Tag: pasta

Eat the Rainbow

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In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, we whipped up this meal featuring every color of the rainbow! You can mix and match different components, or serve them over a few days leading up to St. Pat’s.

Red & Orange Salad

Red Orange Salad

Thinly slice one red bell pepper, one orange bell pepper, and 1 red apple. Toss with 1 cup matchstick cut carrots. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil,  2 tablespoons cider vinegar, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. (Note: Bigger kids and adults might also like a little spice – try adding 1/2 teaspoon cumin or 1/4 teaspoon paprika).

Yellow & Green Pasta

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Cook 12 ounces fettuccine or linguine according to package directions, adding 1/2 cup frozen peas toward the end of cooking. Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet and sauté 1 package Gardein chick’n strips and 1 cup sugar snap peas until heated through. Combine the chicken mixture, pasta, 1/2 cup plain non-dairy yogurt, 1/4 cup reserved cooking water, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. My son preferred this served in separate components on his plate!

Green Smoothie

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In a blender, combine 1/2 cup plain non-dairy milk, 1/2 cup water, 1 cup fresh baby spinach, and 1/4 cup mint leaves; process until blended. Add 1/2 a green apple, 1 frozen banana, and 1 tablespoon agave nectar; process until smooth. Drink through a green straw of course!

Blue & Purple Parfait

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For dessert, toss 1 cup mixed blueberries, blackberries, and purple grapes with 1 teaspoon sugar and 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon. Layer the fruit in parfait glasses with vanilla non-dairy yogurt. This also makes a yummy breakfast treat!

Want even more fun? Eat green snacks all week, like roasted edamame, kale chips, or green olives.

green snack

Noodle-y Kugel

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Kugel (7)

To be frank, I’ve never seen a recipe quite like this in my life! It came to us care of Travis’s March issue of High Five magazine, and has multiple steps that are sure to delight your sous-chef in the kitchen. Pineapple with noodles? Yes, apparently this is a thing.

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You can find eggless egg noodles, but I was unable to this time around. Instead, I chose a bag of curly pasta, both because the curls are reminiscent of the way wide noodles loop after they cook, and because it came in the right kind of bag instead of a box (more on that below!). Curly noodles also have the advantage that you won’t need to cut them into much smaller pieces for young eaters.

Ingredients:

For the noodles:

  • 1 (16-ounce) package eggless wide noodles or curly pasta
  • 6 tablespoons Earth Balance butter
  • 4 Ener-G eggs
  • 1 cup plain unsweetened non-dairy milk
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 (12-ounce) container non-dairy sour cream
  • 1 recipe vegan cottage cheese*
  • 1 (20-ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained

For the topping:

  • 2 cups organic corn flake cereal
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 2 teaspoons Earth Balance butter
  1. Adults: cook the pasta according to package directions in a large pot; drain and set aside. Make sure to reserve the pasta packaging for step 6!
  2. Cut the butter into small pieces and have your child add the butter pieces to the warm pasta. Travis was very interested to see how quickly the butter melted!Kugel (2)
  3. In a bowl, whisk together the Ener-G eggs, milk, and sugar.
  4. Stir in the sour cream, prepared cottage cheese, and pineapple. Travis insisted on stirring all by himself.Kugel (3)
  5. Add the pineapple mixture to the noodles and stir to coat, then transfer the mixture to 13×9-inch glass baking dish coated with cooking spray.
  6.  To prepare the topping, place the corn flakes in the empty pasta bag, and seal; crush with your hands. This was – hands down! – Travis’s favorite part.Kugel (4)
  7. Add the sugar and cinnamon; seal and shake to coat.
  8. Sprinkle the topping evenly over the noodles, and add the remaining butter, cut into small pieces.Kugel (5)
  9. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes, until browned at the edges. Let stand at least 5 minutes before serving.

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*To make a quick vegan “cottage cheese”, combine 1 package firm tofu and 1 tablespoon lemon juice in a bowl. Mash with a fork until the mixture resembles cottage cheese curds. Refrigerate until ready to use.

