Veggie pasta....barbecue style?

So yesterday was interesting. I was pinned to the recliner most of the day with a sick little one. She awoke looking tragic and pale and said "Momma. My belly hurts". It's hard to tell at that point what the child actually means. Her belly could actually hurt (although that is rare). She could be hungry (she either has trouble differentiating the two feelings or has trouble expressing what feeling it actually is). She also could simply be fishing for attention. So I took her temperature like a dutiful Mommy. She had no fever. She was asking to eat. So I assume it's just the hungry thing again. I give her a hand full of almonds and some water and shoo her out of my kitchen so that I can put some chicken to marinate in barbecue sauce. Then I start on breakfast. By this time my child is doubly tragic and asking to "sit on" me. So I put aside breakfast prep for a minute and sit in the chair to watch cartoons. She promptly shows me that, in fact, her belly did hurt. Yuck. So we wash up and spend most of the day in the chair.

I'm wracking my brain wondering if she ate something that didn't agree with her or if she has a virus. I FORGOT to wrack my brain about what I was going to fix with that chicken! By early afternoon The Tragic One is running circles around my living room and I STILL don't have the slightest notion as to what I'm going to make with the chicken! I put the chicken in to bake, all the while wondering what on earth is going to be eaten with it.

Now I go to the pantry and fridge and just start grabbing stuff. Fresh squash, onion, mushroom, garlic, olive oil, penne pasta, chicken bouillon. I start sautéing the veggies and boiling the pasta. Veggies are sautéed. Now what? What makes it have flavor AND tie it into the flavors of the chicken?! Just then I had a weird idea. Barbecue flavored sauce!

I uneasily went forward with my idea. This could be a huge mistake...or not. One way to find out? Try. I made a little roux in the pan with my veggies. Cooked it for a minute to get rid of the flour taste, then added a couple of cups of water. I threw in some bouillon cubes and some barbecue sauce, stirred it up and gave it a taste. Something is missing. I added my noodles and more barbecue sauce. Something is still missing. My hubby tasted. He agreed. Something isn't quite right. Then we both say "Meh." and start serving plates. The funny thing is, the more we eat it, the more we yum. At first it's like "What's missing?!" Then it turns into "Delicious!!" The kids even enjoyed it. I wonder what would make it awesome from the very first bite. It's most certainly different...