In the past, I have always cooked pasta with either fish, chicken, meat or anchovies. Most of the people I know stick to the pasta basics such as bolognese and carbonara and perhaps one or two other staples such as chicken mushroom, lasagna and other tomato based pastas. Because I almost married a half Italian and have travelled to the village of his Italian mother to live with her and met his Italian grandparents daily, I have learnt pasta dishes beyond the basics. They’re not recipe book pastas either, more home cooked Italian pastas – the real stuff Italians eat in Montorfano, the mountain nearby Lake Como.

However, the pasta I am about to introduce to you below did not come from Italy (although they may very well serve it!). The pasta dish below does not require any meat, fish or chicken, nor flavouring and seasoning of any sort, is the greatest pasta dish for kids. It has only vegetables and pasta and amazingly, the sweetness of the vegetables, transmits flavour to the pasta. I would never have eaten a vegetable only pasta before but now that I’ve tried it and know that it is a healthier option, eat it a lot more than other pastas. Thanks to the Eat Well Guru at Fit For 2, my kids love this pasta and WILL EAT IT! Never in my wildest dreams. I thought kids liked salty Macaroni Cheese the best??

If you’re game to provide a healthy meal for your kids, try this out. You can vary the vegetables as much as you like, I normally have carrots, broccoli and tomatoes, or cauliflower carrots and capsicums, or celery, pumpkin and spinach……honestly, you name it. You can also add in as many or as little vegetables as you like, but I prefer to add a maximum of three or you’d have a vegetable rojak instead and it’d be a challenge to taste the individual flavours.

Vegetable Pasta for Kids:-

Portion for 1 metric cup of uncooked whole wheat pasta

Select 3 vegetables of the day.

Cut out a portion of the vegetables to be cooked. Make the portion of the veg to the pasta 1 to 1, unless your kid is new to vegetables, then add much less and gradually increase with each serving. T2 used to eat PLAIN pasta (with olive oil, cheese and wheat germ or flaxseed and on occasion, some minced fine white or yellow coloured veg snuck in). Today, she eats the below pasta that is full of colour.

If you intend to mince the vegetables fine, then boil the vegetables first in some filtered water for 15-20 minutes (depending on what vegetables you use). Remove your vegetables to cool, then mince. KEEP THE WATER. (mincing the vegetables is a fine way to ‘hide’ the vegetables from fussy eaters and if they still cannot live with minced vegetables, BLEND IT!!!)

If you are able to dice the vegetables into cubes, then boil the cubes straight away in some filtered water to soften the vegetables in 10 minutes or longer, again depending on what you’ve selected. You generally want your vegetables to be soft but not mushy. KEEP THE WATER.

Mince fine some onions and garlic, 1 teaspoon each.

Use the vegetable WATER to cook your pasta.

Once your pasta is cooked, strain the water leaving very little of it with the pasta. Now if you have some home made chicken stock stuck in your freezer, I’d say bring it out and add some into this pasta, but if you don’t, no biggie.

Pour some olive oil onto a new pan to brown the onions and garlic. Throw in your vegetables then pasta and toss them all together like a colourful pasta salad.

Add a dash of salt and pepper to taste, if necessary.

My kids eat this!!!

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Who is Mamapumpkin?
Mamapumpkin spent 7 years in London committing crimes to gain her Bartlett degree in Architecture. She then spent 7 years as a Stay At Home Mom raising her children as documented in this blog of over 15 years thereafter returning to the Corporate World stronger than ever as the Country Director of a British Multinational. She sets out to prove to all, that you can have anything and everything that you want; if you have that fire of desire burning within and the drive to work hard. Even better with much love.

Mamapumpkin has not only grown corporate businesses successfully in the past but has grown not one but TWO network marketing businesses in the notorious MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) industry, achieving success in under 2 years. She believes in the MLM business model but realises the DRASTIC PITFALLS and great stigma attached to it, understanding EXACTLY WHY the majority would shy away (or RUN for their lives) from ANY MLM business. But open your eyes and take time to understand it intellectually, remove your hang-ups, confirm your research, and you may just want to seize an opportunity. She did. And no, she never went about chasing people for sales. She had a sophisticated system work for her through technology and a smartphone.

She now impacts lives authentically with proven strategies amassed through the last decade of her own transformation offering online coaching programmes and always supports the underprivileged. She believes that we can all have a life of our own desires to enable real contribution into the world. But first, one needs to understand what this all means.

A beautiful life without limits.

If you wish to learn some tools to propel your life forward guaranteed, be brave enough to make contact as her life's purpose is to build people. She operates through a discovery call after which she will commit to helping you. Or not.

Most lose out on an opportunity because they are afraid they would be sold to, conned or whatever fear resides in their brain without even trying. And that's on them.

Mamapumpkin is a living testimony that women really can have a lot. Being financially and time free has enabled her to travel the world anytime, anywhere, doing anything, and she spends most of her days with her children, having fun, and supporting others wherever she can. Also having fun.