Roasted Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese

This week we had butternut squash in the CSA bag and I wanted to use it multiple ways. One night we had roasted butternut squash with honey-glazed salmon. This dinner was great, but I feel like the real “magic” happened with my leftovers. I know, I don’t know if I have ever used magic and leftovers in the same sentence.

I had dreamed of making this great recipe for Creamy, Light Macaroni & Cheese I had ran across when searching for butternut squash recipes. It is a lightened up version of mac and cheese because the “creamy” part of the dish is a puree of butternut squash. It sounded so good, but I couldn’t make it work and have dinner on the table at a decent time. Sometimes the recipes I want to try are just too involved for a weeknight meal. If it takes too many steps or too many pans for that matter, it just isn’t realistic. Having a toddler and a mobile 7 month old keeps me on my toes and dinner has to be pretty quick! So here’s the first recipe with the butternut squash:

Roasted Butternut Squash

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Ingredients:

• 1 butternut squash, peeled & cubed
• cooking spray
• salt & freshly ground pepper
• dried rosemary

Directions: Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Spread butternut squash out in one layer on the pan. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and rosemary. Bake for about 20 minutes or until squash is fork tender. Then remove from the oven and sprinkle with Romano cheese. Bake for about another 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.

So back to that magic I was telling you about. We happened to have leftover box macaroni and cheese and a bit of the roasted butternut squash from the previous night’s dinner. I had a light bulb moment and combined the two. Whaa lah! We had Roasted Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese! It was delicious and much easier than the dreamy recipe I wanted to try. The combination of butternut squash and cheese is pleasant and it gives a new spin on the old standby of boxed macaroni and cheese. I only had enough for my lunch so wasn’t able to test it out on the family, but it get’s my approval.

The third way I used the butternut squash was actually on the same night as the Roasted Butternut Squash. I used half of the squash to make baby food for my 7-month old. After peeling and chopping the butternut squash, I took half of it and threw it on a foil lined baking sheet. Spread out the squash in an even layer and then put maybe a 1/4 cup of water to help keep it from sticking to the pan since I hadn’t used any non-stick spray. I roasted it for about 20-25 minutes at 425 degrees. Then, I removed it from the pan and added a little water to make a puree using an emulsion blender. You may need to thin it out with a bit of breast milk or water to get the puree to the consistency your baby is used to eating. If you have more than you can use in a few days, you can freeze it in ice cube trays for individual portion sizes.

Making your own baby food is fairly simple, but it is important to take precautions to keep the food safe since babies are more at risk for food-borne illnesses. The Making Your Own Baby Food publication from the University of Maine Extension has some great tips to follow and a few recipes to get you started.