Ideas needed for pasta without tomato sauce, cream sauce, or a lot of herbs

Cinnamon?! How did you like it?

Remember it fondly and we made a deal. You pack what u want from home two days, buy at school 3 days. My wife gave our son choices to pick from and it worked out

Keep it simple and stress free for yourself😊

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How can they have Mac & Cheese if they abhor cheese sauces? Maybe that just got under their radar because so many kids ate it from early on?

I like many ideas seen below, but something tells me the kids might find a way to be wary of some of these cool ideas, like Thimes’s asparagus one.

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One kid doesn’t like butter+parm… so we toss the plain boiled pasta with olive oil, and sprinkle parm on top. He thinks pepper is acceptable, so that too.

Good luck with the other ideas. The kids I’m referencing are all good eaters, they just like their pasta (and rice) simple - they’ll eat everything else, but on the side.

“Lukshen and cheese” is a great comfort food for me and I recall liking it as a kid. It disappeared from the household, probably in coincidence with the low-fat craze which would’ve made it taste terrible. Most recipes online don’t include cinnamon, but the combination of cottage cheese and cinnamon appears sometimes in Noodle Kugel, a Jewish baked dairy casserole.

This is a great thread, BTW,

Speaking of Eastern Europe, haluski, egg noodles with cabbage and onions, has too much butter for me to cook anymore, But is a priority dish whenever I go to a Polish restaurant

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Certainly worth asking older kid to get involved with school lunch packing, at least given choices within reason.
I recall my nephew was delighted to have ravioli in his lunches, he didn’t mind it room temp.

My friend’s kids have the purchased lunch option - their mom’s deal with them is 3x lunch from home and 2x from school, decided in advance (for eg pizza day they don’t take lunch).

Having them choose lunch is helpful - my little nephew is much happier knowing.

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I don’t know how this would go over with your kids, but we really like zucchini butter with pasta:

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I’m assuming that pesto is too herb-y to fit the bill.

What about an avocado sauce? I’ve done that with pasta and a protein of choice and it was delicious. Something like this: https://gimmedelicious.com/2016/01/22/the-best-avocado-pasta/
Very flexible and forgiving.

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LUKSHEN!!! MOST PEOPLE I KNOW THINKS THAT THIS IS AN ASIAN NOODLE!!!
not…have not heard that term in many years…so perhaps the next time I make chicken soup…I will boil up some LUKSHEN along side!

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Broccoli, garlic and olive oil is one of my very favorite quick dinners.

That zucchini butter recipe is AMAZING! I’ve made it many times- so many delicious uses too

thanks for the link to the zucchini butter, I’ve been getting tons of zucchini in my CSA this year and ran out of things to do with it. made this the other night and it was delicious. The recipe says you can use olive oil or butter, I used olive oil. I think if I made it next time I would use butter since I think it would have less of a chance of separating out at room temp (still tasted great with oil, just more of a visual thing).

Was the flavor of zucchini prominent or was it like zucchini bread where sometimes you can’t even tell there’s zucchini in there?

Very much a zucchini flavor. The cooking essentially concentrated the flavor as it cooked off the water. I’m going to use it cheese boards, etc going forward.

I do something similar with leeks (chop leeks, butter, bit of water and salt, simmer for 20 min or so until soft and spreadable) which I love. Just never thought about using that same technique with other veg. Now I’ll have to experiment!!!

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I actually made that zucchini butter once with coconut oil and totally loved that version, it was firm and spread-able from the fridge and the coconut flavor with the zucchini was delicious! (I was initially just too lazy to go to the store and had run out of olive oil)

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kind of late, but i love a quick lemon, tuna and caper sauce from ch way back when, though i forgot who suggested it. olive oil, good tuna, lemon juice and some capers (though they may not like the capers) in a bowl on top of the pot you’re cooking the pasta in to heat the sauce, and that’s it.

i love a crispy fried egg on pasta, with olive oil and/or butter, grated parm, maybe chopped prosciutto or chorizo… the egg makes a sauce that is creamy but it can also be eaten cut up.

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Ricotta-Walnut Sauce: Blend 1 cup ricotta, 1 cup plain yogurt, 3 minced cloves garlic, 1 cup chopped walnuts, and 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese. Pour into bowl and add 1 cup finely chopped fresh parsley and 2 t dried basil. Stir well. Serve over pasta.

(If you use Greek yogurt, you may need to add a little water or milk to get the right consistency.)

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Aglio olio (oil and garlic), topped with grated Parmesan cheese. You can add broccoli as well. I think the Italian word is pasta con broccoli.

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