Butternut Macaroni and Cheese
Our black friday tradition isn't shopping, we spend that day putting up the Christmas tree and decorating. A quick casserole type dish is the perfect no-fuss meal for a busy day like that. And something simple is just what I needed after the massive amount of cooking I did for Thanksgiving. My kids love macaroni and cheese (who doesn't?), but I know it's not the healthiest meal. I found this recipe when surfing the web awhile back, and thought it was pure genius to add squash to mac and cheese. After all, it's creamy and the color matches perfectly.
I made a number of changes to the original recipe. I needed to increase it for my large family, the original recipe serves two. I did not have cottage cheese on hand and wasn't going shopping, and I wanted my squash haters to eat it and enjoy it. So I decided to increase the amount of cheese and it worked. I intend to gradually cut back on the cheese and healthy it up more, a little at a time.
Butternut Macaroni and Cheese
1/4 c. vegetable broth
2 c. butternut puree
16 oz. reduced-fat shredded cheddar
1 tsp. onion powder
20 oz. whole grain elbow pasta
freshly ground black pepper
Preheat oven to 350. Cook and drain the pasta. Meanwhile, in blender combine vegetable broth, butternut puree, cheese, and onion powder. Pour sauce over pasta, mix until combined, place in 9 x 13 casserole dish, sprinkle with pepper, and bake 15 min. till heated through. Makes 10 servings.
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5 comments:
Janet,
Sounds like you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with the family.
We begin decorating the day after Thanksgiving as well, only I am still working on it and will be for a few more days. At our house decorating is my domain so the hubby does the base work and I do the "artistic" part.
The squash idea is brillian isn't it? I first saw it on the foodnetwork. Ellie Kreiger had a similar recipe on her show. I made it without cheese by adding a nutritional yeast sauce and it worked really well. I think I documented the recipe (not on the blog though). If you want me to look for it and email it to you let me know.
talk to you later, have a great day,
Alicia
Oh, that mac n cheese looks and sounds so healthy and yummy! It's my son's favorite food and I can't wait to make this version for him. Thanks for the link to the recipe, Janet:)
What a great healthy take on mac n' cheese! Love it!
Oh Yum! Just the name of this dish made my mouth water.
Lovely, lovely! I am so hungry now and I just ate. (Early for me) Glad you had a happy
Thanksgiving. This is such a grand family time.
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