Forgetful Momma

Secular Homeschooling in Canada

Vegetables

Easy Balsamic Veggie Pasta

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When you add a puppy to your family things get a little out of whack and you forget to think about things like supper. Eventually however, people need to be feed, no matter how much fun we’re all having playing we need to eat. This balsamic veggie pasta is easy to make, easy to throw together when you have forgotten to make supper.

This is a great budget friendly, meatless meal. Healthy and filling.

Easy Balsamic Veggie Pasta

Easy Balsamic Veggie Pasta

*This post contains affiliate links, see my disclosure policy for more information.*

We have been becoming big on roasted veggies. I buy bags of frozen mixed veggies from Costco, frozen because there is less chances of them getting lost in the fridge and going bad.

But also, frozen veggies have a more likely chance of being used in a meal instead of my kids snacking on them instead. Big vegetable eaters my kids. Which, I love, but sometimes it’s nice to actually have the vegetables for meal time too.

What you need:

  • 3 cups pasta
  • 1 ⁄2 tsp Sriracha hot sauce
  • 1 Tbsp EVOO
  • 1 ⁄4 cup soy sauce
  • 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 1 ⁄2 tsp ground ginger
  • 4 cups uncooked mixed vegetables

How to make Easy Balsamic Veggie Pasta:

Take a cookie sheet and line with parchment paper. Bake in your oven at 425. This is how we all love our veggies at supper time. We’ll actually “fight” over them, that’s how much we love them.

We don’t like mushy vegetables, we like them roasted and delicious. This is how I made them for this pasta dish as well. Simply bake until golden brown and slightly crispy.

Easy Balsamic Veggie Pasta

Cook 3 cups of pasta following the directions on your pasta.

While the pasta and veggies are cooking, mix up the sauce. Simply just toss all the ingredients together in a bowl, or measuring cup.

Tasty Chicken, Broccoli and Pasta Skillet - pasta

All very simple, and not time consuming at all. Perfect for those days when you kind of forget to make supper until the last minute.

When the vegetables and pasta are cooked, toss everything together in a bowl (or large pot). We added a little bacon bits to the top of ours for a little extra.

Another you could top this with would be French’s Crispy Fried Onions. We actually have an auto subscribe set up for these.

Easy Balsamic Veggie Pasta

I hope you enjoy this as much as we do.

Easy Balsamic Veggie Pasta

Easy Balsamic Veggie Pasta

Yield: 8
Prep Time: 2 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 22 minutes

Ingredients

  • 3 cups pasta
  • 1 ⁄2 tsp Sriracha hot sauce
  • 1 Tbsp EVOO
  • 1 ⁄4 cup soy sauce
  • 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 1 ⁄2 tsp ground ginger
  • 4 cups uncooked mixed vegetables

Instructions

  1. Bake vegetables at 425 for 15 minutes or until cooked the way you like.
  2. Boil 3 cups of pasta.
  3. Mix together remaining ingredients together in a small bowl. This is the sauce.
  4. Once pasta is cooked, drain.
  5. Mix together pasta, vegetables and sauce.
  6. Serve while hot.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8 Serving Size: 1 grams
Amount Per Serving: Unsaturated Fat: 0g
© Ashley Mullen
Category: Main Course

Recommended Products for Making this Recipe:

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Chicken Fajita Pasta Skillet

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As moms of any kind – stay/work-at-home, working outside the home, homeschooling, etc, quick meals that are easy to clean are the best, this chicken fajita pasta skillet is the best. Not only is it quick and easy to clean up, but you’re getting all the food groups in there too. I’m a big fan of skillet meals now because they tend to be quick and they have easy clean up. A huge hit with my kids is our eggroll skillet, add a little plum sauce and enjoy.

chicken fajita pasta skillet

Chicken Fajita Pasta Skillet

*This post may contain affiliate links, see my disclosure policy for more information.*

And for whatever reason, pasta seems to be a huge hit with all kids! Everyone loves carbs though right?

Grab some beautiful peppers and enjoy this healthy chicken fajita pasta in 30 minutes.

