I wondered when she would notice it.
It happened a few weekends ago while grocery shopping. I was in the noodle section to grab some gluten free noodles for our pantry, and my sweet 4 year old exclaims – “MAMA!!! It’s ELMO! We have to get it!”
Stores are SO smart. That bright red can of Spaghetti – O’s was placed *just* at her eye level with a big picture of that annoying little red guy.
Ahhh…marketing.
What’s wrong with a little can of tomato sauce and noodles, though, right?!
Well that’s just the problem…it’s not just a little can of tomato sauce and noodles…take a peek at the ingredient list the next time you are in the store. I just plain don’t want my kids hopped up on high fructose corn syrup and other dangerous additives.
Especially when I can duplicate the same thing, in a nourishing way, at home. Without a ton of work.
I showed my daughter the ingredient list – and in a very preschool way explained to her that I would definitely figure out a way to make this at home in a way that would be better for her growing body. She was pretty excited about helping me and all thoughts of Elmo went right out the window…well at least until it was on later that day 😉
Here’s what I came up with – and it tasted like my childhood! You’ll love it!
- 1 small onion, coarsely chopped
- 2 carrots, coarsely chopped
- 1 stalks celery, coarsely chopped
- 2 large cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
- 1 TB organic tomato paste
- 3 – 15oz can organic tomato sauce
- Optional tablespoons of sucanant, pure cane sugar, or honey to take the acid bite away from the tomato – I only did about a TB. If your kids need it sweeter go for it. KEEP IN MIND – the longer you sauté those veggies in the beginning, the sweeter they become and you don’t need much sweetener 😉
- ½ cup of starchy pasta water from cooking the pasta
- 1 – 16oz bag gluten free pasta (watch those ingredients!)
- Cook off your noodles while you prepare the sauce.
- In a large sauce pan, sauté the onion, carrot, and celery in 3-4 TB friendly fat (butter or coconut oil) with a few pinches of salt, over medium heat, for about 10 minutes until soft and sweet.
- Add the garlic and tomato paste and cook for a minute or 2.
- Add the tomato sauce, and bring to a low simmer for about 10 minutes.
- Add the water to the sauce and use an immersion blender (or put in a regular blender) and puree the sauce. You could add more water if you want a runnier sauce.
- Add the noodles to the sauce and combine.
Kitchen Tips:
This makes a LOT! It freezes up great and I stashed a few containers away for another time!- I served a small bowl of this with a couple hard boiled eggs and some pickles. My youngest is off eggs right now so she got a bowl of yogurt instead of the eggs. Maybe stick a piece of raw cheese in there if your kids won’t do either or maybe a handful of nuts and seeds with some veggies and dip.
- Boil your pasta in nourishing homemade chicken stock for extra minerals and vitamins!
- The “funnest” shape pasta I could find at the store that day was just the elbow mac – I know they usually have some animal shaped ones in the gluten free – keep your eye out – THIS
looks like a fun one!
- Warm it up and pack it up in a thermos for a special lunchbox addition! Look at THIS
thermos selection!
YOUR TURN!
How have you managed to dodge the inventive marketing of your local grocer??? 😉
This post was shared at Real Food Forager’s Fat Tuesday, and Holistic Squid’s Party Wave Wednesday!
Jen A
August 15, 2013 at 10:35 amDid you freeze the pasta and sauce together? Thanks for the great alternative to the o’s 🙂
Renee
August 15, 2013 at 11:31 amHey Jen 🙂 YEP! And in the past I have found that the gluten free noodles freeze up better than whole wheat or egg noodles for some reason. We are a gluten free house anyway so it works for us – if you want to use whole wheat noodles you may want to freeze the sauce separate. Great question 🙂