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!!!

**************************************************************************
Who is Mamapumpkin?
Mamapumpkin is a former Design Architect turned Multi-Million Dollar Digital Entrepreneur. 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 and doubled her salary 5 times over 5 organisations but has grown THREE BUSINESSES to 7 FIGURES within an 8 year period. She now shows others EXACTLY HOW after retiring her own husband from employment. He is now the official dog walker, family driver, chef and THE BEST FATHER to their two girls and THE BEST HUSBAND to the woman who CHOSE HIM!

Mamapumpkin is the girl who has nothing but fights for everything including YOU. She is idealistic in her desire to put unbelievable amounts of money and extrardinary happiness into the lives of good people so we can change the world together believing in happiness for ALL. She strives to impact lives authentically wanting to reduce poverty cycles and enable quality education for all and always supports the voiceless. She believes 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 how to propel your life forward guaranteed, be brave to take action. Mamapumpkin's purpose is to build people. Her gift is to help them UNCOVER their HIDDEN GIFTS. She operates fairly and always leaves an impression. You either love her or not and she is alright either way.

She 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 with anyone, as she spends most of her days with her children, having fun, supporting others wherever she can. Also having fun.