will not have any idea these have veggies in them. They've got corn, carrot and squash in the pasta and your kids will never know the difference. Seriously. I promise. Neither will you!! You're welcome.
Once the noodles are cooked, put them in a bowl. Then add 8 oz of skim milk ricotta cheese and 1 cup of low fat or fat free mozzarella, stir it up until the noodles are coated and put them in the baking dish. Now, add your sauce. Do this by large ladles. You may not have room in your baking dish for all the pasta or for all the sauce, so use your best judgement. You can also do this in two smaller dishes and freeze one (yay Pyrex) so you can have a quick warm dinner later in the week. Stir all the noodles around so that there's plenty of sauce coating all of them and in all the corners of the dish. Sprinkle just a little more mozzarella on top (just a little, like 1/4 cup or less, seriously, don't kill how healthy this by over doing the cheese, you don't need it, I promise!!!) and bake it at 375 degrees until the cheese on top looks a little bubbly (or until it's all warm). (You can skip the baking step if you're starving or run out of time, but it does seem to pull it together nicely and melt all the cheese really well.)
Then, put it in some bowls and eat up. :)
It's amazing, healthy, fairly low calorie for a pasta dish (which is why I said chill out on the cheese, kittens), and everyone in your house will LOVE it.
Stay tuned for round two where we make Sweet Potato Fries. :) :) .....
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