at home with ann

My lack of posting is correlated to the speed at which Colin moves.  Gone are the days when he would bounce in his exersaucer while I cooked.  Gone are the days when he would sit on the floor in the kitchen and play with toys.  Now he toddles around, I'm lucky if he stays in the kitchen, which means he is taking everything out of the recycling bins.  More likely, he is practicing his new climbing skills on the stairs, so that when I say "where's Colin?," he peers his little face around the corner and smiles at me.  Too cute, but not conducive to cooking.  We manage just fine, but I admit the new recipes and photographs have gone by the wayside. I turned on the end of the Rachael Ray show a few weeks ago to see her plating up this mac and cheese.  Baked mac and cheese is a weakness of mine, and I love butternut squash, so I thought I would give it a try.  It was good, but next time I think I would skip the carrots and go with squash only.   ...

Homemade mac and cheese is one of the best comfort foods of all time.  However, you need to be in a particular mood to consume huge amounts of pasta and creamy cheese sauce.  That mood being one which involves yoga pants.  These days my mood always involves yoga pants, but I wanted to add a few healthy features to this mac and cheese so I could get away with serving it for dinner without a side of running on the treadmill.  In addition to your usual pasta and cheese, this recipe includes roasted butternut squash puree, as well as steamed broccoli and kale.  The butternut squash thickens the sauce and brings that lovely orange color reminiscent of the blue box we all grew up with.  Butternut Mac & Cheese 1 cup cooked butternut squash (I roasted a 4 pound squash, and reserved the rest.  You can also substitute frozen butternut squash puree.) 3/4 -1 cup milk (I used unsweetened almond milk) 1/2-1 cup shredded cheddar cheese 2 tsp dijon mustard ...