Roasted Vegetable Red Lentil Pasta Bake

This post is sponsored by Barilla but the content and opinions expressed here are my own.

Last week I shared all about my new favorite pasta from Barilla.

Barilla's Red Lentil pasta range is my new go to pasta for the family. It has the taste and texture of regular wheat pasta, but it's made from only one ingredient - red lentils. No gluten, no grains, no GMOs... just high fibre, vegetarian and vegan friendly red lentils.

Today I'm sharing another recipe that's perfect for the cooler days that we've been having lately. This pasta bake is packed full of veggies and tasty mozzarella cheese. It's hearty, but not heavy. Pasta comfort food!

Sun Dried Tomato & Red Lentil Rotini

This post is sponsored by Barilla but the content and opinions expressed here are my own.

Our family eats a lot of pasta. Like, lots of pasta! It's pretty much a staple food in our home. If I ask the kids what they want for dinner, the answer is almost always some sort of pasta dish.

I've always been a big fan of pasta, but all those carbs really aren't the best thing to be eating so often. In recent years there have been all sorts of healthy pasta alternatives hitting the market, but like so many "healthier" options, a lot of them have been lacking when it comes to taste or the texture hasn't felt quite right.

Barilla, one of my all time favorite pasta brands, has the solution to this with their Red Lentil pasta made from just one ingredient. You guessed it... red lentils! The texture feels just the same as regular wheat pasta when cooked. The pasta keeps its shape and there is no mushiness like I've experienced with other grain free pasta options. The taste is great too and the red color, well, that just makes it a little more fun, right?

We put Barilla Red Lentil Rotini to the test with a recipe that Ava came up with by herself and the results were delicious!

A little while back Ava wanted to pasta for dinner for the family and she came up with her own recipe for the sauce. It's so good we've been making it for lunches and dinners ever since. It's pretty simple and only contains a few ingredients, but it packs of ton of flavor. It's a really flexible recipe too. I never really measure the ingredients, so the amounts I've listed below are an approximation of what I usually use. You can add as much or as little of each ingredient as you like.

Here's how to make Ava's Sun Dried Tomato & Red Lentil Rotini...

Puff Pastry Pizza Scrolls with Bertolli Riserva

Our after school schedule gets pretty hectic around here. Between swim team/class and karate class, Ava and Lola have something on every day after school. Swim team three times a week for Ava, swim classes twice a week for Lola, and karate class twice a week for both. They're definitely busy girls, and that makes me a busy mum!

With all of that physical activity after school it's important that the girls have something good to eat to fuel their bodies. They tend to eat a lot of fruit and dairy after school, but sometimes they need something a little more substantial, especially considering that swimming coincides with their regular dinner time.

I'm always on the look out for quick and simple foods that I can make for the girls. Something that will give them a boost of energy and act sort of like a mini dinner to tide them over until we get home. It needs to be delicious, not too heavy, and, most importantly for me, easy to make with little effort.

Thanks to Bertolli Riserva I'm sharing a recipe for a super simple snack that is really fast to make, tastes delicious and fills kids up just the right amount. Adults too! Puff Pastry Pizza Scrolls are so easy. Only four or five ingredients are needed and they're done in around 20 minutes. Oh, and they taste good. So good!

Cooking with Kids: Fresh Pasta

It's been a while since I shared a Cooking with Kids post so when the opportunity to work with Bertolli® (who this year are celebrating their 150th birthday) came up I knew it would be a great opportunity to get the kids back in the kitchen.