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Unfortunately, I was also once again reminded that following a recipe is a real struggle for me... Luckily the changes I made worked out. In fact, the recipe is ideal to play around with and can be adjusted and changed in many different ways.
I started out with a butternut squash from Trader Joe’s that came with a nice little sticker as to how to bake the squash in the oven, so that’s what I did [Note: That’s NOT what the original recipe says, and I ended up having to adjust things later on, but it worked...]
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I basically followed the instructions on the sticker, but my squash was not done at all after 40 minutes. It took close to an hour for it to get soft. I cooked the squash while doing some work; it’s an easy, “no supervision necessary” way to cook squash.
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Once the squash was done, I peeled it and cut it into cubes. I then added about one cup milk and one cup vegetable stock and pureed it in my food processor. [Note: I had a little “accident” while trying to puree it, and a lot of liquid escaped. I’m therefore not exactly sure how much liquid I ended up using.]
After pureeing it, I realized that my mixture wasn’t hot, so the cheese wouldn’t have a chance to melt. So I poured the mixture into a saucepan and heated it and seasoned it with some salt and pepper.
Next, I added 1 1/4 cups shredded Swiss & Gruyere, 1 cup shredded Parmesan Cheese, 1/4 cup nutritional yeast as well as 2 tablespoons Greek yogurt. Finally, I added 1 pound cooked brown rice penne and had a taste.
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Since I made the dish up to this point earlier in the day, I poured the mixture into a casserole dish and put it in the fridge and finished it at night.
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At night, I preheated my oven to 375 degrees. In the meantime, I sprayed a sauté pan with some olive oil, browned 1/2 cup panko crumbs before adding them to the casserole dish, and baked the dish in the oven for 35 minutes.
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Everyone really enjoyed the dish, and I’m glad that the toddler liked it. He loves mac & cheese, and I’m always looking for healthy versions. I think I’ll experiment soon with different veggies and cheese mixtures. Also, I probably wouldn’t use brown rice pasta again as it did get a bit soggy. I think whole wheat pasta (which Gina used) would probably work a lot better (especially if you decide not to bake it right away). Thanks Gina for a very tasty dinner!
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Questions: Do you like mac & cheese? Have you ever added veggies to it? If so, how did you like it? What’s your favorite mac & cheese recipe? Feel free to link in the comments!
Be well,
Andrea