Tasty Tuesday - Butternut Squash Macaroni and Cheese

I am very fortunate that Little Man eats his veggies without too much of a fuss (the boy LOVES broccoli!! He did not get that from me). So, I don't worry about him getting his daily servings of vegetables. However, like any mom, I am not averse to getting in more veggies in unusual ways. It's better for him, and better for me and the Mayor ;-).  Which leads us to today's recipe - Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese. I am a huge fan of mac and cheese, but I had stopped making it because my old recipe is a heart attack on a plate. So, when I was browsing through the many cooking blogs I love, I was intrigued by this recipe and had to try it. It has now become a fairly regular entry on the weekly meal plan. It's healthy AND pretty easy on the budget.

First thing to do - chop your butternut in half, plop it face down in a baking dish and roast it until it looks like this:

After the squash is ready, scoop it into a pot with your milk and chicken stock and blend it together with your nifty immersion blender that you got for Christmas. If you don't have an immersion blender, you can blend the mixture together in a blender or food processor. I did not do this the first time I made this recipe and the texture was really grainy, so I highly recommend finding SOME way to blend it!

While you are making the sauce, cook your pasta to 'al dente' texture.

Doesn't the sauce look so much prettier?

Then remove the sauce from heat and stir in all your spices, shredded cheeses and ricotta. If your pot is large enough, you can add the pasta directly into the pot and stir until your pasta is well coated. Then transfer it into a greased baking dish.

Top your pasta with a mixture of bread crumbs, cheese and olive oil. Bake for 20 minutes covered, then pull off the foil and cook for another 30-40 minutes. Serve yourself a big plate of yummy mac and cheese immediately!

 

Butternut Squash Macaroni and Cheese

Recipe by A Cozy Kitchen

Ingredients

1 small butternut squash (about 1 pound) cut in half and roasted

1 cup homemade or low-sodium canned chicken stock, skimmed of fat

1 1/2 cups mil

Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper (optional - I leave this out because of Little Man)

1 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 pound elbow macaroni

1 cup of extra-sharp cheddar cheese, finely grated (4 oz.)

4 tablespoons gryuere or Parmesan cheese, finely grated (1 ounce) (I have use other hard cheeses like Romano, as well)

2 tablespoons fine breadcrumbs

1 teaspoon olive oil

butter to coat baking dish

1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut the butternut squash in half and put face down on a baking sheet and cook for 30 minutes.  When you take it out of the oven, scoop out the seeds and discard. Then scoop out flesh and set aside.  Combine squash, stock, and milk in a medium saucepan; - blend with immersion blender, blender or food processor and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium; simmer for about five minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in nutmeg, cayenne, and salt, and season with black pepper. Stir to combine. Add cheddar, Parmesan and ricotta cheeses. Stir to combine.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add noodles; cook until al dente according to package instructions, about 8 minutes.

Drain noodles and add them into the pot with the cheesy squash sauce.

Lightly grease a 2.5 quart casserole dish with butter. Transfer noodle mixture to dish. In a small bowl, combine breadcrumbs, remaining 2 tablespoons gruyere or Parmesan, and oil; sprinkle evenly over noodle mixture.

Cover with foil, and bake 20 minutes. Remove foil, and continue baking until lightly browned and crisp on top, 30 to 40 minutes more. Serve immediately.

Tasty Tuesday - Biscuits and Sausage Gravy!

So, really, my plan is to post healthy recipes on this site, but with the move, I have not had much time to do menu planning. So, when I was putting together my meal plan for this week this morning, about 30 minutes before I needed to head out the door to the grocery store, it included some of my go-to recipes. Since I grew up in Texas, what is a better go-to recipe than biscuits and sausage gravy? Although, I have to admit I think I was in high school before I actually discovered the meal of biscuits and gravy. I would always ask for extra gravy on the side when I ordered chicken fried steak and then I would dip my rolls into the gravy. My mom finally asked me if I knew about biscuits and gravy. I was a fan from then on! This is one of my favorite comfort food recipes - I love it when it is chilly and gray outside. I did make things a little bit healthier this time by making whole wheat biscuits and using chicken sausage.

