Success!!! Was at the grocery store this morning and bought a box of tri-colored radiatore and also a frozen kids meal. The kids meal is from a new brand called Kidfresh. It's all natural - no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. The one I got is wagon wheels mac+cheese - it's mini wheels with a sauce from creamy cheddar and mozzarella cheese. Plus hidden veggies (in this case carrots) in the sauce. He was SUPER hungry for early lunch around 11:15 (after almost no breakfast) and inhaled almost the entire meal (the whole thing is 270 calories - 12g protein, 4g fiber and no sugars). Also 20% Vit A.
Now, how do I recreate this at home so I don't have to buy an expensive single meal each time? I can easily buy mini-wheels and use both cheddar and mozzarella in my sauce but he's so picky about textures - if it feels different he won't try it. This wasn't too mushy and the sauce really congealed some and stuck to the pasta (not loose and gloopy or messy). Ingredients from back of box are pasta (durum wheat semolina), water, cheeses (cheddar, monterey jack and part-skim mozzarella), cream, carrots, canola oil, skim milk powder, corn starch, sea salt, natural flavor (maltodextrin, whey solids, natural cheese flavor, disodium phosphate, salt).