Made from just 4 ingredients, this pasta sauce is so simple but so delicious! Roasted sliced onion and whole cloves of garlic makes them super sweet and cuts out any of the “spicy” or strong flavor kiddos might not enjoy. Little chefs can help toss the onion and garlic in oil and sprinkle on salt before roasting. Then they can help add the can of tomatoes and blend up the sauce. Serve on top of or tossed with whatever kind of pasta your family enjoys. Spaghetti is our favorite. The flavorful tomato sauce is also great for pizza or any other recipe you’d use marinara.

This salsa is made in a food processor, so you don’t have to worry about chopping tomatoes all day. Add a few other ingredients and you’ve got a delicious snack to eat with chips or anything you’d like. It’s great on tacos or to serve with quesadillas too. Kids can help cut the tomatoes into rough chunks, add the ingredients to the food processor, and pulse until everything is roughly chopped. Homemade chips are really fun for kids to make at home too, but you can serve this salsa with store-bought chips as well. (Please be aware that tortilla chips can be a choking hazard or are hard to chew for toddlers and kids under 4).

Ingredients
Salsa

• 4 large tomatoes
• 2 scallions or 1/4 of a small onion, trimmed and sliced
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro or parsley
• Juice from 1/2 a lime
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon chili powder (optional)
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin (optional)

Tortillas

• 6 small corn or flour tortillas
• Oil
• Salt

This month we're making tomatoes totally tasty at Veggie Buds Club! So let's get started with this rice dish that tastes just like pizza, a kid favorite! Your child can help chop the tomatoes and mash and stir them over the stove (if you're comfortable with this step). Finally, they can top the tomato-rice mixture with shredded cheese and then enjoy the final tasty dish!

We're celebrating peppers at Veggie Buds Club this month and these stuffed roasted red peppers are absolutely divine! They are bursting with flavor and yet totally kid-friendly. If you think your kiddo/s will find the flavor to be too much simply adjust their servings- examples include omitting the garlic and oregano in the roasting process and omitting the Kalamata olives. Simple roasted red peppers stuffed with orzo pasta and topped with fresh basil is a totally tasty kid meal. What's great is that you can still add all of the extra flavors and toppings to the adult servings- yum! 

Ingredients
For the Roasted Red Peppers and Cherry Tomatoes

• 2 red bell peppers, halved
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 4 sprigs fresh oregano
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes
• Salt and pepper

For Orzo Pasta

• 3/4 cup dry orzo
• 2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup pitted Kalamata olives, chopped
• 2 Tablespoons pine nuts
• 2 Tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1/2 lemon

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. In a glass baking dish, place the halved peppers on one side and cherry tomatoes on the other side. Drizzle olive oil on top and rub over the peppers and tomatoes. Sprinkle the minced garlic into each pepper and place one sprig of oregano into each pepper. Sprinkle a pinch of salt and pepper over peppers and tomatoes. Place baking dish in oven and roast for about 25 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to a boil and add the orzo pasta. Boil for about 10 minutes until the pasta is al dente. While the pasta is cooking, toast the pine nuts in a dry pan over medium heat for 1-2 minutes until toasted (watch closely as they go from toasted to burned very quickly!).
4. Drain the orzo and mix in the balsamic vinegar and kalamata olives.
5. Take the peppers out of the oven and stuff with the orzo mixture. Top with toasted pine nuts, chopped fresh basil, feta cheese, and fresh squeezed lemon juice.

See notes below on how to meal prep to make this a quick weeknight meal!

Some weeks we like to have a little fun and instead of picking a color, we pick all of the colors! Rainbow is a color in our book. We grabbed one item in each color to go with our green kale in this month’s Veggie Buds Club box. My son picked some of his favorites for each color. Blueberries for blue, carrots for orange, yellow bell pepper for yellow, tomatoes for red, and purple cabbage for purple.
Salads may not be the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of kid food, but making it full of color and having them help pick the ingredients makes it a little more exciting. The fun thing about this recipe is you could use almost any fruits or veggies that fit the colors, as long as you try to make a rainbow! Have your kids be a part of it from start to finish.

Ingredients

• 3 cups kale, stem removed and finely chopped
• 1 medium yellow pepper
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• 1 cup diced tomatoes
• 1 cup shredded purple cabbage
• 1 cup blueberries

Dressing

• 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
• Zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Place kale in a large bowl. Mix all dressing ingredients in a small jar. Shake it well to combine.
2. Drizzle dressing on top and gently massage dressing into kale (this is a fun part for the kids!). Add in remaining ingredients and toss to coat the vegetables in the dressing.
3. Cover and place in the fridge to let the kale become a little more tender.

