Friday 30 March 2012

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. 

If you've liked what you've read, please vote for me in the Britmums Brilliance in Blogging (BIB) awards in the "Tasty" category.  All of the shortlisted nominees are here and the voting form is here.

Also it must be awards season because I'm going for a MAD blog award too.  Please nominate here for any applicable categories if you feel so inclined!  (You don't need to nominate in every category if you don't want to.)

4 comments:

  1. Any recipe with hidden vegetables is a hit for me, and the versatility of this one really appeals.

    It would be great if you'd link one of your recipes to our Parentonomy Food Glorious Food Linky.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks - sorry I didn't realise it was on! I've linked up this recipe due to the hidden goodies!

      Delete
  2. Replies
    1. Maybe but I wouldn't. Pasta always seems soggy when reheated. You could certainly make and freeze a tomato sauce though and after that there's only about 10 mins worth of preparation before it's in the oven.

      Delete

I would love to read your comments but please don't include links in them.

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.