White Bean Pasta Sauce

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White Bean Sauce (1)

Here’s the easiest hack ever for sneaking more beans into your child’s diet. They’ll never know what makes this sauce so creamy and thick… and adults love it, too! For extra appeal, use a fun pasta shape like wagon wheels.

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup rinsed and drained canned cannellini beans
  • 3/4 cup jarred marinara sauce
  • 1 cup uncooked pasta
  1. Combine the beans and marinara sauce in a blender and process until smooth.
  2. Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to package directions; drain and set aside.
  3. Toss the pasta with the sauce, let cool slightly, and serve.

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Pasta Shape Up

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Pasta Shape (7)

Believe it or not, I’m 35 and this was my first attempt at homemade pasta. Because we don’t have a pasta machine, I knew we weren’t going to have a perfect batch, but Travis has adored playing with food and recipes in the kitchen lately, so we cooked up some fun!

First, scoop 2 cups flour into a bowl. We used whole wheat flour, but you can use semolina or regular white flour. Add 1/2 cup warm water, stirring to form a dough – we needed to add a bit more water before our dough was the right consistency.

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To my delight, Travis didn’t hesitate before getting his hands right in there. He loved kneading the dough!

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This was definitely his favorite part of the whole process, carefully working one portion of the dough while I demonstrated kneading techniques for him.

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We set the dough aside to rest for a few minutes (ideally you’ll want about 20 minutes, but that was long for this preschooler), then rolled the dough out as thinly as we could.

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For shaping fun, first we tried bow ties. Cut a 1×2-inch rectangle, and pinch in the center. You can also make tubes by rolling rectangles around a straw.

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More so than shaping, though, Travis just loved playing with the dough. He tried a few raw bites (which he declared yummy!) and pretended he was drinking pasta “juice.” What an imp!

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If you really do intend to eat your pasta, cook it in boiling water for 3 to 4 minutes, and serve with your favorite sauce.

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Creamy Tomato & Sausage Pasta

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Sausage Pasta (1)This hearty pasta is a crowd-pleaser for grown-ups and kids alike. Weeknight dinners are solved, at least in this house!

Ingredients:

  • 12 ounces penne pasta
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 2 Tofurky Italian sausage links, finely chopped
  • 5 ounces baby spinach, chopped
  • 1 and 1/2 cups jarred marinara sauce
  • 1/4 cup plain non-dairy creamer
  1. Cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain, reserving 1/4 cup cooking liquid, and set aside.
  2. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and cook for 4 to 5 minutes, until browned.
  3. Add the baby spinach; cook for 1 to 2 minutes, until wilted.
  4. Stir in the marinara sauce and creamer. Bring to a simmer.
  5. Add the pasta and the reserved cooking water, tossing to combine.

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Pasta Mosaic

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It’s finally happening… My little boy who used to happily jump at any art project I suggested has his own agenda now. And while I lament that he’s not quite so pliable or amenable to activities I’ve anticipated, I also am celebrating this three-year-old independent spirit and the imagination that accompanies it.

Cue this project as the perfect example. I thought sorting and making art with pasta might nicely fill some time on a Sunday morning since I had several boxes of dry pasta in the pantry. Sorting is a great skill for little fingers and minds, but silly me, every pasta I had was a variation on penne…in different lengths! It turned out we had regular penne, medium-sized pennette, and super-short ditalini.

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This turned the sorting into a neat challenge based more on length than shape, so Travis actually sat happily to help me sort for a while.

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My suggestion to paint the pasta after was met with indifference though! A bit miffed, I pulled out glitter paint. That made things decidedly more sparkly and fun, and we discovered that painting penne is quite silly and tricky since they roll.

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What worked best? Dabbing at them on a piece of wax paper and leaving them to dry? Tossing them into a whole bath of paint and swirling them around?

