Baked Ravioli with Spinach

Feeding a toddler can be broken into 2 categories. Foods that he will always eat (i.e. crackers, fruit, and pizza) and foods that they won't eat (i.e. veggies). My 15 month old has learned how to stop chewing, stick his hands in his mouth, and reach in to pull out the food that he doesn't want. After he has picked the food out that he doesn't like (typically a vegeatable), he flings it down on his high chair tray or even more conveniently, the floor!

So, I'm learning how to hide veggies from him. Casseroles are just perfect for this.

Last night I made a really easy dish that had one of his favorite meals, ravioli! He loves ravioli so much we have made up a ravioli dance & song that we do while cooking!

Although the prep time was easy, the cook time was a little long. I'm thinking that the next time I will prep this dish in the morning and leave it in the refrigerator to thaw out while I'm at work. That way I can just pop it in the oven and cut the cook time in half.

I got the recipe from a friend so it's not very detailed with instructions.

(once again the picture is not blog beautiful. But, I just don't have the time to get the fancy camera out and place meal on a dish. I will say that the area with no cheese is the area that I took my son's portion from lol)
INGREDIENTS:

-36 frozen ravioli (I cut recipe in half and used 18 ravioli that came in a pack. Choose the type of frozen ravioli you like. I had ravioli stuffed with chicken and mozerella so that's what I used BUT I think that the regular beef stuffed ravioli would be better!)

-frozen spinach thawed and drained (i'm sick of using a spoon to drain against strainer and then toweling to dry. I just grabbed the spinach queezed by hand lol)

-shredded mozerrella cheese (recipe said 2 cups but I didn't measure)

-spaghetti sauce (I used ragu or prego - whichever was on sale)

 

DIRECTIONS:

 

1. preheat oven to 350

2. spoon a little sauce on bottom of casserole dish

3. place a layer of frozen ravioli over sauce

4. cover ravioli with some spinach (1/2 spinach if you are following directions using 36 ravioli)

5. cover with sauce 

6. cover with mozerrella cheese

7. repeat with another layer of ravioli, spinach, sauce, and cheese

8. COVER with aluminum foil and bake for 50 minutes

 

My son tore it up and didn't even realize he was eating spinach...