I searched a LONG time for a good biscuit recipe. My husband sat through many breakfasts/dinners with me picking apart what I liked and didn't like about the most recent recipe. And then I found a blog that I love - Homesick Texan - there are a ton of recipes that I have tried and loved, but the one I go back to most frequently is her beaten biscuits. I have this recipe printed out and at the top, I have written "THE recipe" - I am searching no more!


You start out by mixing together the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Then, if you are lucky like me and got a pastry blender for Christmas, use this to cut the butter into the flour mixture. If you are not so lucky, you can do what I have done in the past and use your fingers.

Next, pour in your buttermilk. If you don't have buttermilk, you can substitute cream or half and half. I have even used the little man's whole milk in a pinch. Or, you could try your hand at making your own buttermilk substitute. Or, you can go all out a whip up a batch of homemade butter in your food processor or stand mixer, and use the buttermilk from that process to make your biscuits! I have done this before - so, so easy! So, so yummy!

Mix the buttermilk into the dough - it can be pretty sticky at this point, although I noticed that with whole wheat flour, it isn't as sticky. Turn the dough out on a floured surface and knead for a bit.

Now, for the fun part - beating the dough! This is even better than kneading bread dough for getting out some aggression. Take you rolling pin and give the dough a good whack. Every few whacks, fold the dough in half and give it a turn. Keep this up for a couple of minutes.

Next you roll it out, to about 1/4 inch thick and then fold it in half. I love this part because it makes it super easy to split the biscuits when they are done.  Then proceed to cutting the biscuits. I don't have a biscuit cutter, so I use a fluted cookie cutter - makes for some pretty biscuits!

Then you place them closely together on pan lined with Silpat (or if you don't have Silpat, you could grease a cookie sheet or line it with parchment paper). While the biscuits are baking, it's time to work on the sausage gravy. This is not a recipe I tend to use measurements for, but I measured today to give you an idea of what I do. Today I used chicken sausage I found at a local health food store that carries meat from nearby ranches and farms. And, my husband and I agreed that it was better than any pork sausage that we have ever had. I just noticed today when I was grocery shopping that every brand of breakfast sausage has MSG! Not something I really want added to my food. Which is why I picked up the all natural chicken sausage. Okay, back to the recipe. I had the sausage browning while I was making my biscuits. It took a while because the sausage was frozen.

When the sausage was completely cooked, I sprinkled on some flour. It will coat the sausage and make it look kind of gummy. This is good ;-). Let the flour cook for a minute or so (get rid of the raw flour taste!).

Now it's time to add the milk. I usually add a cup or so and then let it thicken up before I add the remaining cup of milk.  The great thing about cream gravy is that it is pretty flexible. If you add too much milk and the gravy is thin, just let it keep cooking, it will thicken up if you give it time. Or, if you let it cook too long and it is too thick, just add a little more milk.

While you are waiting for your gravy to boil and start thickening up, now would be a good time to look around at the havoc that has been wreaked by your little one while you have been cooking! We have more easily accessible drawers in our new place, so my little man has found all kinds of new play things in the kitchen. Today's drawer of choice was my cookie cutters.

If you have timed your cooking right (which rarely happens with me), you should be pulling out your golden brown biscuits....

... at the same time as your gravy reaches a nice, thick consistency...

...and you can dish up this plate of yumminess!