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Travis decided it was more fun to paint the bowls holding the paint, but eventually we had lots of sparkly painted pasta, and left it to dry.

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The final idea was to turn all that painted pasta into a mosaic, but Travis was completely uninterested…until I suggested that the glue was caulking, and the pasta was “ants” coming through the floor (a game based on a recent, real-life scenario….).

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Well then he couldn’t get enough! We caulked and caulked, and filled puddles of glue with “ants” trying to get into our kitchen.

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When I asked if he thought our paper was full enough, he pointed to the remaining pasta pieces and adamently told me, “No Mom, still more ants.”

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Once we’d used up all the pasta, he needed to “caulk” two more pieces of construction paper before he tired of the game.

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So there you have it, a valuable lesson on my son’s ever-growing independence, but also a reminder that incorporating his latest interests and imaginative play might still just get him to sit and make art with his mama.

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Harvest Pasta Salad

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Harvest Pasta (3)

This make-ahead pasta salad, recipe care of High Five magazine, is chalk-full of veggies like late-summer tomatoes and fresh corn. Bonus points if you make your own pesto with the last of summer’s basil, though I confess we used a jarred version (made with kale leaves instead!)

Ingredients:

  • 8 ounces penne pasta
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1/4 cup pesto
  • 1/4 cup vegan mayonnaise
  • 1 tablespoon fresh-squeezed lemon juice
  • 1/2 cup vegan Parmesan sprinkles
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
  • 3/4 cup cooked green peas
  • 3/4 cup cooked corn
  1. Cook the pasta according to package directions; drain and toss with the olive oil. Let cool
  2. Meanwhile, whisk together the pesto, mayo, and lemon juice in a large bowl – definitely a kid-friendly step!Harvest Pasta (1)
  3. Add the cooled pasta, then sprinkle with the Parmesan, salt, and black pepper.
  4. Fold in the tomatoes, peas, and corn, and serve cold.

Penne with Cheesy Chard

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Penne Cheesy Chard (2)

The cheesy flavor in this quick main dish meal comes from a mix of nutritional yeast and vegan Parmesan sprinkles.

Ingredients:

  • 1 (12-ounce) box whole wheat penne pasta
  • 3 Tofurky Italian sausages
  • 1 bunch chard
  • 1/2 cup vegan Parmesan sprinkles
  • 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
  • 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
  1. Cook the pasta according to package directions.
  2. Meanwhile, chop the sausage and cook in a large skillet coated with cooking spray over medium heat for about 5 minutes, until browned. Add the finely chopped stems from the chard; cook for 4 minutes. If you use rainbow chard, this step will look beautiful!Penne Cheesy Chard (1)
  3. Drain the pasta, reserving 1/2 cup pasta water. Add the reserved water to the sausage mixture, along with the pasta and the finely chopped leaves of the chard. Cook about 1 minute, until the leaves wilt.
  4. Stir in the Parmesan, nutritional yeast, and breadcrumbs, tossing to combine.

Pasta Bead Sequencing

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Pasta Bead (4)

Here’s another fantastic activity for the Kool-Aid dyed pasta we made a few weeks back. We’ve already strung together bracelets with our pasta beads, but this time I used the pasta for a slightly more educational purpose.

Using the template available from Kiwi Crate, I printed out pictures of the pasta beads arranged by color, and then had them laminated. You can skip the lamination, but doing so means you can do this activity again and again!

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Encourage your child to line up the beads in the order that’s shown on the card. As an alternative, give him or her a pipe cleaner, to thread the pasta in order.

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Travis is a little young to accomplish a task like this from start to finish still, but he loved selecting a pasta piece from his bag and placing it on the correct color. We’ll work up to completing the whole sequence on pipe cleaners as he gets older!

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This activity would be perfect for on-the-go moments when you need to keep your kiddo occupied, like a restaurant or waiting room.

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Update: At closer to 3, Travis now loves doing this activity directly onto a pipe cleaner!

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