Lately I've been thinking more about how I can be healthier and although I can't convince my husband to join me, I can try to feed my 18 mo old healthier options. We like to rely on easy quick things to feed our son because I am not home for dinner 5 nights a week and my husband is not home during the day 4 days a week so it's hard to watch my son and take the time to cook a big meal. In the past we've bought Gerber brand ravioli's that are precooked and all you do is heat them up for 25 seconds in the microwave, drain the liquid and they are ready! They are great to have on hand but they are around $1.30 each and that starts to add up! So I decided to try to make my own. I used a basic pasta recipe and put my kitchen aid mixer and food processor to work.
Pasta recipe:
3 Cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/4 Cup olive oil
1/2 Cup water
Start out mixing the eggs, olive oil, and water together. I used my kitchen aid with the whisk attachment for this part. Then I switched to the dough hook. Add salt and slowly start adding flour. I kept the mixer on a lower speed and let it mix and knead the dough for me. I didn't pay attention to the time but it probably took around 5-7 minutes.
In the meantime I decided I was going to fill them with ground turkey, carrots and baby kale leaves. I browned the turkey and only added a little salt and pepper, but a very little amount. Then I put the carrots in the food processor for a few seconds, until it was evenly chopped. Then I added the kale to the carrots and chopped that up. I scooped that mixture into a bowl and then added the turkey to the processor and ground it up into a fine consistency. I then mixed the turkey in with the carrots and kale until it was well blended. I didn't measure how much carrot, kale and turkey I used but you can make yours to your liking.
I then rolled my dough out on a floured counter and cut it in half. I rolled it to about 1/8in thickness and started adding my filling. I used a teaspoon of filling to make each ravioli. I thought that would be a small enough size. It ended up being bigger than I'd had hoped, but I'll get to that later.
I then took the other half of the dough I had set aside and laid it over the top of the first. I ended up using a shot glass to cut out each ravioli. The glass sealed the edges together for most of the raviolis but I had to pinch a few of them shut so make sure to do a quick inspection. :) You can reuse the excess dough, even though there will most likely be some of the filling mixed in it. That didn't really affect the next batch of ravioli's.
I then threw them into a pot of boiling water for around 10 minutes a batch. This is what they looked like cooked. After they cooled I divided them into portions in ziplock bags.
They were not very appealing to look at, but I tried one and it was good. I prefer sauce but my son has been eating them up! Again, they were a little big so I cut them into 4's and they are perfect. I think next time I will make them smaller so that I don't have to cut them and loose half the nutritious filling!
These were a little work, I think I spent about an hour or so making them, but I will be making them again if it means saving money and knowing exactly what my son is eating!! You could also substitute the all purpose flour for whole wheat flour for an even healthier ravioli! I might be trying that next time... :)
