Pasta isn't just for cooking with-especially when it's super cheap!

La Moderna Pasta is on sale right now at La Morenita for 33 cents per 7 oz bag. 

I always stock up on this pasta when it goes on sale because it comes in so many fun shapes and is definitely not just for cooking!

Cooking Uses:

Soups

Pasta salads

Quick lunches for children

Casseroles

Non-Traditional Uses:

Sorting 

Art projects

For making musical instruments

For stamping

For painting and collages

For impromptu math lessons and family fun

First and foremost, I do cook with it, because it's great in soups, nice for a little quick side dish garnished with a little butter and cheese, or a quick pasta salad. My daughter loves the shapes and knows that when I bring alphabet pasta home, it's time to make alphabet soup. 

Since this type of pasta is so affordable and comes in so many varieties it is a frugal art supply as well. Think: construction paper, yarn, paint and pasta-it all makes for a great collage. You can even have fun creating pasta "people" out of the shapes (it's possible-I promise!) 

These little pasta shapes also serve nicely as stamps for play-doh, they glue well and take paint well for art projects so the possibilities are limited only by imagination and the shapes are perfectly sized to be manipulated by preschool hands.

It can even be fun for the littlest ones. You can put some of the pasta into a tightly closed play-doh canister and let a young toddler use it as a shake toy or musical "instrument".

How about letting the children have a little fun counting and sorting the shapes or spelling with the alphabet pasta? My suggestion is to reserve a jar of pasta shapes designated just for un-cooking reasons. 

Sometimes it's nice to think outside of the box.