During the school year, Little Boy and I are usually content to scrounge around in the fridge for leftovers at lunchtime. Lately, though, with the girls home from school for the summer, I've needed a more formal plan for lunches. It seems I've really hit on something with this alphabet pasta!

I've recently started purchasing lots of organic flours, beans, pastas, and other dry goods through a co-op that orders every 2 months. Click here to see the company's website. So far, I've really been pleased with the quality of their products. My breads have never been better!

My kids often get a hankerin' for chicken noodle soup or spaghettios from a can. I don't exactly love all the ingredients found in those cans, so I thought I'd try to recreate those dishes using ingredients that sit a bit better with me.

Country Life Natural Foods sells this organic, whole-wheat alphabet pasta for $1.80 per pound -- a great deal, really. But, they sell it in 10 lb. packages! I included the carton of broth for perspecitve -- it's a lot of pasta!

So, I've got two kids who love their noodles with chicken broth and a third who'd rather have her alphabets with tomato sauce. Not a problem! I can just cook up a big batch of pasta early in the week, then add whatever sauce I'd like at serving time. We've had chicken noodle soup: just add organic chicken broth, diced carrots, some chopped chicken leftover from last night's rotisserie, or whatever other wholesome ingredient you can think of. Or, we've added our favorite jarred pasta sauce -- much tastier than the sauce in the canned pasta! You could even melt a little cheese, and you'd be thinking outside the blue box, too!

I know this seems like common sense. But, it's been such a revelation to me. I love that with a little forethought, everyone can be happy with what's for lunch!

(If you live around and would like the skinny on how to get into the 2 month rotation through the co-op, shoot me a message :)