Family food inspiration can always be a bit of a challenge. We recently started our weaning journey with our youngest daughter Neve. Having had some real difficulties first time around with our now 3 year old Erin, I was really keen this time to give Neve more of our family meals, getting her familiar with a wider range of tastes and flavours.

Even now, Erin is still an incredibly picky eater. Having been weaned on purees, she had a little bit of a aversion to anything colourful, and so even now most of her fruit and vegetables are of the ‘hidden variety’. As a result, family meal times where we all eat the same thing are few and far between – and this has GOT to change!

We were recently invited to take part in the Dolmio #ThankGoodness challenge- using a jar of Dolmio Bolognese sauce to whip up a quick and healthy mid-week meal that we can all enjoy together as a family. I often find there is a lot of pressure on parents to cook things from scratch in order to ‘know what’s in their food’, so it was reassuring to learn that the jar of Dolmio sauce is completely natural, contains no artificial colours, flavours, preservatives or sweeteners and contains at least 10 juicy tomatoes!

We were sent a Tesco shop of ingredients to help create our meal and were soon planning our mid-week treat.

An obvious choice perhaps, but we opted for a traditional Spaghetti Bolognese – a firm family favourite which brings back fond memories from my own childhood. I was confident this would hit the mark for me and Mike, whilst at the same time providing Erin with some nutrition and lots of healthy veg! We could even puree some up for Neve and could all sit around the table together – a rare mid-week treat.

Here’s a quick video of our creation! 🙂 (I feel I should point out these are Mike’d hands not mine!!!)

We used our Dolmio Bolognese sauce, and added minced beef, peppers, onions, courgette, garlic and button mushrooms. We kept some of the vegetables visible (such as the red & green peppers), as well as blending others to ‘hide’ them within the sauce. That way we could be confident there would be no push back from the threenager! 🙂

We served it with some garlic flatbread and a sprinkle of hard cheese.

The Dolmio Bolognese sauce made it a really simple dish to cook – as a busy working Mum, I don’t always have time to make things from scratch. Anything that speeds up the cooking time so we can spend more time eating together as a family and less time slaving in the kitchen is a bonus! The process was quick and easy and we made a large batch using two jars and enough to freeze some portions in tubs and ice cube trays, ready to give Neve on another occasion.

Not only did our finished Spaghetti Bolognese  look and taste great, but the sauce included one of the girls five a day before we even added anything to it! 🙂 Erin tucked in to her meal in complete ignorance – little did she know that she had just consumed her days quota of vegetables!! 🙂

Having really enjoyed our Dolmio Spaghetti Bolognese, it also inspired me to think of some other ideas for easy mid-week meals using the jar of Bolognese sauce, these included:

• Lasagne – a yummy sauce for vegetables layered between pasta sheets – or if you wanted to increase the vegetable intake you could even layer it between sheets of butternut squash or courgette as a pasta replacement.
• Chilli Con Carne – cheats sauce to which you can add kidney beans, red chilli’s and onions.
• Bolognaise Bake – using penne pasta, chopped vegetables and cheese – sprinkled over, then baked and melted to perfection.
• Spaghetti & Meatballs – an easy sauce to add to your beef and garlic meatballs!
• Chicken Provencal Sauce – add a dash of red wine and some black olives for a tasty topping to your chicken.
• Spanish Style Chicken – with chicken, garlic and chorizo – perfect with garlic bread or rustic bread for dipping.

My other half whipped up an amazing Spanish Style Chorizo Chicken the next day using another jar of Dolmio Bolognese sauce as a base. This was utterly delicious, and had a bit of a kick! 🙂

Overall, a big thumbs up for the Dolmio Bolognese sauces in this household! 🙂 I will definitely be using the jars again a as a quick and nutritious means to family meal time!

Cheers to happy a midweek menu!! 🙂

This post is an entry for the #Dolmio #ThankGoodness Challenge, sponsored by Dolmio. www.dolmio.co.uk/thankgoodness.”

*Disclosure – We were sent a delivery of ingredients to make our mid-week meal using Dolmio Bolognese sauce, however all thoughts and opinions are my own.