{#JanuaryJoy - try making pasta}

'Try making pasta' is another #JanuaryJoy prompt I'm not able to do, just like the baking bread, because of the paleo-inspired diet I'm trying. Basically, for just now I'm not eating bread or pasta in an attempt to improve my Crohn's symptoms and help with weight loss. I should also be cutting down on dairy, but I'm yet to manage that too!

Instead, the kids and I will get creative with dried pasta and I'm going to make some sticky pasta pictures and try making some jewellery with macaroni and penne!

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{Recipe: Chicken, Leek and Basil Pesto Pasta}

I have just finished making this pasta dish for dinner as I have a friend coming over with her kids, and it was in this weeks meal planning post.

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{Ingredients}

4 chicken breasts, cut into strips
2 cloves garlic (I use garlic paste from a tube for ease)
2 leeks, trimmed, washed and cut into thin strips
100 mL white wine
4 teaspoons basil pesto (or add more to your liking - we are big fans in the Glasgow Mummy house!)
Half a pot of single cream
300 gram cooked pasta (I use fresh penne pasta for quickness)
2 tablespoons of fresh basil, shredded (I usually forget to buy fresh herbs, so I skip this ingredient but it still tastes good)
Parmesan, to serve

{Method}

In a wok, warm a little olive oil and fry the chicken until it starts to brown.

Add the garlic and leeks and cook until they start to soften.

Add the pesto, and toss in well.

Add the wine, bring to the boil and reduce by approximately half.

Add the cream, bring back to the boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer, allowing the sauce to thicken slightly.

Toss through the pasta (and fresh basil if you have any), then serve with grated parmesan.

It's so quick and easy... I used to cook this a lot before I became so lazy! Here's hoping the kids like it *crosses fingers*

I am going to serve it with some garlic bread slices from the supermarket that I can just throw in the oven for 12 minutes or so.

{King Prawns...}

So I managed to get my 2 year old son to eat king prawns for dinner.... I'm amazed!

When he was a baby he would eat anything (his favourite food for a while was butternut squash risotto or fish pie), but then we hit a bit of a fussy stage where his favourite food was pesto pasta (it had to be basil pesto though, the red pepper pesto wasn't good enough!) and everything else was refused.

However, we seem to be back on track (to a certain extent anyway!).

Here are my tips for dinnertime:

I now eat dinner with my son at 5pm (I used to sit with my son when he ate, but then ate my dinner with my hubby at 7.30/8pm when he got in from work and when kids were asleep).

We eat exactly the same meal.

I try not to watch my son as he eats. I chat away and eat my own food (discussing how yummy it is) and leave him to feed himself. Sometimes he needs help getting food onto his spoon or fork.

If he doesn't eat it, then I don't make a fuss. He won't starve. (When he was younger I'd have made him another meal but now I don't bother).

Sometimes he'll get a dessert (yoghurt, fruit or sometimes custard) and sometimes he doesn't. This isn't based on his behaviour or if he eats his main meal.

I've never used food as a bribe e.g. if you eat one more spoonful of peas you can have some ice cream

I've never referred to certain foods as treats or being special e.g. cake and biscuits. If he requests a biscuit, then within reason, he can have one. I don't make a big deal of it. When we go round the supermarket for our weekly shop, he's normally very excited to have a banana (I usually give him a snack as we go round in the trolley) - you would think it was the best meal he's ever had.

Vegetables are a different matter though, and the only vegetables he'll eat, at the moment, are when they're whizzed up in a soup.

I do keep presenting him with vegetables, and he will sometimes try them (he had a few spoonfuls of mashed potato the other day). I'm just hoping that if he keeps being given them, and he keeps seeing me eat them, that eventually he'll eat them too. He likes soft cheese & hummus, so I give him carrots and peppers to dip into them, in the hope that he'll get the taste for the vegetables eventually.

I think I'll start whizzing up some green veg to put into pasta with the pesto and see if he'll still eat it...

What are your tips for getting your little ones to eat dinner?