Give me your best easy kid-friendly pasta meals

[BertieBotts]

DS loves pasta but we always seem to have it with a tomato based sauce which is getting really old. I recently discovered that if you make the tomato sauce really spicy with chilli and then cool it down with cream, that is a nice sauce, DS doesn't eat it, but me and DH do :) and I've made a sort of vague effort at something carbonara-ish in the past, but aside from that I'm lacking inspiration.

Any ideas?? I used to just buy a jar of sauce but they are not very easy to come by in Germany, where we live now.

Macaroni cheese made with Philadelphia, or whatever soft cheese you can find, is easy peasy and our DCs love it - google the recipe.

In fact, if you can get hold of Philadelphia cheese or something like it, you're sorted.

Cream, peas and ham/bacon. Especially good with leftover gammon. Oh, and cheese on top, obviously!

Pasta with butter and peas. Chop some ham into it if you're feeling daring.
Pasta with going-off veg and mince (we have this a lot at our house)
Pasta with mushrooms, garlic, onion and creme fraiche.
Pasta with cheese sauce and bacon bits.
Pasta with courgettes, pine nuts, garlic and a twist of lemon.
Pasta with spicy sausage and creme fraiche.

We eat a lot of pasta.

Pasta, cheese sauce, ham, broccoli with cheddar cheese and breadcrumbs on top put under the grill, yum.

Ah should have mentioned that at the top - I can't eat cheese! DH and DS can so useful for them, but I'd prefer anything which doesn't rely on cheese for flavour.

Listed those sound yummy, for the ones which don't have any kind of sauce/creme fraiche/butter mentioned would the pasta be plain with those ingredients mixed in?

Creme fraiche is fine, though.

I do two different sauces and then cube them in the freezer for easy meals when pushed for time.

Spinach, green bean and pea pesto. Or Basically Any leftover green veg in the fridge. I usually put in a bit of basil if I have it. Garlic, bit of lemon, Parmesan and cheddar (just to make it cheaper!) some almonds and pine nuts (again to make it cheaper, pine nuts so expensive!). All whizzed up.

An orange one. Roasted carrots, sweet pot, squash and garlic. Usually add in a handful of
Spinach or kale at the end with a tiny bit of stock. It can be done with any veg really. Then whizz this all up. If I had some cream in the fridge id add a bit of that.

Then last minute not from the freezer.

Grated courgette softened with butter. Cooked pasta (still hot but off heat). And peas. Mixed together then add an egg and Parmesan. So it's carbonara ish. This also works with any veg. Often do finely chopped broccoli or green beans instead.

Bit more effort
Cauliflower and macaroni cheese. Usually add broccoli to this as well and some chicken or bacon for a treat. Breadcrumby top and tomatoes on top and baked. Lately put mashed sweet potato into the cheese sauce as my DS claiming he doesn't like sweet potato (even though I know he does!)

Home made pesto? So easy and my dd loves it. I also mix in halved cherry toms and roasted peppers.

Yes, I'd fry off the ingredients and then mix it all through in the pan.

The courgette one is my favourite.

pesto, chicken and broccoli
mushrooms, bacon, fresh tomatoes and a dash of cream
mushrooms chopped up ridiculously finely, garlic, lemon and a ton of parsley
good old mac and cheese

I never touch the stuff

Sorry my post a bit useless only just saw you can't eat cheese!

I can be more specific on the recipes if you want....

My iPad just changed recipes to erections. I mean, seriously??!

Mac and cheese with spinach through - either frozen or fresh spinach. DH and I love it like this and so do the kids.

Roasted veg sauce - chop red onion, courgettes, aubergine, peppers and tinned tomatoes (I love tinned cherry toms as they are sweeter) and out in a big roasting tray. Glug over lots of olive oil, some salt and pepper plus some whole cloves of garlic.

Roast until just starting to blacken slightly and it's all nice and soft and oozy. Use a stick blender to partially blend down the sauce but don't blend to a pulp. You want plenty of texture left. Lovely on its own with pasta but fab with fried chorizo mixed through too. A great freezer staple as it's just as easy to make a massive tray full as it is to make for one meal.

Haha listed. No that sounds fine just wasn't sure if it was meant to be plain or there was something obvious I was missing :)

Graterater no they sound great, especially the "orange" one, that's different.

Anyone got a good recipe for honey and mustard type sauce, with chicken?

