Buttery Pasta Stars are a quick kid’s meal that uses freezer and pantry staples.
Melted butter and grated Parmesan make a luscious sauce that coats each pasta star.
It’s nothing fancy, but it’s fast and delicious.
You can easily swap out the protein and veggies for your kids’ favorites!
We’ve had it for lunch (grown ups included!) several times in the past few weeks.
Feel free to use whatever pasta you have on hand but I think stars are way more fun to eat! 😉
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Ingredients and Instructions for This Easy Recipe
To make this dish, I used
- 1 cup pasta stars (like these from Target)
- 1 cup frozen peas and carrots
- 1 cup diced cooked chicken sausage
- 3-4 Tbsp unsalted butter
- ground black pepper
- freshly grated Parmesan cheese
This dish can all be cooked in the same pot, which makes for easy clean up.
You just bring the water up to a boil. Cook the pasta, and when it’s nearly finished, add the veggies until everything is warmed through.
Then drain the water, add the cooked sausage, butter, pepper, and Parmesan.
Don’t you love one-pot meals?
Some kiddos may not like the taste of Parm or pepper, and that’s ok. Omit the Parmesan cheese and spices. No biggie.
However, you may want to add some salt to your boiling water to flavor the dish. I would probably add about a 1/2 a Tablespoon.
Will YOu Try thiS Recipe?
I can’t wait to see what you come up with.
Since the pasta, meat, and veggies are easy to change up, this one recipe is so easy to customize.
Let me know what you used and how it turned out!
Recipe below serves 4 but it’s easily doubled or tripled.
Buttery Pasta Stars
Ingredients
- 1 cup pasta stars
- 1 cup frozen peas and carrots mix
- 1 cup diced cooked protein
- 3-4 Tbsp unsalted butter
- freshly ground black pepper
- grated Parmesan optional
Instructions
- Bring water to a boil and add dry pasta stars.
- When pasta is nearly cooked, add frozen veggies and boil until pasta is cooked and the veggies are hot.
- Drain the pasta and veggies.
- Add meat to pot and cook until warmed through. Turn off heat.
- Return pasta and veggies to pot and stir in butter, black pepper, and grated Parmesan.
- Stir until butter is melted.
Notes
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