This Zucchini and Pasta Slice came about due to the fab readers I have here on the blog and lovely neighbours!

I feel very lucky to have such a supportive and smart audience here on Planning With Kids. The feedback I receive via comments, email and facebook, help me be better at being a parent.

In my post a week ago – Lunch Box Ideas – February. Katie who is a nutritionist as well as a mum very politely pointed out, while good, the lunch boxes could do with some more protein. And she was spot on!

So as good fortune would have it, my very lovely neighbours dropped in these amazing home grown zucchinis:

And I had on had a copy of the Feb edition of Super Food Ideas:

I didn’t have on hand all the ingredients required to make their Cheesy zucchini and pasta slice, but I improvised to come up with this!

Zucchini and Pasta Slice

Ingredients:

• 1 cup wholemeal elbows (or preferred pasta shape!
• 650 grams of zucchini
• 1 onion
• 1 cup grated tasty cheese
• 125 grams ham
• 2 carrots
• 3/4 cup self raising flour
• 4 eggs
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1/3 cup milk

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180 Celsius
2. Boil water and cook pasts as per directions for pasta. Drain in a colander and rinse under cold water. Set aside.

3. Grate zucchini. The recipe said to reduce the liquid by hand, but I find that too time consuming. So instead to reduce the liquid, I placed the grated zucchini onto a clean tea towel.

4.Squeezed out excess liquid and then tipped it into a large mixing bowl.

5. Grate carrot into bowl.
6. Grate onion into bowl.
7. Grate cheese into bowl.
8. Chop ham and add to the bowl along with pasta.

9. Add flour to the bowl.

10. In a separate bowl, beat eggs lightly.

11. Then add milk and oil and mix again.
12. Add egg mixture and mix well so thoroughly combined.

13. Line lasagne type dish with baking paper.
14. Pour mixture into dish and then place into oven.

15. Bake for 25 minutes or until the bake attains a nice golden colour.

16. Let the bake sit in the dish for at least 10 minutes before removing to cool onto a rack.
17. Do make sure you remove the bake after 15 minutes, other wise the botton can go a bit soggy (I learnt this the first time!).

EDIT: A reader let me know that they used wax paper and the slice stuck, so make sure you do use baking paper. Also if you have any trouble with sticking at all you can also try spraying the paper for additional non stickyness!

This is a great recipe to make in a double batch. I did the second time I made it.

You can them cut it into slices. The recipe said 15 serves per dish, but my kids asked for a bit more, so second time around, I cut it up into only 12 slices.

I left some for this week’s school lunches and used baking paper and freezer bags, to store the remainder in the freezer.

The kids are very happy to be having this in their lunch box again!

Our Family Menu Plan For This Week.

Baking: Chocolate Cup Cakes – a special request from the preppie. Oh boy, they are good!

Monday: Fried Rice

Tuesday: Pancakes!

Wednesday: Gnocchi Bake

Thursday: Beef Stir Fry

Friday: Marinated Chicken Sticks With Salad

Saturday: Chicken Wings, Baked Potatoes and Corn

Sunday: Sausages and Salad

If you are looking for further recipe inspiration, check out my complete list of Family Friendly Recipes. All of these recipes are in the database of the Planning With Kids Free Menu Planner. You can use the menu planner to plan a week of meals for your family and then print out the associated shopping list.

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