Jamie's School dinners

patchwork_cat

Hi
I have just been watching Jamie on more4 and noticed that he was making pasta sauces with 7 veg etc. I would live some more inventive ways of making the kids and us eat more veg rather than chops, mash + 2 veg.

What sort of veg would you hid in a pasta sauce - peppers, tomatoes of course, onions, carrots , but I can't make it up to 7.

I know OSers are ver resourceful - how do you hide veg?

Rachie_B

celery ?
mushrooms ?
erm ......... erm ............

my youngest son will eat veg in a blended / smooth soup,also i hide veg on a homemade pizza and he will eat that too

the only other way he will eat it, is like you say in a smooth pasta sauce

Smashing

1 garlic clove, finely chopped.
1-2 Onions, chopped finely
2 Carrots, grated
2 Courgettes, grated
2-3 Tins of tomatoes
1 Butternut squash, peeled & grated
2 red peppers, finely chopped
1 parsnip, grated
Pinch Oregano
Bay leaf
Little pinch salt and pepper.
+ any other vegtables that you like
(add a chilli for a bit of spice)

Fry the garlic, onion, carrots, red peppers, courgettes, parsnip, butternut squash, till sauted, about 10 mins, then add the tomatoes, salt and pepper, oregano, Bay leaf and simmer for 30 mins-1 hour, then blitz to a puree.

Rachie_B

ooh id never have considered parsnip ! or butternut sqush

gonna give that recipe a whirl

Caterina

A good way to put protein in a pasta sauce is to mix in a cupful of cooked beans or lentils and blend the sauce before serving (esp. if hte kids hate 'bits').

Red lentils are particularly good for this as they get all mashed up as they cook so you don't even need to blend them.

Caterina

tinselfairy

on a general note I got a book out from the library last year called The Art of Hiding Vegetables:Sneaky ways to feed your children healthy food which had a few good ideas.

Smashing

tinselfairy wrote:

The Art of Hiding Vegetables

One word - blender. :T

Lillibet_2

patchwork_cat wrote:

Hi
I have just been watching Jamie on more4

Have to confess I have spent most of this afternoon watching this too, it still scares me!!

patchwork_cat

Yes what scares me is that some people are very anti. Did you see on the news about the mum's taking orders for fish and chips at morning break and coming back to school at linch with it - it beggars believe.

comping_cat

My two will not eat sweet potato or butternut squash, but i hide it in stews, they think its carrot!!!!
I always grate carrot into mince now, to add a little extra, could try grated sweet potato too!!!

Luna69

I love these veggie sauces, and yes a blender is great for this, can put anything in. Luckily my kids will eat most veg anyway, my 4 year old dd loves her veg raw rather than cooked, which is great. My 9 year old DS will not eat beans or pulses of any kind, so I hide those in some things, by blending too, especially in soups, although he's not a great soup fan either. Apparantely though he is one of only a few kids in school who choose to eat salad veg! He'll eat it with anything though! lol He has some strange combo's. Their new school lunch menu starts on Monday and sounds good, lets hope it is, it was pretty dire before.
DS doesn't like salmon, but if I make it with pasta in a sauce or as a bake, he eats it. If I know he doesnt' like something and I've hid it, I wait until he's ate it to tell him what he ate! lol
He refuses to eat eggs of anykind, other than in cakes etc, but I made a stirfry last week which had an omelette type of egg sliced up in strips and added, he didnt' know he'd ate it until afterwards.

Yvonne