Thursday, November 17, 2016

The Monster Mash with OXO Tot // Roasted Pumpkin Pasta Recipe


Making the girls' baby food has been one of my favorite "mom duties".  I feel so good about feeding them fresh and organic fruits and vegetables.  And I honestly really love making the purees!  It can be a bit time consuming to peel and chop, cook, and prepare all of the fruits and veggies so I have always done them in bigger batches and then freeze some of it.  I feel so good about feeding them something that I made and knowing exactly whats in it.

Phayre is 15 months old now so we have moved past the basic one or two ingredient purees.  While she eats pretty much everything we eat, I like to make her purees still because it's another way I can sneak some veggies in.  Because pickiness and opinions also come with being 15 months old!  I often leave some "chunks" in her purees because she has enough teeth to chew now.  I also usually add some pasta because girlfriend loves herself some pasta and is more likely to eat it all if there is a little pasta in it.

I recently made Phayre a roasted pumpkin puree and she devoured it.  It is basically like a creamy pumpkin pasta sauce (yum!).  I plan on making it again while I can still find pie pumpkins in our grocery store and thought I'd share the recipe with you guys.  This would be a great recipe for babies (I would omit the pasta for smaller babies) through young children.  You could also easily incorporate more vegetables into this recipe, I've added roasted zucchini and tomatoes to it and the girls loved it.

Here are the ingredients you will need:
-1 pie pumpkin (they should be in the produce section at your grocery store)
-1/2 cup pasta (I used Barilla cut spaghetti.  You can use any pasta you'd like, just chop it into smaller pieces)
-salt and pepper
-1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
-1 teaspoon sage, finely chopped
-3 tbsp. whole milk
-1 to 2 tbsp. parmigiano-reggiano cheese (grated parmesan cheese will work just fine too!)

Tools:
-OXO Tot food masher
-OXO Tot glass baby blocks
-OXO Tot feeding spoon set
-baking sheet
-large mixing bowl

Directions:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cut your pie pumpkin in half and scrape the seeds out.  Lay each half face down on a baking sheet.   Laying them face down will keep the "meat" of the pumpkin moist and will prevent it from being burned.  Bake for about 35 minutes.
3. Boil your pasta while the pumpkin bakes.
3. Take your pumpkins out of the oven and peel the skin off (you'll know they're done when the skin peels right off).
4. Put the pumpkin into your OXO Tot food masher and mash away.  It will become a puree in seconds!
5. Move your mashed pumpkin into a larger mixing bowl.  Add a dash of salt and pepper, nutmeg, sage, milk, cheese, and cooked pasta (You can add any other roasted vegetables that your baby might like.  I love zucchini and tomatoes in this recipe).  Give it a quick mix and it's complete!
6. I divide the mixture by four and put it into the OXO Tot glass baby blocks.  Store them in the fridge or freezer, depending on how quickly you'll be using them.







Ok now lets talk a little about the OXO tot tools that I used because I seriously love them!  The OXO Tot food masher is probably my favorite baby food making gadget ever and I'm bummed that I just got it!  It is a generous size, but still perfect for mashing a single serving (like avocado or banana in the very beginning).  The masher works SO WELL, it mashed the pumpkin up in seconds.  And the best part?  It has a lid!  So if you mash up an individual serving and your baby doesn't finish it, just put the lid on and pop it in the fridge!  It's also only $9.99, you can't beat that for such a useful baby food making tool!

The OXO Tot glass baby blocks are the perfect portion size for storing baby food.  You can freeze them, wash them in the dishwasher, and they're microwave safe.  You can also serve your baby straight from the glass block, no need to dirty a bowl!  I love the size of these so much, they're the perfect portion for P.  I also split one portion for both girls if I'm using the pumpkin pasta as a side dish.  You will love these if you like to store baby food!  The OXO Tot feeding spoon set is great because the part that goes into the baby's mouth is soft.  This makes it easy to scrape the bowl clean when feeding your babe, which you'll do because your babe is going to love this pumpkin recipe!

I hope your babe loves this recipe as much as my girls do!  I think it's so fun to offer new (and seasonal) flavors like pumpkin.

Xo

Marisa

I partnered with OXO Tot for this post.  This recipe and all of the opinions expressed are 100% my own!

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