Please critique my pasta bake and tell me how to make it more tasty?!

[dottytablecloth]

But still ensure that my 17 month old will eat it as I'm not keen on separate dinners for adults and children!

Chopped onion
Chicken breast
Pepper
Pasta
Tin chopped tomatoes
Tiny pinch sugar (have never added to a recipe before but it said to)
Breadcrumbs
Cheddar cheese on top

Ds seemed to love it but I thought it was slightly bland.

I didn't add garlic or chilli as I always think these will put ds off. It needed something like this though, didn't it?

Any ideas?

[21mealspluscake]

When you're making the tomato sauce I'd add a bay leaf and, if you've got some, a sprig of fresh rosemary and just fish them out before serving. You really do need garlic, a tiny pinch of chilli flakes won't add heat but will enhance the flavour and maybe change the chicken to a mix of smoked bacon and mushrooms, chicken can be really bland.

[AscoyneDAscoyne]

I just roast 2 chicken breasts in one of those roasting bags with the flavouring (think Maggi or Colmans) such as garlic and herb or Cajun chicken. Fry mushrooms or peppers in olive oil, add 2 cans chopped tomatoes then mix with cooked pasta and flavoured roasted chicken and bung in the oven topped with cheese.
Behold, a tasty midweek pasta bake that my 4 yo and 15 mth old will actually eat.

[ProfYaffle]

If you're adding stock cubes, that Marigold stock powder is useful because you can control how much you put it. iirc it's less salty than the others I think.

Balsamic vinegar in a tomato sauce is good too and yy to passatta rather than tinned toms.