Pumpkin Mac n' Cheese

And the pumpkin kick continues! Today I bring to you my own homemade version of pumpkin mac n' cheese. I was inspired by a couple sources to make this. One is my own butternut squash mac n' cheese that I made last year, and the other is a recent recipe by Angela from Oh She Glows. Below is the recipe I ended up using that I kind of just created as I went along... Oh, and I did take a look at a couple of my own cookbooks too just to make sure I was generally on the right track with ingredient measurements. :)

Ingredients:

-2 cups of pasta, cooked and drained (use whatever shape you'd like!)

-1 to 2 Tbsp. butter

-1 and 1/2 cups of milk (I used 1%)

-2 to 3 Tbsp. flour

-salt and pepper to taste

-1 heaping cup of canned pumpkin

-1 heaping cup of shredded cheddar cheese (I used VT sharp!)

-1/4 to 1/2 cup parmesan cheese

-handful of bread crumbs and more parmesan cheese

Instructions:

Cook and drain the pasta and set aside. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and stir it with the milk until the milk is steaming. Whisk in the flour and cook the mixture until it begins to bubble and thicken. Add salt and pepper to taste. Once the mixture is thickened (you'll easily be able to tell when this happens!), remove from heat and stir in your canned pumpkin until smooth. Next, stir in the cheddar and parmesan cheese until well combined. 

In a large bowl, combine the pasta and pumpkin/cheese mixture until the pasta is well coated. Spray a 2-quart casserole dish with cooking spray, and add the pasta mixture to it. Top with whatever amount of bread crumbs and parmesan cheese you'd like (I didn't measure how much I added to mine; I just sprinkled some on top until it looked just about right :)). Bake for about 15 to 25 minutes, until the top is lightly golden brown and slightly crispy to your liking. ENJOY!!!

Milk mixture, beginning to thicken...

Time to stir in the oh-so-important pumpkin!

Lookin' good enough to eat...

Lookin' even better with the addition of cheese...

And more cheese...

The cheese sauce doesn't look too appetizing here, but trust me, it is.

I wanted to eat it at this stage. There's a chance I did... Just one bite.

Bread crumbs and parm cheese on top before popping it into the oven...

Out of the oven and ready to EAT!!!

Oh yeah. Pumpkin mac n' cheese. Simple and "healthified"! Perhaps you'd like to serve this with a tasty, homemade pumpkin biscuit? And if you're in the mood for a pumpkin flavored dessert after you enjoy this meal, I've got a tasty pumpkin cookie recipe coming up next for you... :)

Happy mid-week!

Healthy Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese

Alright, friends, I've got a delicious dinner recipe for you! Since starting the blog, I have to say that I've developed a greater interest in cooking than I previously had. Don't get me wrong...I've always enjoyed cooking. Most days though I'd still prefer baking over cooking; however, the blog has been a great venue for me to expand my interests in the kitchen! As a result, I take more time to choose different dinner recipes to try...and every now and then I get to share one of those yummy dinner recipes with all you readers out there. And this butternut squash mac and cheese recipe is definitely one of those yummy dinner recipes!!

I had bookmarked this recipe quite some time ago, but only got around to making it last month in February (yes, I am waaay behind in my blog posts! some get put on the back burner for a while...er, no pun intended there with the back burner reference ;-)). This mac and cheese recipe comes from a great blog/website called Simple Bites. As Simple Bites describes itself, it is a "family-oriented community dedicated to all things food and drink." I like it! If you have a few minutes, you should check it out.

This recipe was really straightforward. Nothing too difficult! And it's pretty healthy too as far as mac and cheese recipes go! Some of the "cheese" comes from the butternut squash, so it uses less cheese than other recipes. I LOVE butternut squash myself, and although the squash flavor is not overwhelming in this dish, it is noticeable. I would bet money on the fact that non-squash lovers would easily eat a whole helping of this mac and cheese. ;-)

You can read the recipe I followed here. For the most part, I followed the recipe as is. A few changes... I did not use organic whole milk, but regular skim milk (which worked great!). I also did not use the dijon mustard, simply because dijon isn't my favorite flavor. For the cheese, I used a combination of Vermont extra sharp and a Mexican 4 cheese blend, pictured below.

For my pasta, I chose to use Ronzoni's Healthy Harvest whole grain fusilli pasta. I used the entire 13.25 oz. box that you see here.

Now, for the butternut squash, I kept it simple and used a 12 oz. package of frozen butternut squash that I thawed in the microwave. The recipe calls for 1 and 1/3 cups butternut squash puree that you make by actually cooking and pureeing squash. However, I had previously used frozen butternut squash that tasted great in this AMAZING butternut squash dip, so I figured I could use it for this recipe too! And it worked perfectly.

Finally, for the topping that calls for bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, and coconut, I omitted the coconut and only used the bread crumbs and parm cheese. 

Onion! I added some thyme to the onion also.

Pasta.

This is the onion, flour, and milk mixture with the butternut squash, before I mixed it in.

Now it's all mixed!

Time for CHEESE. Oh, I also added a small handful of parmesan here.

Stir it all up! The recipe calls for adding salt and pepper here, but I only added pepper. I also snuck in some more dried thyme here.

Ready for the oven! As you can see, I used two baking dishes (each is roughly 8 or 9 inches square). This makes a lot of mac n' cheese!!

Mmmm, nicely golden brown on top... :)

Delicious.

I served this with a side of roasted broccoli, Al Fresco all-natural chicken sausage (a delicious brand if you've never tried it!), and some homemade spent grain bread. A complete, healthful, and super tasty meal!!

This is a very hearty mac n' cheese that probably could stand as a nice meatless main dish on its own. It is a great family meal, sure to please kids and adults alike!! What's not to like? It's a healthy version of a comfort food. Heck, I should be saying, "what's not to love?" with this one. ;-)