What Pasta Sauce Do You Use for Your Toddler?

I usually make a veggi sauce with tomatoes, zuchini, carrot, red pepper, onion and garlic, salt and pepper; just a regular red veggie sauce. The kids always loved it. When other kids are over for dinner, I use the blender to make it smooth, so that they cannot see how many veggies are in there.

My Kids, (and me) love "Prego" spaghetti sauce.

I also, sometimes depending on how much time I have or how hungry the kids are... I add my own ingredients to it..... like more garlic or onions or mushrooms etc. and I saute it first, before adding it into the Prego sauce.

I used to make my own sauce... but I haven't in a long time.

Good luck,
Susan

Trader Joe's "Low Sodium" Marinara sauce. It's great and the babies love it! Henry's also has some low sodium sauce. I could not believe how much baby food (like the Gerbers "first foods", etc...) are SO high in sodium. Good luck! :)

It is so easy to make your own!

We saute onion, garlic, add a bunch of (5-6 regular size?) chopped up tomatoes - no need to measure, really, just add what you like. We also add fresh (or dried) oregano, fresh basil, and a handful of fennel seeds. Add some chopped fresh parsley if you have it, too. Salt to taste.
You can use your blender or immersion blender to make it more smooth. Cook until it's heated up, and you have delicious and healthy tomato sauce, better than anything you'd get out of a jar.

You can double the recipe and put it in a jar in the fridge for a week or so, or freeze it in a freezer-safe container.

I used to make it with canned tomatoes, but the BPA in the cans leeches into acidic fruits (like tomatoes) so we cut the canned stuff out of our diet completely.

I'm like everyone else who has responded, tomato sauce. I just buy it in the can and add a little splash of milk, a smidge of butter and a little parmo cheese. Also add a little tomato paste so that it will thicken and cling to the noodles. My children love it! You can also add things in their, puree a few green veggies and add it to the sauce!

I use tomatoe sauce w/organo and garlic or tomato paste. Of course add water. My daughter loves spices. She loves the pasta I serve her. OR cook the spaghetti/macaroni in water and tomato sauce, and season w/garlic and oregano, a bit of pepper and salt(just a little for flav.)

I never used sauce with a toddler b/c of the mess it makes

Easy, healthy and traditional way to make sauce the Italian way (we went to a cooking school in Italy for our honeymoon): in a skillet, add olive oil, chop up A LOT of tomatoes, some celery, carrots, onions and garlic put it all in the skillet and let it simmer. Because of the liquid in the vegetables especially the tomatoes, it will turn into a nice fresh sauce. You can add other vegetables if you like as well - zucchini, squash, etc. and some Italian seasonings such as fresh basil, oregeno, etc. Add a little freshly grated parmesan and it's a wonderfully fresh sauce for you and your little ones.

Hello, When I make my sauce for the family, I reserve about a cup of it for myself. I had a heart attack several years ago, so I eat low fat, low cholesterol, low sodium foods. I don't put in a lot of salt for the rest, but they don't know that. I do use the other seasonings in mine, but not the salt. You could just make sure to reserve some without the harsh seasonings.
Good luck with your precious family.
K. K.

I usually get Prego's All Natural sauces. They aren't too high in sodium, plus the serving size you see is for a half cup or more, baby only gets maybe a tablespoon or two (if that!), so it's not a lot at all. Some people like their pasta drowning in sauce which would pose the concern for too much sodium, just go light and there won't be much sodium at all. :)

1) light tomato sauce from fresh tomatoes+e.v. olive oil+ basil
2) pesto sauce (basil, e.v. olive oil, garlic - or not if you don't like it-, romano cheese)
3) alfredo
4) red pepper (with a little fresh tomato in)
5) mixed veggies (zucchini, peppers, onions, eggplant) diced and sauteed in a pan with e.v. olive oil and salt until tender...it's delicious with pasta and as a side!

