Since Dexter started in his new nursery, he no longer gets his evening meal provided like he did at his childminder’s, so we are back to trying to balance working full time and creating exciting and delicious, yet nutritious evening meals that we can all enjoy as a family. This toddler pasta recipe is perfect for both toddlers and adults alike.
The food needs to be quick to prepare because we don’t get back from nursery pick up til nearly 6pm and Dexter really needs to be asleep by 7pm, otherwise he often becomes grouchy and hard to settle.
Dexter is a huge pasta fiend and he definitely gets that from both Mum and Dad! We love that pasta is super quick to prepare, is really filling and is also mega versatile, you could eat pasta every single day and every meal would be totally different.
This particular pasta dish is one Dexter and I eat when my husband is busy on his bike as he despises mushrooms. This dish takes as long to prepare as the pasta takes to cook so is ready in less than 15 minutes. It’s also vegetarian, although not suitable for vegans.
I love that this meal can be made with ingredients I have lying around in the cupboard, so often I’ll make it for lunch as well on the weekend. Sometimes I like to add double cream if I have it in the fridge to make a creamier pasta dish (again my husband hates it when I make creamy dishes) or I’ll add diced chicken or chopped chorizo to add a little flavour and add some more protein. Very rarely, I’ll even make my own pasta. We have a machine that we were gifted yonks ago when we were child free and had all the time in the world to create and cut pasta!
Ingredients
- Four medium mushrooms
- Handful of spinach
- Knob of butter
- 200g pasta
- Dash olive oil
- 1/4 cup white wine
- 1 clove garlic
Instructions
- Cook the pasta according to pack instruction with a dash of olive oil.
- Meanwhile chop your garlic and mushrooms and heat the butter in a frying pan.
- Add the garlic and mushrooms and stir continuously until cooked.
- Add the white wine to the frying pan and turn up the heat so the alcohol burns away and the sauce sizzles.
- Turn the heat back down and add the spinach, stirring it all until the spinach has wilted.
- By this time your pasta should be cooked, so drain it and add the pasta to the mushroom and spinach, mixing thoroughly until the pasta is coated in the sauce.
- Serve immediately.
Author: Nicola Hughes
Nicola has weaned both of her boys using the baby led weaning method. She loves nothing better than creating simple recipes that anyone can recreate, using as few ingredients as possible. All of her recipes have been tried and tested by both Dexter and Felix and have their seal of approval!