What you need:

  • 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, towel dried, and cut into bite-size portions
  • 3 TB fajita seasoning, homemade or store bought packet, divided in half
  • 4 TB olive oil, divided
  • 1 medium onion diced
  • 2 bell peppers, any colors seeded and diced
  • 5 cloves fresh garlic, minced
  • 1 cups low sodium chicken broth
  • 1 can, 10 oz diced tomatoes with juices
  • 8 oz dry pasta
  • freshly ground black pepper, to taste

How to make this Chicken Fajita Pasta Skillet recipe:

You’re going to start by cooking your chicken breasts – sliced or diced into bite sized pieces, with half of the fajita seasoning in a little EVOO in a deep sided skillet.

chicken fajita pasta skillet

Once your chicken is just cooked, remove from your skillet, it will get cooked more soon so try not to over cook it.

Add a little oil and your sliced peppers, garlic, onions and remaining fajita seasoning and cook until tender, about 2 minutes.

chicken fajita pasta skillet

Once your veggies are tender stir in tomatoes, 1 cup of chicken broth, and uncooked pasta.

Cover and let it boil gently until pasta is cooked, about 15 minutes. (Aren’t those peppers and onions beautiful?)

chicken fajita pasta skillet

Once your pasta is cooked, add your chicken back into the skillet and let it heat through.

[bctt tweet=”A healthy chicken #fajita in one dish, easy clean up for a busy day. #recipe” username=”forgetfulmomma”]

chicken fajita pasta skillet

While it’s still hot, serve this chicken fajita pasta with a little shredded cheese of your choice on top, we used cheddar as that’s what we had on hand.

French’s Crispy Fried Onions would be amazing on this too. We love them, we have an Amazon auto subscribe set up for delivery for these.

chicken fajita pasta skillet

Chicken Fajita Pasta Skillet

Yield: 5
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, towel dried, and cut into bite-size portions
  • 3 TB fajita seasoning, homemade or store bought packet, divided in half
  • 4 TB olive oil, divided
  • 1 medium onion diced
  • 2 bell peppers, any colors seeded and diced
  • 5 cloves fresh garlic, minced
  • 1 cups low sodium chicken broth
  • 1 can, 10 oz diced tomatoes with juices
  • 8 oz dry pasta
  • freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions

  1. In a large heavy pan heat 2 tbsp oil over high heat until oil is hot. Add chicken and half the seasoning, tossing to coat well. Spread chicken in a single layer and let cook undisturbed for about 1 min, or until browned on bottom side. Flip chicken over and repeat until both sides are browned. Remove chicken to a large bowl and set aside.
  2. Add remaining 2 tbsp oil to the pan over high heat. Once oil is hot, add the onions, bell peppers, and garlic, along with remaining half of seasoning. Stir well to coat; stir often and cook until veggies are tender, 2 min.
  3. Add broth, tomatoes with all its juices, and dry pasta to the same pan. Bring liquid to a boil and immediately reduce to a low boil. Cover and let cook for 15 min. until pasta is cooked. Liquid should be mostly absorbed. When pasta is cooked, add the chicken back to the same pan. Add freshly ground black pepper to taste. Stir to combine and heat through.
Nutrition Information:
Serving Size: 1 grams
Amount Per Serving: Unsaturated Fat: 0g
© Ashley Mullen
Category: Main Course

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Teaching Kids to Garden in Our Homeschool

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Having a place to have a vegetable garden was top priority when we were house hunting. In fact it was the only request from my two daughters. We just been waiting for the time to come for teaching kids to garden. They were excited and made some requests for what to grow. The requested things to grow list keeps growing: tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli, and the latest, cauliflower.

Teaching Kids to Garden in Our Homeschool
Introducing Gardening in our homeschool

Teaching Kids to Garden in Our Homeschool

*This post contains affiliate links, see my disclosure policy for more information.*

When we put in our order, we ended up with over a hundred dollars in seeds ordered. But by no means were we going to be planting each and every seeds ordered in one season, and not just one variety of each, like tomatoes – we have three varieties ordered (tiny ones, ones for salsa, and big juicy ones for sandwiches and salads).

Making sure your kids are interested in what you are growing is key to teaching kids to garden, otherwise they won’t have something to look forward to.

