What's for dinner?

That's a question I ask myself everyday. Sometimes I take the time to plan a weeks menu in advanced and sometimes it's just too much work to do with a toddler tugging at my shirt and a newborn crying in her crib. But last night I was able to invent a new pasta dish that consisted of what I had on hand. Onions, garlic, bacon, mixed greens, grape tomatoes, sundried-tomato pesto, parmesean cheese and multi-grain pasta. A dish made in 10 minutes! I'm no Rachael Ray, but I have to cook lots of meals in less than 30 minutes so I have to be creative. The pasta turned out pretty good.

So this is what I did to prepare it. (just a note on how I cook: I don't measure things unless I am baking so it's usually an estimate when measurements are given. That way I have room for adjusting the flavor to my prefrence.)
Put water on to boil. Chop garlic, slice onions, cut bacon into 1 inch pieces and wash tomatoes. When water comes to a boil have the kid season water with salt and dump in pasta. While pasta is cooking heat up frying pan and add bacon. Cook until crispy and remove from fat and set aside. Drain bacon grease and let cool to discard later or save to use for frying eggs for breakfast. Into the pan goes a splash of olive oil along with the onions, garlic, and tomatoes. Cook until grape tomatoes start to pop turn down the heat. Save half a cup of pasta water for pasta then drain the pasta and add to frying pan along with 1/4 cup of sundried-tomato pesto, mixed greens and the pasta water. Toss to mix everything and serve with grated parmesean. This made enough for four.

Yes, my two year old sous chef gobbled up this pasta..so did the hubby. In my house watever my son helps prepare he eats. This kid is amazing. His palate goes beyond mac n' cheese. His favorite cheese at the moment is Gruyere. I'm not saying that he's the perfect toddler who eats everything, but he will eat what he cooks. At the moment he is going through that stage of toddlerhood where he eats well one day and not so much the next. He's testing his bounderies, so I had to teach him about compromise. Yesterday's comprmise was, "If you eat all your dinner you can have a cookie." I know it's a bribe but it's not a bad one. We both got what we wanted.
Now the baby is crying so rescue her I must.