Kiddy Menu: Sneaky Pasta Sauce

I don't have much problem with my boiboi when it comes to eating. Except for hard or soft boiled eggs, steamed fish and tasteless food (yeah my boiboi dang smart one, if it's not tasty enough he will politely decline the food after one or two bites!), he virtually whacks everything.
Like most kids, he loves his pizza, pasta (but he always referred them as spaghetti); and being the Chinese boy in him, he likes noodles but black ones as he fondly called them ranging from fried to dry style (kon low) noodles. Just like his daddy and mummy, he's not really fond of plain rice which is good for me since I don't need to crack my head, planning what kind of dishes to cook to go with rice. At times, a simple pasta or pizza would be sufficient to satisfy his little tummy.

Even though I don't have a picky eater, I would like to share this with the mummies and daddies who are having problems getting your kids to eat their vegetables and meat. It's fairly easy to disguise stuff that your picky eaters avoid altogether especially vegetables. Just chop up the vegetables and sneak them into pasta sauce, meat patties (children loved this and so am I haha), pizza, soup, fried rice, omelette and so forth.

This time round, I'll show you how to disguise vegetables and meat into a tomato based pasta sauce. Chopped up some garlic, any combination of vegetables but try to limit them to either two or three choices in one go. Don't get over-zealous haha! Remember to chop or dice them into really tiny pieces. Minced some meat. Do use tender cut. Over here I've used some chicken thigh, not too much else those picky eaters will find them hard to chew.



You can use canned whole tomatoes but usually I liked to chop up some seeded fresh tomatoes. To remove the hardy skin, slit the bottom of the tomatoes slightly in a criss cross manner then dunk them in simmering water for a short while. Remove and voila, you can then peel off the skin easily by peeling the slitted skin from the bottom.

Heat a pan with some olive oil and stir in the garlic. Once fragrant, add in the minced meat. Keep stirring to separate the minced meat as much as possible. You don't want big chunks here. Once slightly browned, pour in the tomatoes. Add some water and simmer. Add in some salt just for taste or you can omit this altogether if you have younger kids. Spoon in some tomato puree or paste to intensify the tomato flavour. You'll need to add in some sugar to counter the acidity of the tomatoes, a couple of tablespoons was sufficient for my pot of sauce. Place in a bay leaf, some basil (can also use dried form) and a few cracks of black pepper. Next add in the vegetables. Just remember that hardy vegetables go in first. Simmer the sauce till thickened and its done!



To serve, just boiled pasta of any shapes that fancy your kids (to make it fun, you may use those animals shaped ones) according to instructions on the packet but for my boiboi, I usually cook the pasta a little longer for a softer texture. I noticed my boiboi don't chew his food long enough hence it's better to have softer pasta. What the heck they know about having their pasta al-dente anyway??? *tongue*

Spoon the slightly cooled sauce over the drained pasta. Sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top and see your picky eaters' eyes literally lit up when you serve to them! Mine did!!!

Hope you'll find this useful, or you may wanna try this Carrot and Potato Cheese Omelette, enjoy!




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