{"id":9436,"date":"2013-10-03T20:53:24","date_gmt":"2013-10-03T20:53:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/?p=9436"},"modified":"2013-10-24T16:04:29","modified_gmt":"2013-10-24T16:04:29","slug":"roasted-butternut-squash-mac-cheese-butternut-squash-baby-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/e\/roasted-butternut-squash-mac-cheese-butternut-squash-baby-food\/","title":{"rendered":"Roasted Butternut Squash Mac &#038; Cheese"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>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.\u00a0This dinner was great,\u00a0but I feel like the real &#8220;magic&#8221; happened with my leftovers. I know, I don&#8217;t know if I have ever used magic and leftovers in the same sentence.<\/p>\n<p>I had dreamed of making this great recipe for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.myrecipes.com\/recipe\/creamy-light-macaroni-cheese-50400000115195\/\" target=\"_blank\">Creamy, Light Macaroni &amp; Cheese<\/a>\u00a0I had ran across when searching for butternut squash recipes.\u00a0It is a lightened up version of mac and cheese because\u00a0the\u00a0&#8220;creamy&#8221; part of the dish is\u00a0a\u00a0puree of butternut squash.\u00a0It\u00a0sounded so good, but I couldn&#8217;t make it work and have dinner on the table at\u00a0a decent time.\u00a0Sometimes 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&#8217;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&#8217;s the first recipe with the\u00a0butternut squash:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/P1010862.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-9439 alignright\" style=\"margin: 2px;\" alt=\"P1010862\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/P1010862-300x225.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/P1010862-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/P1010862-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><em><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Roasted Butternut Squash<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Preheat oven to 425 degrees.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Ingredients:<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em><span style=\"color: #000000;\">1 butternut squash, peeled &amp; cubed<\/span><\/em><\/li>\n<li><em><span style=\"color: #000000;\">cooking spray<\/span><\/em><\/li>\n<li><em><span style=\"color: #000000;\">salt &amp; freshly ground pepper<\/span><\/em><\/li>\n<li><em><span style=\"color: #000000;\">dried rosemary<\/span><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Directions:<\/strong> 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. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">So back to that\u00a0magic 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&#8217;s dinner. I had a light bulb moment and combined the two. Whaa lah! We had Roasted Butternut Squash Mac &amp; Cheese! It was delicious\u00a0and much easier than the dreamy recipe I wanted to\u00a0try.\u00a0The 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&#8217;t able to test it out on the family, but it get&#8217;s my approval.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/P1010865.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-9441 aligncenter\" style=\"margin: 2px;\" alt=\"P1010865\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/P1010865-225x300.jpg\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/P1010865-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/P1010865-768x1024.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">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&#8217;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\u00a0make 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.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">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 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.umaine.edu\/publications\/4309e\/\" target=\"_blank\">Making Your Own Baby Food <\/a>publication from the University of Maine Extension has some great tips to follow and a few recipes\u00a0to get you started.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/P1010863.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-9440 aligncenter\" style=\"margin: 2px;\" alt=\"P1010863\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/P1010863-225x300.jpg\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/P1010863-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/P1010863-768x1024.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/P1010866.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-9442 aligncenter\" style=\"margin: 2px;\" alt=\"P1010866\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/P1010866-300x225.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/P1010866-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/P1010866-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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.\u00a0This dinner was great,\u00a0but I feel like the real &#8220;magic&#8221; happened with my leftovers. I know, I don&#8217;t know if I have ever used magic and leftovers in the same sentence. I had&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/e\/roasted-butternut-squash-mac-cheese-butternut-squash-baby-food\/\" class=\"read-more\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":9441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,790,780,55],"tags":[822,659,823,824,382,175,268,821,176,820],"class_list":["post-9436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e","category-i","category-nutrition-2","category-c","tag-baby-food","tag-butternut-squash","tag-butternut-squash-baby-food","tag-butternut-squash-macaroni-and-cheese","tag-csa","tag-leftovers","tag-macaroni-and-cheese","tag-new-ways-to-use-box-mac-and-cheese","tag-remake-your-leftovers","tag-roasted-butternut-squash","cat-42-id","cat-790-id","cat-780-id","cat-55-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/P1010865.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9436"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9436"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9459,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9436\/revisions\/9459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}