Message Boards

Mom?   Is that you?

When my parents made pasta, I would always ask for mine to be "plain."  As I grew up, I wanted just a bit of cheese and pepper and olive oil.  As I grew up further, I became able to articulate what it was I didn't like!  If your children are old enough, try sitting down with them and trying to pinpoint what it is they don't like about the final sauce.  Is it really that they don't like the same things you do, or is it just something textural?  Something overly or under spiced?  It turned out it's the fennel seed in my dad's meat sauce I hate.  I can't stand biting into one, because it has that awful licorice flavor and it's also texturally unappealing.  I'm almost 30 now, though, so I make my own sauce. 

This is one of those challenges like figuring out what sort of pizza to get.  In the past, if there are a lot of people with varied tastes, I will simply have a few options.  Maybe Jane likes "white" sauce but John likes "red" sauce and mom & dad want meat sauce?  From time to time it's not too hard to have a saucepan of each option available.  Ultimately, though, you've got to have some peace!  Things I've seen in pasta sauces:  sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, sweet onion, red onion, sweet sausage, spicy sausage, ground beef, chicken, ground turkey, meatballs, mushrooms, zucchini, eggplant, carrots, spiced & diced tomatoes (these come in a can, pre-seasoned), roasted red peppers, artichokes, peas, anchovies, shrimp, shallots, celery, and corn.  You and your child(ren) must have some common ground somewhere in there :)

I have always put peas in my daughters mac n cheese, she has never known any different!

Buttered noodles. Also I just made pesto pasta with cut up chicken nuggets on top, and my Red Sauce hater just gobbled it up!

I use jarred sauce, browned lean ground beef, a can of un-drained diced tomatoes.  I add 1 1/2 cups frozen mixed vegetables, cooked in the microwave in very little water, then pureed.  The kids never know the veggies are there!  I also add pureed veggies to meatloaf, lasagna, and homemade veggie soup.  OF course, I'm lucky- my kids have grown up eating all kinds of fruits and veggies, so they eat stuff (broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, zucchini, kiwi, etc) that makes their friends cringe!!  Also, pureed carrots work great in mac n cheese, even the instant stuff...

I generally use different shapes.

Spagehetti is the trickiest because my daughter doesn't want it cut for her, so I break my spaghetti into 3rds before cooking. Another way is to use ziti or mostacolli noodles.

Wagon wheels and shells are great for macaroni and cheese.

Try a different shape and listen to the comments as they disappear.

I use spinach and tomato enriched pastas. I serve sauce on the side for "dipping" larger noodles. I also like spinach raviolis. You can bake or grill fresh or cooked ravioli to make it crispy if your kids like that texture.

I also make my "own" soup- our own fresh veggies in chicken broth with lots of whatever leftover shaped noodles we have on hand. I find my kids who generally think celery is gross have no problem eating it cooked in soup and same goes for spinach which would otherwise be met with "YUK!"

I love the idea of dipping noodles.  Very clever.

My family loves the Fettuccine Alfreda tuna helper but we do not put a can of tuna instead we put a large can of breast chicken meat and use less water and instead of milk we use 1 cup of whipping cream and 1/2 c of 2% milk, and they love it and ask for this all the time!  We usually sprinkle low fat mozerella cheese on top too. 

Or we also add shrimp instead of the chicken meat and but do not add the shrimp until about the last 5 minutes of cooking, you dont want rubbery shrimp, my teenage daughter loves this and cooks this for the whole family all the time.