Cooking with Elli: It's a Lasagna Toss Up

At Elli's last well-child visit, the pediatrician went through the list of milestones that kids her age should have reached: "Does she understand simple instructions?" "She gives simple instructions." "Can she say 50 words?" "Yes, sometimes in one long string." "Does she draw circles when coloring?" "Yes, and she counts to 20. I'm pretty sure she's a genius." The pediatrician politely pretended that she wasn't ignoring my statement. I guess she didn't believe that genius can be detected this early. She definitely didn't believe the wives tale I repeated to her that a child's adult height can be predicted by doubling her height at age 2. (If that's true, Elli will grow up to be about 5'10".) Well, that's the beauty of life, I guess. You can guesstimate all you want; life has a way of setting you straight. The other night, for instance, I was convinced that Elli would not be interested or be able to participate much in preparing supper. How small my mind is.

Weeknight Lasagna Toss

1 lb lean ground beef

2 cups chopped green peppers

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 jar pasta sauce

1 2/3 cups water

1/4 cup Italian dressing

12 oven-ready lasagna noodles, broken into quarters

1 cup mozzarella cheese.

Brown meat in large saucepan or deep cast-iron skillet on medium heat; drain. Add peppers, garlic, sauce, water and dressing; bring to boil. Stir in noodles; reduce heat to medium-low. Cover. Cook, stirring occasionally, 10 to 15 minutes, or until noodles are tender. Remove from heat. Sprinkle with cheese. Cover and let stand five minutes or until cheese is melted.

Thank you Kraft Food and Family for this gem. I really did have every intention of making an actual lasagna, but work got in the way. So, I switched gears, landing on this wonderful little way of getting rid of some leftover lasagna noodles.

"Well, we have no green peppers, Elli. What should we use instead?"

"Wha stead?" she asked back.

"How about mushrooms?"

"Yyyyeah!"

"Awesome."

Last time Elli encountered mushrooms, she took two bites, spite it out and handed it to me. This time...

Toddlers are nothing if not fickle. While the meat browned, we dumped the sauce, water and garlic (I used three teaspoons of minced garlic -- huge time saver) into the mixing bowl with the "mussooms." Elli particularly enjoyed the task of shaking the bottle of Italian dressing before we poured it into the measuring cup.

"Shake it up well!" I told her.

"Sake, sake, sake," Elli chanted, her little locks flapping around her brow.

"My goodness, you are good at that! Like a paint mixer! I bet you're just as good at stirring. Am I right?" I handed her the spoon as I measured out the dressing. "Can you show Mommy the best way to stire?"

"Eddi ster!" She took the spoon with confidence and delight.

Her confidence soon met reality. You see, the bowl had a lot of liquid in it. Moving a spoon was not as easy as Elli probably imagined it to be. So her stirring ended up being more like dipping and lifting.

She did her best in the face of something unpredictable. "You're stirring so well, Elli. And that's a lot of stuff to stir."

"Stuff ster."

"A lot of stuff. Looks like you mixed it up really well. Thank you very much. Now, I have something you can try that you've never done before. Want to try?"

"Yyyeah!"

"All right, here's what we're going to do." I opened the box of lasagna noodles and pulled out a noodle. "See how loooong this noodle is?"

"Loooong!" Elli mimmicked.

"Right. It's too long. We need to make it short so it fits in our pot. Can you help me make it short?"

Elli nodded.

"Fantastic. Let me show you how we make a long noodle into a short noodle. Watch this. See, we take our hands and put them in the middle, and then we brrrreak it!" The noodles snapped in half. "Tah dah! Two short noodles!"

Elli giggled and reached for one of the halves.

"Can you break it again, make it shorter?" She took the noodle eagerly, positioned her hands near the middle and ...

"uhhhnn!"

"Keep trying."

"Uhhhhhhnnnn!" Snap!

Over and over we went from long to short, to shorter to shortest, until the last noodle was broken. We were left with pieces of noodles that, well, really didn't resemble quarters in any way shape or form.

"We made them bite-size, right, Elli?"

"Mmmhmmm."

"That's right." I threw the shards of noodles in the pot and cheered, "Yea! We did it!"

"Did dat!" Elli said with a huge, sweet smile spreading across her face.

"And I know something else Elli can do." I grabbed a box of garlic bread from the freezer and laid out a cookie sheet in front of Elli. "Can you get the slices of bread and put them on the cookie sheet?"

She did it perfectly, arranging the pieces of bread on the cookie sheet with precision (toddler precision, that is).

This kept her occupied long enough for me to tend to the toss. She even counted the pieces of bread for me...repeatedly, and sometimes she didn't stop at four. Just showing off, I think.

When I looked at the clock to make sure we were still on target to eat around our usual time, I realized that this recipe I had written off as Elli-friendly had in fact kept her busy for a good 20 minutes. "OK, so I was wrong," I said to myself.

I still contend, however, that Elli will be 5'10". Anyone want to place your bets?

Things Elli Could Do: Shake dressing, pour sauce, dump in "mussooms" stir sauce break noodles (though with help) place bread

Overall Lasagna Toss Ratings (5 being the best): Elli-friendly cooking: 4 Elli-friendly eating: 4 Simple: 5 Fast: 4 (compared to a regular lasagna, 5) Frugal: 4