Adding To The Pasta Sauce

This is not my kid... I just love this picture.

Frequently spaghetti and sauce graces our table - as I'm sure it does on many other tables. It's fast, a reliable kid-pleaser, and fairly hearty. However, serving spaghetti, tomato sauce, and a salad does not include that essential G for Growing - protein. Not in any amount substantial enough to satiate a nursing mom anyway.

I was making pasta sauce the other night and hit upon the idea of using some cooked beans leftover from a previous dinner. The whole sauce was based around what I had that needed to be used - eggplant and what not. On the whole, it worked out really well. I could have added zucchini, spinach, or any other veggies if I had them. The beans and cream gave the sauce a richness and a velvety texture not usually found in a veggie sauce. Added benefit - the kids liked this sauce way more than they like plain red sauce!



Vegetable-Bean Pasta Sauce

In olive oil sauté
1 onion - chopped
3 garlic cloves - chopped
2 sm. eggplant - cubed
(other veggies would go here)
Basil
Oregano
Parsley

Add
15-20 oz. canned tomatoes
1 c white wine
1 c water

Cook until the vegetables are soft through.

Puree in a food processor with
1 1/2 cups cooked red or white beans (one can of beans would be fine too)
1 cup cream
Salt and pepper
Until everything is blended together. Adjust the thickness of the sauce with water reserved from cooking the pasta.

Pass with asiago.

Added possibility - adding extra beans and a half cup of asiago will make a thick Italian style bean dip! Tasty on bruschetta...

Simple Saturday: Independent Snacking

One of the things that can drive me crazy is how the Little Bugs always seem to get hungry the minute I have gotten my hands deep in a project, sat down to nurse, or just opened my book. I know I shouldn't get peeved - they are growing and they get hungry and that's okay.

But really? I just started writing this! Two minutes ago I was in the kitchen, digging through the fridge, and you couldn't want a snack then?

In answer to this, I decided to simplify and empower. To do this I got a smaller selection of snacks, focusing on nutritional and flavor balance as well as things I was okay with both kids eating whenever. Then I got three plastic containers with lids that Brother-Bug can easily open.

I keep these bins in a low cupboards, and/or on the bottom shelf of the fridge. Brother-Bug can help himself anytime he is hungry - and he usually takes on sharing with his sister as well.

I keep refreshing the snacks as they need it, and I usually put two different things in each bin. One might have fruit leather and nuts, one crackers and nori, and one carrot and green bean pieces. I try to stick to our concept of The Three Gs as my guidelines. If there is something sweet like fruit leather, they have to eat everything in the bin, not just the sweetie) before that bin is replenished.

Some things I have packed in these bins: cheese and meat bites, seaweed, assorted nuts, chips, crackers, freeze dried fruits and veggies, cooked chickpeas, fresh carrots, peas, celery, or green beans, tofu dip, yogurt, dried fruit, carrot & beet chips, trail mix...

I'm having fun finding fun snacks to diversify their bins, and also finding a special surprise snack occasionally. I think they are both learning about meeting their own needs, saving the sweets so they last (delayed gratification), and a little nutrition. When I do go to get a more prepared snack, I find that I am more inspired to make it fun a different because it's something I do once a day instead of three or four times a day.

And when someone comes in the middle of my writing time, I can easily remind them that the snacks ate within their reach.