Healthagetti

Decided a little healthier alternative to a popular kid's canned tomato pasta was needed in our household. So we picked up a package of organic Prairie Harvest alphabet pasta and some organic roasted tomato sauce (Neal Brothers).  Check out their website to view all their products -- they are definitely Sauce-some as advertised! I would have preferred a slightly larger size alphabet pasta but that's not easy to come by in an organic version. I believe that there might be some larger size just "O"'s and I just might try that out another time. Anyhow the alphabet pasta I got does serve the purpose  and was a definite requirement as the first question our little tester asked  (more like demanded) when presented with the bowl of "healthagetti" (before even looking himself) was "Are there letters in it"? Anyhow it passed with flying colors as he eagerly ate the entire portion with great gusto!

Boil some filtered water (4 cups) in a large pot. Add 1 cup of alphabet pasta. Boil until it's the texture you like - mine took about 20 minutes but I prefer it more on the soft side. Drain. Add your pasta sauce (I whirled the sauce in the magic bullet so as to ensure there were no chunky bits of onion as that would turn off our intended target audience - a picky 4 year old!) Taste and add a bit of the following if required to make it taste more like the commercial product:  organic canola oil, sea salt, and a pinch or two of organic sugar.  Add a tablespoon of water or soy milk if it seems too thick.  It also benefits from the addition of a tablespoon or two of a good organic ketchup (Simply Natural is excellent).  And don't forget the "sneaky sauce" addition of a steamed carrot if you want to add a little extra Vitamin A.

I didn't have any cheesy products on hand but add a shake of a good vegan parmesan if your little one likes cheese flavor. Link here for a simple homemade version I intend to try out soon.  It made about 3 cups.  I froze a one cup portion for a future meal. I'm hoping it freezes nicely and reheats well as it would be an awesome timesaver to have some healthy vegan toddler meals on hand.  Like most soups and chili "Healthagetti" is better the second day - the pasta absorbed a whole lot more of the tomato sauce and consequently the alphabet letters were a bit larger too! A win-win situation and like day number one our tester finished up his lunch with much enthusiasm.

4 cups filtered water
1 cup alphabet pasta or "O"'s pasta
1 cup smooth tomato pasta sauce
organic canola or olive oil (to taste)
salt (to taste)
organic sugar (to taste)
steamed carrot (optional - added to tomato sauce)
vegan parmesan (optional)