I personally stay FAR AWAY from the commercial brands in the grocery stores (the ones in the jars, the Pregos, etc.) unless it says organic. Lots of these brands will use 'natural flavors' which means you have no clue what they are and one of the 'natural flavors' is MSG which is poison, a neurotoxin for the brain and is highly addictive because of this and as you say, the salt levels are SO high. Make your own, using organic tomatoes (glass containers unless you know it does not have a plastic insert) and have fun playing with the seasonings. Buy an Italian mix, use Basil, oregano, whatever floats your boat! Smell them (the fresh bunches) in the produce section, read the labels on the dried ones as they will tell you what they are good for, a little salt, pepper and of course start off with lots of good olive oil to cook the onion and garlic in before adding the above:o) I have always chopped up really fine zucchini and yellow squash and put them in my sauce, cooking them down with the onion and garlic. Use a Pampered Chef food chopper to get them small so the kids had no idea they were getting lots of veggies in there.

Don't be afraid to do this. Much healthier and cheaper. Grow your own tomatoes next year too and be ready for an even better sauce!

If you get your kids involved in helping now, even better.

You can just buy canned tomato sauce, just read the label but you can find ones that are just tomato and water. They are usually pretty cheap. Then add whatever you like...someone else mentioned Italian seasoning, or just make your own...I toss in oregano, garlic powder, basil, salt, pepper, whatever I want really until it tastes good. You can also add purees of other veggies in there to get extra vitamins. I have bought the Prego Natural or whatever it is without sugar added and it's pretty good. Ragu also makes one I think and most organic ones are pretty good. Costco usually has a good selection of healthier tomato sauces (in jars) that are reasonably priced.

I made this at least once a week (and usually keep some frozen too). The kids love it! http://weelicious.com/2009/10/06/weelicious-tomato-sauce/

Get real parmasean cheese and a little olive oil, with fresh cracked black peper and some garlic. Yummo. Thats my home made sauce, but my baby will eat any pasta, with any sauce. Doesn't matter if its Ragu, Alfredo, Pesto, canned, from a jar or home made. =) Good Luck!

first, we cook some onions with a little bit of crushed garlic in a little bit of olive oil, then add in some sliced mushrooms, and any other veggies, (like diced green peppers) tehn add in tomato sauce, and your seasoning... we usually add in garlic powder, onion powder, basil, oregeno, rosemary (or you can use an itallian seasoning). then we add in the meats (precook these)... meatballs, ground beef, pan seared sausage, pork, ground turkey for healthier options...

another really easy sauce to make is pesto. just grab a large bunch of cleaned basil leaves and chop them, add them to some olive oil, a little salt and pepper and some melted butter. serve on top of noodles.

We make our own sauce.
Brown 1 chopped onion and a few cloves of garlic in olive oil in large pot.
Add about 2-4 large cans of tomato sauce (We like Contadina)
You can add fresh basil, oregano, browned ground meat or meatballs, pork if desired.
I like to cook the meats before adding to the sauce.
We're Italian & this is how my family has always made it! Enjoy!

I usuallly by the low sodium "heart healthy" versions of sauce and I use it sparingly. I will also get a can of diced tomatoes and saute with some diced onion, garlic, and bell peppers. We use a lot of grated parmeason cheese for flavor too. I usually don't add any salt to my kids food, and not really our's either. The spices I use the most, in general, are onion, garlic, basil, cilantro, paprika, chili pepper, and cinnamon to season.

I only buy store sauce if it is organic and has whole food ingredients. Stay far away from high fructose corn syrup, MSG, hydrogenated oils, artificial ingredients, and anything that has a weird spelling, LOL! These are poisons, especially for children. Most of the time I make my own sauces, again, with organic whole foods. As far as spices, when he was little, I just put in the same things I would put in my own. This way he developed his taste buds to fit our family recipes. Of course, with highly spiced foods, I started with less amounts of spice and gradually added more as he got older. Especially for heat type spices or anything very strong, like garlic. Now he is ten and loves spices, even hot stuff! He is a fabulous eater!

