Pasta with spinach and ricotta

Another quick and simple family dish. Pasta with spinach and ricotta can be served just as pasta dish itself or with fish. Salmon (steamed or simmered in butter) is best match here.


For the sauce:
- bag of fresh baby spinach, I always make it using fresh, but I guess you can try with frozen too
- 1 tsp butter
- 2/3 cup of ricotta
- 1/3 cup of milk
- pinch of grated nutmeg
- salt 
- pepper

Start with boiling water for pasta so everything is ready at the same time.

Melt butter, add a bag of spinach and saute on medium-low heat about 5 minutes, or just until it wilts, when spinach is cooking mix ricotta and milk with a pinch of nutmeg. It should be smooth, no lumps. 
Add ricotta mixture to spinach and cook on low heat for about 5 minutes, just so it heats but it doesn't boil, to prevent clumping. Season with salt and pepper, mix with cooked pasta and serve.

One pot steamed salmon and veggies

I have to admit, this one is pretty plain, but I like it and my child likes it even more, great finger food too, so it's a keeper. Only for lunch though as it is too plain for my husband.

It's all done in about 15 minutes in one pot. 

I use pot with steamer insert for this one to keep it to one pot. Place in steamer insert : some frozen broccoli florets, few sliced baby carrots, salmon fillet. Boil whatever pasta shapes are your child's favorite. As soon as pasta starts boiling, place the steamer insert with fish and veggies over boiling pasta and cover. It should all be cooked within the time your pasta is cooked - usually about 10-15 minutes. Sometimes I overcook my pasta  little bit as it is easier to eat for the child than al dente.

After it's cooked I divide it to plates, lightly butter pasta and veggies and drizzle just a little honey or maple syrup on fish and veggies, then on my plate I add some squeezed lemon juice and pepper on fish and veggies. Only use salt in water for pasta.

This is very light summer dish. I would also really recommend to try to play with how it is arranged on a plate, here we were playing with all sorts of circles again and that really did the trick to have fun healthy meal. 

Chicken meatballs with pasta and vegetables

I really like making meatballs. It's really quick and easy to make. I usually make it using ground chicken and make large batch, that way I have at least few portions to freeze for the "lazy day".

What we need:

- about 1lb ground meat

- 1 small or 1/2 large yellow, onion grated

- 1 white roll soaked in milk, milk squeezed out (can use bread crumbs but the meatballs will not be as soft)

- 1 egg

- salt and pepper

Mix it all together with hands or a fork. Form small balls and put, using a spoon, one by one right after it's done into a pan of boiling water. If they stick too much to your hands, wet your hands every couple meatballs in cold water. It is important to put it in boiling water, otherwise the meatballs will fall apart.  I use quite  a lot of water almost, as much as I would use to make meatball soup, after it's cooked that water becomes a mild broth, a basis for a sauce. It's also a good idea to add finely grated carrot to water. I leave it too cook for a bout 30 minutes. After done I take out the portion for "today" and add to it frozen green peas with carrots and corn, cook until vegetables are done, about 7 minutes and add a spoon or 2 of sour cream or cream cheese, adjust seasoning and serve with pasta, I like orzo, it's great with rice too. It's easy to manage by a beginner eater, it sticks pretty well to the spoon.

The remaining amount of meatballs in broth I divide into portions and freeze. Portions size depends if it's to be used for the whole family or just a child. They freeze well in that broth and when I am ready to use it next time, I thaw it overnight in the fridge and boil in it's broth adding the same ingredients as above to make creamy vegetable sauce. Our other favorite version is in simple tomato sauce - just add some canned tomato sauce (to taste, add more if you like stronger tomato taste, or just a little if you like it very mild) and some cream cheese.When adding cream cheese or sour cream, add it at the last minute, and mix it in but don't boil, otherwise it will crumble.

Eating cars all day long ...

My son is clearly car obsessed, and yellow is his very favorite color. One day while making scrambled eggs for the family I surprised him (and myself!) with a yellow car on a plate. What a hit! He likes eggs, but this was just soooo much more exciting. Then I just couldn't help it, I was seeing cars in everything I was putting on my child's plate. What's best about it it's so simple and doesn't add any time to making the food especially appealing to my toddler. So we had scrambled eggs for breakfast, cheese and fruit for snack and store bought meat ravioli with grilled zucchini (I put a touch of maple syrup on it after it's grilled) and honeydew for dinner. But you can use anything you have at home. I just happened to have it that day. It's also easier to convince your little one not to throw away car's wheels just because they are green ...

The other best thing about it it's all finger food = you can eat at the same time, well at least you have a better shot at that! Even the eggs! I make it now so it has easy to pick bits. Any leftover raviolis? No problem, just wait for mom to turn around and grab a pen!