How to feed the whole family with just one recipe
All hell is breaking loose. You abandoned any attempt at creative play hours ago and the bickering upstairs would indicate that a full-scale atrocity is underway. Homework litters the kitchen table and a million Hama beads are skating under the fridge. To make matters worse, it is 5 o’clock and the freezer is offering you nothing but a bald fish finger and some chewy-looking ice-cream.
Plus it was Friday food at school today, so pizza isn’t an option, and Actually Daddy will be home looking to be fed in half an hour too. The knee-jerk reaction, of course, is to pour the last of the Pinot Grigio into a glass and open a packet of posh crisps in the hope that inspiration will strike, but sadly I’ve found that procrastination only serves to heighten the hunger-fuelled tension. Although the wine does at least take the edge off how you feel about that.
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We were compensated for creating the video below. However all opinion, words and imagery are mine.
I’m on a mission to stop creating 6 meals a day. My kids need to learn how to eat what the grown-ups eat, and we need to meet them halfway. Now The Bug will famously declare Wagamama’s Chilli Squid his favourite food, but I’m aware that he is weird in this respect. GG is a steak and veg kind of girl, but unless we sell the house we can’t afford that style on a daily basis, so I’m on the hunt for decent, easy, inexpensive food that all of us enjoy.
I was recently asked by Sainsbury’s to create a video demonstrating a simple family recipe. I chose their Tuna Pasta Bake recipe, which looked simple to make, and contained nothing that my children could complain about. You can follow the steps we took in the video, or there is a link to the original recipe below.
As you can see, I had one or two interesting helpers!
Easy Tuna Pasta Bake Recipe:
Easy Tuna Pasta Bake recipe
Ingredients
- 300 g Italian fresh egg penne by Sainsbury's
- 1 x 500g jar basics tomato pasta sauce
- 2 x 185g tins basics tuna chunks in springwater by Sainsbury's drained and flaked
- 2 x 198g tins sweetcorn in water by Sainsbury's drained
- ½ x 28g pack fresh flat-leaf parsley by Sainsbury's leaves picked, washed and finely chopped
- 1 x 390g carton Italian chopped tomatoes by Sainsbury's
- 100 g mature British Cheddar by Sainsbury's grated
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200ºC, fan 180ºC, gas 6.
- Bring a large pan of water to the boil, add the pasta and cook for 8 minutes. Drain.
- Tip the cooked pasta back into the pan and stir through the pasta sauce, tuna, sweetcorn, chopped tomatoes and half the parsley.
- Tip the mixture into a 1.5-litre baking dish and sprinkle the cheese over the top.Cook for 30 minutes, until golden and bubbling.
- Garnish with the remaining parsley just before serving.
Easy, quick to prepare, and inexpensive. Now where did I put that wine…?
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Disclosure: we were compensated for creating this video.
I love pasta bake (but not tuna) one of my little boys favourites is potato topped chicken pie by annabel karmel. In fact she does some really great recipes that can be eaten as a family 🙂
We also like cous cous coated chicken with wedges that’s really simple and yummy xx
Ah I used to make a lot of Annabel Karmel when the kids were younger. I did find a lot of her stuff a bit fiddly, but we still use her yoghurt breakfast pancakes recipe.
Tuna pasta bake – absolute staple here. And I’m with you – they have to eat what we eat. I have noticed they prefer the spicy stuff (not hot). Find a lentil Dahl recipe you get on with and you will forever feel smug, well fed, and a little better off!
I will never chop herbs the same way again!
We’ve always fed our kids the French way – same food as us and same time as us, so Hubs still gets shocked when he hears about English families having two different meals at different times. Even as babies the girls ate the same meals as us from around 8 months old – I have to say I’m always one for the easy life and couldn’t imagine having to cook two different dishes every day! I absolutely love pasta bake (I’m a carboholic) so I may need to test this recipe out at some point too….
It is a good recipe. Unfortunately, I got stuck with 2 lots of dinner as Jason and I like the kind of food babies and toddlers just wouldn’t eat – spicy food, seafood, etc. Plus GG was headstrong and I was paranoid, so I gave her what she would eat.
Luckily both of them are prepared to be a bit more adventurous nowadays.
Oh Yum! I haven’t had tuna pasta bake in ages – my idea of comfort food. Your video is fab! X
We love pasta bake, although I am not a fish fan so usually chicken or bacon. Between me and my husband there isn’t anything we won’t eat so our children both have pretty strong tastes and have always eaten what we do. Probably out of stubbornness on my part as I refuse to make separate food for them. I now just try to make a dinner that will be enjoyed by everyone, and we have a ‘you have to try it once’ rule in the house and it usually ends up with them liking it 😉
I’m the same. You don’t have to eat everything on your plate, but you do have to try everything on your plate. And if they don’t eat it I don’t top them up with alternatives.
Yummy. We love pasta bakes, and we all get involved eating – I can’t bear making two teas – I already end up doing mashed potatoes and roast potatoes on a Sunday roast, and that is enough messing about for me. Love the video!
Gosh 2 lots of potatoes would be a tall order for me. Though I do make steamed and roast carrots with a roast as that’s the only way I’LL eat them!
Love it! My son won’t currently eat any sauce on pasta (weeps) but I might try it on him anyway 😉 #parentingpinitparty
So simple! I would love to make pasta bakes more but Mr B won’t eat anything with melted cheese on…he is so odd. Thanks for linking to the #pinitparty. have pinned 🙂
Life’s too short to make more than one meal in the evening. It’s a bit frustrating sometimes when you have to tone things down a little or not make somthing from your reportoire though.
Definitely. We’re getting there though, one chilli at a time 🙂
Ooooh, that looks great and you guys are fab on camera 🙂
My weekly mission is to slow cook or cook in the day, but it never happens….one day i will be organised…maybe 🙂