It’s time to find all things RED this week to go along with our yummy veggie (technically a fruit!) of the month, tomatoes. You could literally just stick to the tomato section this week and just get different varieties of tomatoes because there are so many! Are your kids like mine and they love everything made from tomatoes, just not an actual tomato? This is a great time to make some of their favorites like ketchup and red sauce to show them that some of the things they love are made with this pretty red fruit. And calling it a fruit is such a selling point for my picky eater!
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This week we ventured out of the produce department and snagged some red lentils. While there are tons of great fresh food options for the color red, there are so many others throughout the store! Just make sure to stick with items that are just the ingredient. This week, we’re making a crowd pleasing PIZZA!!! It’s allergy friendly because there are no grains, no nuts, and no eggs! Can you guess what makes our pizza crust red?

Ingredients
Pizza Sauce

• 2 pounds whole fresh tomatoes
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
• 1 3/4 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 1-2 teaspoons honey (optional)
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste

Red Lentil Crust

• 3/4 cup red lentils, soaked up to 24 hours
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Instructions

1. First, prepare the pizza sauce. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Make a small X in the bottom of each tomato and dunk into the boiling water until the skins are slightly loosened, about 30 seconds to 2 minutes. Transfer to a bowl of ice water for 1 minute. Peel off the skin.
2. Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onions and cook while stirring, until beginning to brown, about 4-6 minutes. Add garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes (and any juice), Italian seasoning, salt, pepper and honey. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cook until tomatoes have broken down, about 2 hours. Taste and season with additional salt, pepper and/or honey.
3. Transfer the sauce to a blender (or use an immersion blender), add tomato paste and blend until smooth. Use caution when pureeing hot liquids! If not using the sauce right away, cover and refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 6 months. It will make more than you need for your pizza so you can also use it for spaghetti another day! Now it’s time to prepare the crust.
4. Rinse and drain lentils and preheat oven to 425 F. Place all pizza crust ingredients in a food processor. Pulse until smooth.
5. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Pour the batter onto the sheet and spread into an even layer about ¼ inch thick. Bake for 20 minutes.
6. Remove pizza from oven, spread on pizza sauce and top with desired toppings and cheese. Bake pizza for additional 5 minutes or until cheese it melted, brown and bubbly. Slice and serve!

Get the kids involved!
Have them peel the tomatoes after they are tossed in the ice bath. Ask them help sprinkle on the pizza toppings and cheese! 

Ingredients

• 6 plum (Roma) tomatoes* (about 1 1/2 pounds)
• 3 to 4 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Salt and black pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees then line a sheet pan with parchment or aluminum foil.
2. Trim stem end off tomatoes then slice into ¼ inch thick rounds. Tomatoes are difficult for little ones to cut, so have your child get involved by placing tomato slices side-by-side on the sheet pan.
3. Your child can help pick the tiny leaves off of the thyme stems and scatter them over the tomatoes. Make sure you both smell the fresh thyme and talk about what it makes you think of.
4. Gently smash the garlic cloves to make them easier to peel. Cut each garlic clove into thin slices then have your child scatter them over the tomatoes. Together, drizzle the oil over the tomatoes then sprinkle on a big pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Show your child how to hold his hand up high to “shower” the salt all over the tomatoes like rain.
5. Place pan in the oven and bake until the garlic is brown in spots and the tomatoes have shrunk in size, 20 to 25 minutes.

*You can also use small tomatoes such as grape or cherry tomatoes in this recipe. No need to cut smaller tomatoes, and they may take less time to roast, about 15 to 20 minutes.

If you asked me to list off 5 foods that ideally everyone would eat every day tomatoes would be on that list!
They are packed with incredible nutrition such as vitamin C which supports our immune system and increases iron absorption as well as lycopene, an antioxidant that helps reduce the risk of cancer.
You can imagine my excitement when I learned that August is TOMATO month at Veggie Buds Club! I hope this month your little ones enjoy trying tomatoes in all sorts of ways including the fun and easy bruschetta recipes below! All three recipes only have 3 ingredients so getting your children involved will be super easy! 

Mix together 1 diced peach, 8-10 diced cherry tomatoes, and 1-2 tablespoons of hemp hearts. Add to your favorite whole grain crusty bread and serve!

Mix together 1 cup of Tomberries, 10 pieces of thinly cut baby spinach, and 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese. Add to your favorite whole grain crusty bread and serve!

Grate one large tomato and spread onto your favorite whole grain crusty bread. Add a slice of cucumber and a sprinkle of shredded or grated Parmesan cheese and serve!

​Scoop up this fresh salsa with your favorite chips, serve on top of simply cooked chicken or fish, or pile on top of a green salad. Feel free to add whatever produce you have on hand: fresh herbs like cilantro or basil would be delicious. Bell or spicy peppers would also be a great addition.