Pasta with cream cheese, smoked salmon and peas stirred through it.
Pasta with a wee bit chicken, cream and pesto, maybe some chopped green beans chucked in too if you have them about.
Cook some pasta with broccoli and then stir it all together with plenty of butter so it all kind of smooshes and goes delicious...
Also, my ultimate comfort food is carbonara. While pasta is cooking, fry off some smoked bacony bits or pancetta, chuck in some finely sliced garlic for the last minute or so, then in a separate bowl beat 2 or 3 eggs and mix in some grated Parmesan. Add the cooked bacon to this and, once the pasta is cooked, stir in the eggy bacon mixture over the heat until the egg is just set and then stir through a bit of cream. Mmmm, might have to go and cook some now

Cheese sauce with broccoli and salmon stirred through.

I sautee some courgette and mushrooms, then add garlic cream cheese and some peas. Or plain philly then a spoonful of pesto.

Prawns, chives and creme fraiche, or you can flake some salmon in

Peas, chorizo and parmesan

Puttanesca sauce
Something with chorizo?
Prawn, chilli and rocket

The ones we eat most are:

Pasta amatriciana - fry bacon in olive oil, remove, add onions to the oil and fry. Added tinned tomatoes,reduce, put bacon back in. It's delish Don't skimp on the oil and you can make an 'adult' version too with chili added with the onion.

Pasta Puttanesca- we do ours with olive oil, garlic, capers, olives anchovies and basil.

Pasta pesto with peas and ham

Nigel slater has a lovely mustard and sausage pasta with wholegrain mustard. Can't link on my phone but it should come up if you Google.

Another lovely one is tomato, bacon and mint. Was in the guardian about a year ago and again Google is your friend.

Meant to say wholegrain pasta although the mustard is wholegrain too...

We do pasta with lime and mushroom.

Pan fry chopped garlic, chilli and mushrooms. Add the juice of a lime. Toss in cooked spaghetti and stir until the sauce has coated the pasta. Healthy, sophisticated, delicious.

Bolognese? Make in advance and freeze for quick meals.
Spaghetti with prawns, lightly sauteed matchsticks of courgette, lemon juice, dill and olive oil is nice.
Pasta with salmon, creme fraiche and peas.
Can you eat pesto? That's my standby - then add broccoli/peas/courgettes (or all of the above) plus salmon/prawns/chicken for extra protein. (I often do with just the veg if short of time) Or it's nice with pancetta, chopped fresh tomatoes and peas. Or just the toms and peas is also good.

Also pasta with leftover roast chicken: softened finely chopped onion, garlic, sliced mushrooms, maybe some thyme if you happen to have it, leftover chicken, leftover gravy or creme fraiche. Squeeze of lemon at the end (chopped parsley might also be good if you have any) You could substitute bacon/pancetta for the chicken too I reckon.

Slightly different but we make a chickpea and pasta soup which my dcs love. For 4 people put the tomatoes from a tin of whole tomatoes (no juice) in a pan with rosemary (dried or fresh), about 4 squashed cloves of garlic, a good glug of olive oil, 2 tins of chickpeas and plenty of stock. Chop the tomatoes up a bit. Cook for 10-15mins so the flavours can mingle. Then add soup pasta - we use those tiny pasta shells - and continue cooking until the pasta is done. Serve with a drizzle of either olive oil or chilli oil and grated parmesan for those who eat cheese. It is way tastier than the humble ingredients would suggest.

Not very classy but if you chop up hotdog sausages you can thread them onto raw spaghetti. Cool the pasta as normal and it looks amazing (for kids!!!) throw in some frozen peas/broccoli - job done! They'll be wondering how you did it.

Or a proper carbonara, fry some chopped bacon, whisk eggs with cream and Parmesan. Cook the pasta. While it's draining add the bacon and egg mix to the warm pan, throw pasta back in - the heat finishes the cooking of the eggs.

Pasta carbonara is really easy. Once pasta/spaghetti is cooked and drained put back in the pan and add an egg, stir till egg is cooked ( off the heat) grate some cheese over it if you like. Add some peas or sweet corn or bacon if you like. Nice and easy.

Also take the meat out of sausages and roll into balls and fry then add the tomato based sauce.

fry pancetta till crispy, add mushrooms and chili. Cook till mushrooms are soft. Cook pasta and add some broccoli to it when it's almost done. Reserve half a mug of pasta cooking water, drain pasta and broc and add to the pancetta and mushrooms, add a good handful of parmasan, then mix up with the water.

A more adult one: fry chopped onions and garlic very slowly in butter. Add a good glug - a really good one - of white wine and cook slowly till it all gets sticky. Add a pack of raw prawns, cook till they're just pink, add spaghetti or linguini, top with a good handful of chopped parsley. That's one of my favourite adult teas actually.