Thursday, June 25, 2009

Pasta with Herbs and Veggies a treat for kids ~ Guest post from the Mallu Girl!

In my pursuit to find food that would be a perfect fit for kids, here comes a wonderful dish from Shaheen, the Mallu Girl!. She has blogged some detectable biryanis and some yummy gajjar halwas. But when I got to speaking to her, I came to know that she too faces the challenge of getting her kid eat without fussing! One thing led to another, and I ended up inviting her to share her experience and recipes that get eaten without much fuss. I am so glad that she accepted to do a guest post on her kid's favorite food. The picture looks so yum and I can't wait to try this for my kids. This is first of the many such great ideas, so keep watching this space.

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Getting food on the table is easy but getting the kids to eat the food on the table is not so easy. They are fickle in their taste or fixed in their tastes, depending on the nature of kids. And I find it a real challenge to write about their food and their likes and dislikes as it is a different story in each house.

Mostly, the dinners are the same for everyone in the house and I just have to make it less spicy to make it easy on the little tummies. Sometimes, it's a makeover or a kiddie version of what we are eating and sometimes it's just rice and the curry is diluted with yogurt. Sometimes, they eat something from my friend's house, but when I offer it at home, it is rejected. My friend and I compare notes on our kids eating habits every week and nick name their current favorites as "flavor of the week", which may get voted out next week!

There is something appealing about noodles and pasta in a little kid's imagination. I grew up with very traditional food but still was so attracted to noodles and macaroni that Maggi caught onto my palate very early on! Now when my kids demand that, I feel guilty that they are not eating Indian food conveniently forgetting how I used to love that stuff.

Well, here is one of the kid's favorites in my house when the rest of us are eating something like kappa and meen (tapioca/yuca with fish curry) which is declined on sight...buttery pasta.

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Never fails and I can even get in some broccoli or peas or carrots in with the pasta. Use whole wheat or regular pasta. For this recipe, use a mix of butter and olive oil or just butter. For herbs, use any...cilantro, parsley, thyme, oregano...

It's really not much of a recipe.. just cook some pasta in a pot or better still, I pressure cook it for one whistle to soften it for the kids. Add long cooking veggies such as carrots, beans, peas with the pasta. Cook the soft veggies such as broccoli separately till slightly cooked and keep aside. Drain the pasta but do not rinse. Melt 1 tbsp butter and throw in half teaspoon of chopped fresh or dried herbs, half a clove of garlic and red pepper flakes(optional) and let it sauté on low heat for a minute. Add salt, pepper, toss the pasta and the veggies with this sauce. Adjust taste accordingly.

Credits @ Mallugirl

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If you have ideas for kids food, please share them here or if you are interested to do a post, drop me a mail @ spicingyourlife@gmail.com.

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