Butternut Squash Macaroni and "Cheese"

 Some of our recent efforts have been "clean eating" and in our case, this means an increase of vegetables and decrease in dairy. {Dairy due to stomach pains, joint inflammation and acne. All of which have noticeably improved over the past few months.}

One of the 40 squash I harvest this summer in our garden.

Macaroni and cheese has always been my favorite comfort food, but I'm often left in belly pain over such high dairy content. So, this was an effort to get the creamy richness of a homemade mac & cheese, minus the dairy. 

I don't have any real recipe as it was all made up on a whim (and I dont' follow recipe measurements).

RECIPE:

1 box of pasta cooked and drained

1 med/ large size butternut squash peeled, seeded and chopped. Roast at 350 until super soft (~an hour)

While fresh hot from the oven, put squash in a food processor. Add a teaspoon of salt, a heaping teaspoon of pepper, an overflowing tablespoon of dry mustard (key for the "homemade mac & cheese" taste) and a teaspoon of Italian dry seasonings, +/- ingredients to taste and add your own kicks for flavor.

Add handfuls of spinach. Mix up.

For extra flavor and a hint of cheese, add half a cup total of fresh grated sharp cheddar/ Parmesan. 

For vegan/ dairy free, add a few tablespoons of nutritional yeast

It was unbelievably DELISH! The hubby even loved it! ;)