Small was true to form when it came to weaning. She gobbled up her first taste of baby rice, and condescended to try it a second time before deciding spoons weren’t really her thing. That left the alternative weaning method- the dreaded Baby Led Weaning.
Now don’t get me wrong, I totally get the positives people say about BLW, however for me it is rather like breastfeeding… another trap to fall into and allow my child to assert herself even more. We tried a few options: veg sticks, bread, porridge fingers, soft melty things you buy in baby food section, banana… the list is endless. Bread turned out to be a definite goer, but then I have always loved bread. But everything else was treated with suspicion, until one night when I couldn’t face cutting up more veg to throw away. I decided maybe I really needed to apply the BLW principles properly so gave her some of our stir fry including a strip of steak (our protein of choice). And what happened? The noodles were used as a lasso, the veg was pushed all over the tray and the steak… straight in her mouth like a total pro. She sucked and gnawed at it for 10 whole minutes, licking her lips and sucking her hands. So I’d cracked weaning – Small was a carnivore!
I really found weaning horrendous, it was as if the success I’d had moving her onto bottles was being thrown back at me. I’d wanted to follow Annabel Karmel’s plans as her weaning method made total sense to me. But as it happened Small decided spoons were to be avoided for quite sometime. This was frustrating and demoralising. I’d lovingly made ice cube trays full of purees that just got spat out (interestingly Ella’s didn’t, she loved and still loves Ella’s purées). Then we discovered favourite food number 2, and soon to be food to save all situations- Petit Filous! Ironically the only yoghurt that’s not a yoghurt I will eat too. Oh the sheer joy that tiny pot of happiness produced was so wonderful I nearly cried! And then there was my piece de resistance!
Sausage pasta. Packed full of veggies, easy and quick to make and super super tasty. She started off sucking the sauce off rigatoni, and then (when we had succeeded in reintroducing spoons a few months into our weaning “journey”) I tried spoon feeding her just the sauce. She couldn’t get enough of it. It was so odd, she wouldn’t touch blended foods but she would eat foods that were effectively minced. You’ll notice a recurring theme when it comes to my little Small – she knows her own mind 🤦🏻♀️.
This pasta sauce recipe was so effective I thought I would share it for all those Mummies out there struggling to get kids to eat veg. But also this isn’t just for babies we’ve been eating this for years, I ate pasta everyday when I was pregnant and this was a weekly dinner in our house.
First the acknowledgement, this recipe was inspired by Jamie Oliver’s Pregnant Jools Pasta from his 30 Minute Meals collection. I have however bulked out the recipe with extra goodies. This serves our family of 3 (2 hungry adults and small person) twice (I freeze the additional batch in a large freezer bag pressed into a sheet).
NOTE: You need a food processor for this recipe (or exceptional knife skills!)
Ingredients:
- half bunch of spring onions
- celery sticks (strings removed)
- 1 medium carrot (peeled and cut into 4)
- 1 red pepper
- 1 medium courgette (seeds removed)
- 3 speciality sausages (I use Sainsbury’s TTD chorizo-style)
- 2 cloves of garlic
- Tsp oregano
- 1 carton/tin of chopped tomatoes
- 6 pieces frozen spinach
- Pasta (we love Rigatoni!)
- First prep the veg by removing the stalks, seeds and rubbishy ends. Cut into largish chunks and chuck in the food processor. Whizz until finely chopped
- Skin the sausages and add into the processor one at a time and whizz until the sausages are broken up and combined. You’ll end up with a mince mixture, not a paste
- Heat a large frying or sauté pan on high (I cook everything in a high sided sauté pan), and add a few squirts of spray olive oil (prevents the sauce getting too greasy!)
- Add the ragu mixture and cook until the sausage mince dries out (approximately 5 mins)
- Boil the kettle for the pasta
- Crush or grate garlic into the sauce and then add the oregano stirring to combine then add the tomatoes. Nestle the spinach pieces into the sauce and reduce the heat to medium, allowing the sauce to bubble away gently while you sort the pasta.
- Stir the sauce occasionally to prevent it catching and the distribute the spinach.
- After 7 mins the sauce may start to dry out, so add half a cup of the starchy pasta water to loosen it up, the water will also help the sauce stick to the pasta.
- Just before the pasta is ready I divide the sauce so that I have my freezer batch as the pasta is going to be added into the sauce before serving.
- When ready drain the pasta and mix into the sauce. If you are a pro like Jamie Oliver you can toss the pasta properly, but I’m not so I just give it a good mix through before liberally adding grated Parmesan.
I hope your Little Ones enjoy! It’s pasta with a Small seal of approval- very hard to come by I can tell you!
