solid foods

This pasta, with ground turkey and tomato sauce, comes together in under 30 minutes, but tastes like it has simmered for hours. It's warm, comforting and sure to be a hit in your house with adults and kids alike.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 lb ground turkey, dark meat
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp ground fennel
1/8 tsp chile flakes
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes
1 can (8 oz) tomato puree
1 lb penne, orecchiette, or rigatoni
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Preparation

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook pasta according to package directions.

In a medium saute pan, heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Add onions and saute until beginning to soften, 3-5 minutes. Add the ground turkey, along with the oregano, fennel and chile flakes, and saute until the meat is cooked through, stirring occasionally to break up the bits of ground meat, 4-5 minutes.

Add the tomatoes and tomato puree. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes over low heat. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Toss the cooked pasta with the sauce and finish with grated Parmesan.

Amanda Haas is a cookbook author, cooking video host, and the founder of  One Family One Meal, a website that helps families menu plan, grocery shop, and cook on a budget.  Her latest writing collaboration is with renowned chef Todd English. The book, Cooking in Everyday English, is now available on  Amazon and is loaded with family-friendly recipes. Amanda’s own One Family One Meal cookbook will be released in the Fall of 2012.

Image Source: Biyu Lau via flickr/creative commons

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, POPSUGAR.

We're excited to share this post from our partners at BabyCenter! Every week, we will be bringing you the best parenting and lifestyle stories from the experts at BabyCenter, including this post from Andrea Updyke about that old wives tale that says babies sleep better after eating solid foods.

Feeding a baby can be a non-stop barrage of questions. Is he getting enough? Is he getting too much? How many wet diapers did I change? What color is the poop? I mean seriously, the amount of poop I have inspected just inches from my face is terrifying. And I will tell you this about the first few months of life; things change so fast it can be nearly impossible to keep up.

My babies are big. At birth, my boys were 11lbs and 10lbs. The first was a week early, the second a week late. I just make big babies, what can I say. Couple that with my choice to breastfeed and I was basically a non-stop all you can eat buffet. I don’t think my babies' bellies were ever the size of a marble or a ping pong ball or really anything smaller than a tennis ball ever. I mean, they ate all the time. And though all the experts said it wouldn't make a difference, both babies did immensely better when they started solids.

Related: Would you have a kid for the tax break?

You can safely start solids between 4-6 months of age. While I had hoped to breastfeed exclusively until 6 months, we opted for solids at 5 months for both boys. Why am I telling you this? Well, because I think sometimes we get so caught up in what we think is right and normal that we forget to have conversations about what actually worked for us. No judgement, just dialogue.

My youngest is now just over 5 months old and until the past couple of weeks has been nursing or sometimes drinking a bottle every 3 hours around the clock. I discussed when to start solids with our pediatrician and he gave the same warning I have read all over the internet, solids won't really help the sleep thing. It's more about learning how to eat.

So I thought, why rush it? He is a happy baby. He eats well and sleeps well (when he sleeps). Maybe he just isn't there yet. But then 2 or 3 wakings became 4 or 5 and he was no longer content with a pacifier and eating more frequently during the day all the while watching my every move when I ate my meals. Over Christmas we decided to start feeding him oatmeal. Let me just tell you, there was no learning how to eat. This boy knew exactly what to do. He ate and he ate.

In the past two weeks he has increased to two meals a day, each with oatmeal and banana and he seems so content! His naps are better. He goes right to sleep when it's time for bed and last night he only woke up once in a 10 hour period.

Can it be the solids or is it really convenient timing? Maybe it's because my boys were so big to begin with? All I know is the more sleep mama gets, the happier we all are.

Someone pass me the sweet potatoes.

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Source: Flickr User dacia mitchell

Circle of Moms member Michelle O. is concerned that her son drinks more than six ounces of formula in one sitting at three months—and that he's not sleeping through the night. She wonders if she should start giving him cereal, even if only at night, both to keep him from getting hungry and to help him sleep longer.

Sara B. says resist, insisting that at this young age, if a baby needs more calories, they should come from formula or breast milk, since cereal has little nutritional value. She believes that the sleep issue is completely separate from feeding, that an infant will not sleep for a five-hour stretch until his central nervous system has developed enough to allow this.
Jamie N. isn't buying it. "Everything is different with every baby," she says, explaining that the only way she could keep her three-month-old happy was to give her cereal with formula mixed in.

• Allergies: Babies' intestines need to mature. Before the age of four to seven months, babies' intestines are immature and can let in allergens.
• Choking: Young babies have a tongue-thrust reflex. This helps prevent choking, and it also pushes out solid foods.
• Motor coordination: Babies need to be able to sit up in order to eat solid foods safely, and most cannot do this before four months.