I've done a variety of sauces for my kids (ages 3 and 1). Regular jarred sauce from the store (Prego, Ragu, etc). I've also bought canned tomatoes, sauce, paste and added in garlic powder, onion powder, basil, oregano, etc. My mom makes her own sauce from her vine tomatoes (cooks the whole tomatoes down until the skin comes off then skins them and adds in salt and seasonings. This sauce is much more tomato-y than sauce-y, if that makes sense!). I've also added in jarred baby food (pureed) such as squash, sweet potatoes, etc into regular sauce to give it a boost of other veggies. I will also add that cutting up/pureeing regular veggies is a good way to 'hide' veggies in any kind of sauce. My kids also love any kind of cheese sauce. This weekend I made my own version of alfredo sauce - evaporated milk, parm cheese, nutmeg, garlic powder, lots of mozz cheese. You had to keep it almost boiling and stir it pretty much nonstop until you served it because otherwise it would clump up, but it was pretty good! I've also been known to take some italian dressing (like sun dried tomato) and add a few dashes to store bought tomato sauce to give it some zing!

Good luck!

Olive oil in pot, crushed red pepper flakes and some crushed garlic go in and I let it go untill it gets fraquent. Then I add 2 large cans of canned plum tomatoes and crush them with a spoon. I let that simmer for about 15 min, then I taste and add salt and black pepper and a basil ( either fresh or dried). Simmer for another 5 min and that's it. I usually make more than I need for a meal so I can freeze the extra sauce for another day.

I bought plain tomato sauce and added a little Italian seasoning for my granddaughter. She went through a phase where she wanted ravioli every day for months. I just put a couple of teaspoons in a bunch of ziplock snack bags, pressed the air out to make them flat, and tossed them in the freezer. I could put one in a cup of hot water and melt it in no time.

We make our own:
One can of tomato sauce (you can buy reduced sodium/no salt added)
One small onion (finely diced)
1-2 cloves of garlic, crushed
Olive oil
Bay leaf

Saute the onion and garlic in a pot with some olive oil until translucent (add the garlic a little later than the onion, so it does not burn and becomes bitter). Add the tomato sauce and bay leaf and reduce the heat to simmer. Let simmer for at least 15 minutes.
You can add salt, pepper, basil and oregano to taste, but the suace will be fine without as well.
And as a last note, I grow tomatoes in our garden in the summer and skin and freeze them when they are ripe. Those can be used in place of canned tomatoes.
Good luck!

For spaghetti sauce we start with Barilla sauce, add canned tomato paste and tomatoes, add in zucchini, yellow squash, mushrooms, sausage, onion, meatballs, garlic, and a lot of fresh tomatoes when we have extras from the garden. I also add bay leaves, and Italian seasoning (pretty much any generic one with oregano, basil, etc works) to taste, and cook it very slowly for maybe 8 hours (on the stove, but a crock pot works as well). My almost 2 year old loves it, and will eat all of it, and he doesn't even care for squash/zucchini and onions normally. My husband and I also love it, it tastes great and is full of some of our favorite things.

I prefer to make my own, and unfortunately, I learned it from my mom, so I don't have exact amounts, but you can adjust to your liking. :) I also include ground beef, but that's optional.

2 small cans Hunt's tomato sauce, plus half of one refilled with water
oregano
onion
3-4 garlic cloves, pressed
2 dashes of dry mustard
2 dashes of chili powder
tablespoon or 2 of brown sugar
bay leaf

I put everything in the skillet, bring it to a boil and let it simmer for five or ten minutes to get the flavors mingled. Then I taste test and adjust. I usually end up letting it cook for about twenty minutes because I put the sauce together, then put the pasta on.

For the first two spices, here's how I "measure" them. Oregano - I sprinkle the top of the sauce til it's covered to the point that you can see as much red as you can green. Onion - I like the flavor of onion, but I don't like to eat actual onions if that makes any sense, so I usually use onion powder. I sprinkle it over the top of the whole pan, too, but a pretty thin layer. If you were to use an actual onion, I would guess maybe a quarter to a half of an onion, diced?

I know this probably isn't very helpful as far as a true recipe, but it might give you an idea of ingredients to use. This sauce has a heavier garlic flavor with a touch of sweetness, so may not be to your liking, but hope it helps!