Healthy Vegetable Pasta

My 18 month old son loves pasta. He can eat it even if it is just the plain, boiled pasta! It doesn’t matter if it is fussilli, penne or spaghetti. Just hand him a piece and he will gladly finish it; as if it was a bag of crisps!

It is good he loves pasta because I also love Italian food. But I don’t want him to just eat pasta all the time. I want him to get used to different food textures and tastes. I know of kids who are allowed to eat plain, boiled pasta all the time and wondering where they get the nutrition their body needs. 

Since I am a working mom, finding the time to cook different variety of food can be troublesome. So what I do is to cook enough for about 2-3 serves. I make sure my son finish the food in a week to make sure it is still fresh, especially if it is tomato-based.

For this recipe, I used easy cook fussilli so it cuts my cooking time in half! What I did to save time is to cook pasta for dinner and made sure there were some leftovers that my son can eat as snack after his first nap. It is hitting two birds with one stone!

Yummy Vegetable Pasta

Recipe:

Handful of easy cook fussilli

Handful of chopped zucchini

Handful of chopped baby tomatoes

A bit of water

1 inch leek, chopped

Pepper to taste

1 tbsp Olive oil

Note: I still don’t add salt to my son’s food when I cook it separately. What I do is I let him have a taste of our usual adult food from time to time.

1. Boil the fussilli in advance and drain. Set aside.

2. Place the pan over medium heat and put the olive oil. Let it warm a bit before adding the leeks.

3. Toss the leeks a bit and put the chopped tomatoes. Toss until the tomatoes become soupy before adding the zucchini.

4. Add some water just enough to cover the zucchini. Let it boil and wait for about 2minutes or until the vegetables are soft for your child to chew.

5. Toss in the cooked fussilli and stir. Remove from heat and set aside.

6. Let it cool and store in the fridge immediately. This is good for the next 2-3 days for lunch or afternoon snack!

Note: Here are the ingredients/items I used to create this recipe: