Chicken and Macaroni Finger Food Fun

Pasta makes a super finger food with its soft and ‘gummable’ texture – and today’s recipe mixes it with other ingredients to create a tasty dish that your little self-feeder (or baby-led weaner) will love!

Although this is easy for your little one to eat with his fingers, it can (of course) be  chopped and served with a spoon instead,  if that’s what he prefers! It’s ideal from around 7 to 8 months of age onwards.

This is a dish we often prepare on one of those days when there’s not a great deal of time to cook – and that’s because we always try to keep a good supply of cooked chicken on hand in the freezer. It makes life SO much easier to have some cooked meat readily available – and as we mentioned in our Money Saving Tips post back in April, it’s so easy to roast a couple of chickens in one go, then use them to make chicken salad, a variety of meals and to slice them up for sandwiches!

This recipe yields enough for you and baby to share. You can refrigerate the leftovers for up to 24 hours, but we don’t recommend freezing them as the pasta tends to go soggy!

To Make Chicken and Macaroni Finger Food You Will Need…

3 oz (2/3 cup) uncooked ready cut macaroni*
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp finely chopped onion
2 oz (3/4 cup) sliced mushrooms
1 tbsp chopped green bell pepper
3 oz (3/4 cup) grated Cheddar cheese (medium or sharp)
4 fl oz (1/2 cup) natural yogurt
3 oz (2/3 cup) diced, cooked chicken
2 tbsp milk

*As you can see, we had to use regular macaroni for our dish as it was all that was available (oh, the joys of island life), but whole wheat macaroni is much more nutritious if you can get it!

Preheat the oven to 350 deg F (180 deg C).
Cook the macaroni according to the directions on the pack, then drain.
Heat the olive oil in a medium skillet and saute the mushrooms, bell pepper and onion together for a few minutes, until everything is tender.
Combine the cooked veggies in a bowl with the pasta and stir in the natural yogurt and 2 oz (1/2 cup) of the cheese .
Transfer everything to a small baking dish and top with the remaining cheese.
Bake for around 20 to 25 mins until the cheese has melted.
Cool to a safe handling temperature and serve.

Note: You can use any veggies your little one like in this recipe – try using carrot instead of green bell pepper, for example – or sweetcorn instead of the mushrooms.

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