Rigatoni Pasta Cups

Rigatoni Pasta Cups – as part of my ‘big move in’ the other week, I have somehow taken on the role of part-time school lunchbox preparer/ideas person. Something I take rather seriously, probably too seriously at times.

Now, normally when preparing school lunches most kids just take a sandwich and their done. But, like most kids, one is a finicky eater! This little one could easily survive on pasta, which, in Winter isn’t such a problem as we use a thermos to keep the food hot until lunch. However, in Summer, when you put a thermos into a school bag, alongside a freezing cold water bottle, it’s not hard to work out what happens. The thermos doesn’t win and therefore the food doesn’t get eaten because it’s now bordering warm to cold!

So, I put my thinking cap on and figured that there had to be a way to send them to school with one of their favourite dishes, preferably in a form that could be taken cold and didn’t require a fork to eat it with, oh and that had the extra benefit of being able to be prepared ahead of time and frozen until required.

Then one night last week, we decided to have Rigatoni Bolognese for dinner, not very exciting I here you say, however it was at this pivotal moment that the idea came to me; what if I could turn the leftovers into a school lunch!  Lightbulb moment occurred and Rigatoni Pasta Cups were born.

I was so excited at my epiphany that I jumped into preparing them straight away, but what I was more excited and slightly anxious about, was the feedback the next day from the kids after they got home from school. The result: thumbs up all round!

In this short space of time, I already know that these will be something that will make an appearance at least once a week.  They are super easy to make and also double up as a filling breakfast on the run, or an after school snack.

To keep them cool throughout the school day, I simply add an ice-brick to their lunchbox.