Seeds we ordered:

We ordered a few fun things for the kids – purple carrots, sugar tomatoes (small, perfect for snacking) and cucamelons.

We gave Austin the choice of what kind of cauliflower to order – white (regular), graffiti (purple), or cheddar (orange). She went with white. Why let her choose the type we ordered? Because it makes growing it that much more special for her and more interesting when the time comes to eat it.

Introducing Gardening in our homeschool

How to Include Teaching Kids to Garden:

We have included them in every step so, and they’ll be helping with the planting, because kids have small fingers for small seeds and small weeds. Joking! They’ll be helping too.

We want them to eat everything we grow. They are already great vegetables eaters, a little picky but they eat most of them, like sit down and eat a package of grape tomatoes between the three of them in a sitting.

Tips for including your kids in gardening:

How to Get Started Teaching Kids to Garden

Start simple with planting your seeds and letting your kids help with planning where and how to space them. This makes a great science lesson in learning how much room plants need to grow and how much sunlight they also need. It’s also a way to work in math when you are spacing plants apart.

Talk about how much water and sunlight they need to grow and when the best time to water plants is, hint: not in the middle of the afternoon.

How do you know when you can start to harvest and eat your vegetables? Your seed/plant packages should be able to give you and your children that information.

Have fun trying the different vegetables both raw, which is our favorite way for most, and cooked in different ways.

After the Gardening is Done

After the garden work is done, and you have delicious fruits and vegetables what do you do? Now is the time to get in the kitchen with your kids. You can teach your kids about cooking and canning.

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Cheesy Chicken and Bean Casserole

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I’ve been cooking meals that are cleaning out the cupboards, fridge and freezer again. Without Hubby home to help eat all the food, it’s taking longer to consume it all. Trying to be inventive, using up stuff and still making something the girls will eat. Not an easy combination. However, this casserole, was amazing! Both girls liked it, Brookland came back asking for more.

It was super easy.

Chicken and bean casserole

Cheesy Chicken and Bean Casserole

*This post may contain affiliate links, see my disclosure policy for more information.*

What you need:

2-4 chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces
2 tbsp olive oil
4 cups of yellow & green beans, other vegetables
2 cups of vegetable or chicken broth
3 tbsp butter
5 tbsp flour
1/2-1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded

How to make Cheesy Chicken and Bean Casserole:

I cut up a chicken breast into bite size pieces, seasoned them with some spices, I used a mixed pepper and garlic seasoning. I fried in in some olive oil until completely cooked.

I added yellow and green bean as well as come carrots to the frying pan with chicken and covered it. Letting the vegetables steam. While the vegetables are steaming, I made some cheese sauce. Same steps to making gravy, minus the Worcestershire sauce, added 1/2 -1 cup of cheddar cheese at the end, stirring it in.

I threw the chicken and vegetables in a casserole dish once the vegetables were tender, poured the cheese sauce over it all and baked it at 350 for 20 minutes.

I’ve made this a few times in the last few weeks, that’s how much we like it. The last time I made it I added broccoli to the rest of the vegetables. I didn’t make enough, Austin has become quite the broccoli lover lately.

Basically, any vegetables that you love would work great, peppers even, whatever you happen to have on hand.

Chicken and bean casserole

Cheesy Chicken and Bean Casserole

Yield: 4
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2-4 chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 4 cups of yellow & green beans, other vegetables
  • 2 cups of vegetable or chicken broth
  • 3 tbsp butter
  • 5 tbsp flour
  • 1/2-1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded

Instructions

Chicken and Vegetables

  1. Fry the chicken in oil, season to your taste.
  2. When chicken is cooked add vegetables to pan, cover allowing your vegetables to steam.
  3. When vegetables are tender, put chicken and vegetables in a casserole dish. Top with cheese sauce.
  4. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

    5. Cheese Sauce

  1. Melt butter in a small pot.
  2. Whisk in flour.
  3. Slowly add broth, whisking consistently.
  4. Once you have the consistency you like, add cheese, stirring to melt it.
© Ashley Mullen
Category: Main Course

I hope you enjoy it as much as we have. It’s a tasty way to get kids to eat vegetables.