Pasta and SAUCE!!!

A revolution is taking place in the Wibberley household.

My lovely, very-nearly-11-year-old Sam, has finally seen the light and decided that pasta and sauce do *actually* get on rather well and deserve at least a second chance.

Sam has a diagnosis of (mild-ish) Aspergers. But you knew that.

This amongst other things, translates into a visceral need to control what goes into his mouth; there are lots of reasons for this, mainly sensory and anxiety-related...

So you can imagine the following scenario being played out at every meal time: first, this question, which punctuates our days, from breakfast onwards... "mummy what're we havin for tea?". Then a suggestion, or rather a DEMAND, (coming from him of course) for something along the lines of pizza. Any answer other than 'Pizza' will usually result in a pouted, whiny "aaaaaaaaaw" (you can imagine the kinda thing).... To which I usually shrug my shoulders and reply "well TOUGH". I know - I'm Nice like that...
Once his 'tea' is served he will carefully search the contents of his plate for any offensive (read Unknown), 'yukky' bits (eg onion) and make sure nothing wet is touching anything dry (eg: no ketchup must come into contact with his chips/ chicken nuggets: the blob of ketchup is meticulously given its very own space on the plate and also, incidentally, has to be the correct size; a fried egg with a runny yoke has to be served in a separate bowl to avoid cross-contamination with other foods.) I think you get the picture.

Until quite recently (bout a year ago?) Spaghetti Bolognese was OUT.OF.THE.QUESTION. But this changed when I gently encouraged, coaxed, and (yes...!) bribed (basically forced) him to at least *taste* some.

I guess he was ready.
He LOVED it!!

More recently (a few months ago) I started adding ham, milk and cheese to plain cooked pasta - in the pan - and serving it up without allowing any questions, any arguments, any kind of refusal to eat.

I guess he was ready.
He LOVED it!!

So when he announced that he liked Macaroni Cheese', I breathed a sigh of relief and thought "well in that case the world's my oyster"

Which brings me to the delicious concoction I came up with tonight.

Cooked pasta
1pint milk
50g butter
2 large tbsp flour
Some left-over roast chicken, cut up into small bits
Some thinly sliced ham (100g?)
150g grated cheese
Salt

Make up a white Béchamel sauce with the milk, butter and flour (just bung all 3 together in a pan on a low heat and whisk until almost boiling, leave to cool, off the heat)
Add chicken, ham and cheese to sauce and stir vigorously. Mix into the pasta. Serve with corn-on-the-cob and cucumber ;)

Well. I guess he was ready...
Cos he LOVED it!!!

I am celebrating this small milestone tonight by gracing my blog with this most eloquent post.

You're welcome ;)