I don't think I can help you much as I'm a white person who likes black people food. I make a nice shrimp gumbo...and I'm waaaaaaay up North, lol. Actually, I started making gumbo when I lived all the way up by Canada. Lol...so maybe the more I'm surrounded by whites the more "ethnic" I get with my cooking...to counteract things.
Oh! One of my favorite dishes to make is the most racist dish I've ever heard of! It's called Moors and Christians - it's just a shit ton of spices, fried veggies, beans n rice but specifically black and pinto beans on rice that's been cooked in coconut milk. Hah HAH! Ridiculous and also delicious.
Although yes. Yes we do eat a lot of pasta. I know sooooooooooo many ways of preparing pasta. How does Madison like hers? I used to love butter and garlic-salt on mine when I was a kid but that's not really healthy so my suggestion would be, if she doesn't hate spinach, throw a small handful of frozen chopped spinach into the pasta water to boil.