Chicken Pasta Bake for Babies, Toddlers and the Whole Family

It's always a good idea to have some hidden vegetable recipes up your sleeve.  This is a simple pasta bake recipe with not only hidden vegetables but also hidden meat.  Some kids get very picky when they are toddlers about eating fruits and vegetables and some even get picky with their protein.  I posted about this a while back.

This is completely adaptable, change it as you see fit.  You could use bacon or chorizo instead of some of the chicken, however, this will increase the salt content so it won't be as healthy.  You could also leave out the meat and add mushrooms, peppers, whatever you like.  Whatever is in the fridge and needs eating up.

Pasta Bake for the whole family - serves 2 adults plus 1 toddler, would be great (but messy) for baby led weaning, loads of easy to pick up bits

Ingredients

150g Dry pasta twists

1 small courgette cut into thick sticks

Spray oil or olive oil

A small pinch of finely chopped fresh chilli or chilli powder (optional)

150g cooked, chopped chicken

200ml Full fat milk

250g Tomato based sauce for pasta (I used my own recipe which I posted here but you could use your own or, at a pinch, use passata and added garlic)

1 tbsp cornflour

A sprig of thyme or other herbs

80g Strong / Vintage cheddar

Method

Preheat the oven to 200oC / 400F.

Cook the pasta according to pack instructions but drop the cooking time by 1 minute from the minimum.  So my pack said 10-12 minutes so I cooked it for 9.  Fry the courgette until starting to brown and add in the tomato sauce and chilli.  Bring to the boil and add the chicken and thyme to heat though.  

To make the white sauce, heat the milk in a microwave or saucepan until boiling.  Mix the cornflour with some cold water then gradually whisk in the mix into the milk heating more to thicken if necessary.

When the pasta is cooked, drain, reserving a couple of tbsp of the cooking water and mix the pasta with the sauce adding a little of that water if needed to slacken the sauce.

Pour into a baking dish and top with the white sauce and grate the cheddar on top.  Bake for 15-20 minutes or until browned to your liking.  

Switch off the oven and remove the portion for your baby or toddler (if you have one) and allow to cool until safe for your child.  The remainder keeps warm pretty well in the cooling oven for the adults. 

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