Veggie Pasta...and a little chicken.

So my New Year's resolution is to be healthier and make sure my babies are too.  So, tonight, instead of the same old pasta I decided to go old school in our house.  And when I say old school, I meant when Trey was little. Let me explain....

When Trey was about one, he kept getting a rash on his back.  It would heal and then break out again.  We were told he was allergic to some type of food, nothing serious, but watch what he ate and through process of elimination figure out what it might be.  At daycare, there is one week where the menu calls for three things of tomato based foods for lunch, Monday-spaghetti, Wednesday-chili, Friday- Meatballs, and the following Monday-ravioli.  After a month I realized it possibly was tomatoes.  Then I realized that if I left his ketchup on his face for too long he would break out too.  So, we stopped eating all that tomato for a while.  But we couldn't cut out pasta.  We ALL love pasta in my family.  So, we switched to a cream sauce and I added veggies.  He was young enough to not pick them out.

So the first thing I did on January 1st was to explain to him that we were going to eat healthier, and he needed to be willing to try some new things.  Now, I am not entirely cutting things out or changing the way we eat completely, but changing the manner of which we eat.  For example, the second day of the year we made chili, a family favorite, but we used ground chicken instead of ground beef and fresh tomatoes instead of canned to cut down on salt.  I also made it a casserole like dish, with cornbread on top, so we didn't eat two or three cornbread muffins on a huge bowl of chili and then eat it with crackers.  So when I told him I was going to make a vegetable pasta with chicken and I really wanted him to try it, he said, to my surprise, "Okay."

After laying out a menu for the week I went grocery shopping, and I found a vegetable pasta noodle, that has a full serving of vegetables in a 4 oz serving.  The noodles are rotini and green and orange.  Trey thought that was funny.  I still don't have the nerve to try my own cream sauce, so I bought a mushroom Alfredo sauce.  When we got started for the night, Trey helped me slice up some portabello mushrooms (on sale, usually don't buy those) and shred two carrots.  Trey sauteed some garlic and chicken in EVOO and then added the shrooms.  Trey wanted to add some green and asked about peas.  Okay.  So we added a can of no salt added peas (if I had known he wanted to add green, I probably would have planned something like spinach, or some frozen peas, but hey, I am so proud that HE wanted to do it!).  Then, lastly before the sauce, the shredded carrots.   Trey learned the word "saute" and thought it was really cool to hear the "brown stuff sizzle (mushroom and chicken mix)'

So, we mixed it all together after the pasta was done in the same pan the sauce simmered in, thanks Chopped for teaching my son that (seriously, he told me the pasta needed to go in the same pan as the sauce) and to get fancy, I cut up some turkey bacon and got out the Parmesan cheese.  I fixed my plate, topping it off all fancy like, and then put the pasta on Trey's plate.  I asked if he wanted to add the topping,  "Yes!" and he topped it off very delicately, placing the slices of bacon just so.  And guess what, HE ATE EVERY BIT OF THIS PASTA! 

Now, that shouldn't surprise me too much because I know the boy loves pasta, but the last time I added anything to pasta that wasn't hidden in lasagna, he picked every bit out.  Sunday night I made a macaroni and cheese bake with chicken and he flat out refused to eat it since it wasn't chicken he liked.  I am just happy he ate and got a good serving or two of veggies, fresh and in his pasta noodles.  And the best part: I had enough left over to freeze for another meal in the future!  I am all about that!