Baby Pasta Bolognese

I was brought up eating a wide range of nutritious foods. My parents worked a lot and yet my mother always found the time to cook delicious meals for us. Takeaways and junk food of any sort were never a part of my life until I moved out and lived on my own.

Whereas with Kochu , I put  way too much importance on his weight because everyone was always telling me how thin and sickly looking he was. That made me stress out and made me feel I wasn't feeding him enough and that I was failing as a Mother. And so lets face it,I spoiled him with junk food, my motto was “as long as hes eating something I'm happy”. And him being a fussy eater did not make things any easier for me!

I meant well but Kochu didn't develop tastes for good, healthy foods. So, it has become one of the most important missions for me as a Mother to offer Kochu & Chackochi the best foods and find ways to see that both of them are getting variety even if they turn their nose up to the veggies, mix them with some fruit and see what happens. Find ways to show them that our body is an amazing machine and we have to fuel it accordingly.

I know what I want for my kids and I will continue to work on my own eating habits as well. Which is why I've started out on doing this Sugar Free diet. Speaking of which, I'm on Day #5 now and ain't doing too bad. I've taken my coffee this morning, with no sugar, mind you, and it wasn't as disgusting as I thought it would be! :) So proud of myself!!

Back to the kids, I’m very pleased to say that I have found ways to sneak in more veggies for Chackochi by mixing them with fruit and I plan on gradually decreasing the amount of fruit mixed in so that the taste of the vegetables alone can hopefully be something that he grows to enjoy. It is a work in progress and so far Chackochi has tried and liked-

• Rice cereal and oatmeal cereal with breast milk and fruit puree *his favorite!
• Carrots
• Apples
• Pears
• Pumpkin
• Bananas
• Mango 
• Blueberries
• Spinach
• Parsnips
• Peas
• Beef
• Chicken
• Pasta * his favorite!

He does not like avocado or sweet potato but I'm trying not to  force anything on him. I just keep offering it in different ways on other days and hope that by not forcing but letting him come to it on his own terms he will have a better relationship with food, which I think is where I went wrong with Issac :(

I could keep going on and on about this but I think you  might have heard enough for today. So lets get into it shall we? Chackochi's favorite food at the moment is pasta, in addition to cereals mixed with fruit purees. So here's my recipe for a simple baby pasta bolognese that he loves. While it may be tempting to just puree the family version of pasta , your baby may find the flavors of Italian herbs too strong. You’ll have more success with this plainer version.

Baby Pasta Bolognese

Ingredients:
1 small carrot
2 tablespoons Pumpkin Puree
32g lean beef mince
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/2 tomato, diced
20g frozen peas
Ground black pepper to taste
50g  Baby Pasta (I used  the Orzo variety)

Method:

1. Peel the carrot and finely chop. Fry the mince, garlic and carrot together in a non-stick pan until brown. Add the tomatoes, peas, and pepper and cover and simmer for a further 5 mins or until the meat and carrot are tender. Add the pumpkin puree to this.
2. Cook the pasta according to pack instructions. Drain.
3. Mix the sauce and pasta together then place everything in a blender and puree as much as possible - there may be some lumps. Serve at room temperature or warmed.

Notes:
* Make your own Pumpkin puree 

*Can be frozen for up to four weeks - You can make a batch of this Bolognese and freeze in cupcake tins or ice cube trays. Once frozen, pop out of the tins/trays and store in freezer bags. These perfect portions of homemade goodness will last about 4 weeks and can come quite in handy. Just reheat and serve.