Biscuits
adapted from Homesick Texan

Ingredients:
1 C. white flour*

1 T.  baking powder
1 t. of sugar
1/2 t. of salt
1 stick of butter, cold (8 tablespoons), cut into small pieces
3/4 cup of buttermilk

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients together.
3. Work the butter into the flour mixture with your hands or a pastry blender until it resembles pea-sized crumbs.
4. Add the buttermilk, mixing until a bit loose and sticky.
5. Pour dough out on a floured surface, and knead for a minute. Dough should be smooth and no longer wet. You can sprinkle more flour on the surface if you find it’s sticking.
6. Take dough into a ball, and hit it with a rolling pin, turning it and folding it in half every few whacks. Do this for a couple of minutes.
7. Roll out dough until it’s 1/4 of an inch thick, and then fold it in half.
8. Using a round cutter (or a fluted cookie cutter ;-)) cut out your biscuits from folded dough.
9. Place on a greased baking sheet close together (so they rise up not out), and bake for 15 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.

The number of biscuits depends on the size of your cutter. I usually get around 12 or 13 when I use my 2.5 inch cutter.

*In the past, I have also successfully used 2 cups of whole wheat pastry flour (which has a lighter texture than regular whole wheat flour) or 2 cups of white wheat flour (I have found this in King Arthur brand flour).

Sausage Gravy

Ingredients
1 lb. breakfast sausage (pork, chicken, turkey - whatever you want!)
2 T. flour
2 C. milk (skim, low fat, whole, you could even really splurge and use some half and half or cream!)
Ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Brown sausage in large skillet. Don't drain the grease!
2. Sprinkle flour over browned sausage and stir until flour coats the sausage. Cook over medium heat for a minute or two to get ride of raw flour taste. 
3. Add 1 cup of milk to sausage mixture. Bring gravy to a boil and let it thicken. Then add remaining cup of milk and repeat.
4. If gravy is too thin, cook a few more minutes until it reaches desired consistency. If it is too thick, add a little more milk to thin it out. 

Tools I used:

Tasty Tuesday - Christmas Crack

No, I am not talking about illegal substances on this blog! I know this is called Diaperville, but for those that know me in real life, you know I love to cook, so I thought I would try and throw in a recipe once a week - hence the Tasty Tuesday. I will definitely try and do a variety of recipes and mostly healthy, but since we are in the midst of moving and I am not cooking dinners, I thought I would share the dessert I am trying out for my LifeGroup Christmas party tonight. Since most of my baking dishes are already packed up and I am not wanting to buy a lot of new ingredients that I will have to pack in a day or two, I thought I would try something simple. I have heard about Christmas Crack on a couple of blogs, and I had almost all of the ingredients on hand - and more importantly, I could use dishes that I hadn't packed!

This recipe was super simple - only 5 ingredients - and minimal cooking. And, I have to say, this stuff is good. It could be considered addictive ;-). So, if you are heading to a party and need a quick dessert, I can recommend this! I do plan on taking step by step pictures in the future, but I was running late with packing, so I just got a few near the end.

Christmas Crack
adapted from allrecipes.com

Ingredients

* 1 sleeve saltine crackers
* 1 cup butter
* 1 cup dark or light brown sugar
* 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
* 3/4 cup chopped pecans

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C). Line cookie sheet with aluminum foil and grease it with butter or non-stick spray. Line cookie sheet with saltine crackers in single layer. In a saucepan combine the sugar and the butter. Bring to a boil and boil for 3 minutes. Immediately pour over saltines and spread to cover crackers completely. Bake at 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 5 to 6 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over the top. Let sit for 5 minutes.

Spread melted chocolate and top with chopped nuts.

Cool completely and break into pieces.

The only thing I would do differently next time would be to use my Silpat on a jellyroll pan. The only reason I didn't this time is they were packed away! This would make a thinner batch. The candy was thicker than I would have liked when I used a 9x13 pan.

Also, since I started later than I had planned on making the dessert, I put the candy in the freezer to speed up the setting.

Overall, this is definitely a decadent treat. Very easy and I think it would be a fun one to get kids involved with. Sprinkling chocolate chips and nuts is a fun activity for kids of all ages!