I made it with squash. . .

What in the heck is that? Is it a mangled brain. . .dog vomit. . .or. . . mac-n-cheese made with squash? Correct answer is mac-n-cheese made with squash even though it looks like the others. I bought this cookbook called "Deceptively Delicious" last week and thougth I'd give it a try. Basically you puree a bunch of vegetables and freeze them; and then incorporate those purees into normal food your family eats--but they are none the wiser that they are really eating an additional vegetable. I spent my Monday evening creating purees out of squash, yams, and cauliflower--wasn't too challenging except for the fact that I have a very small food processor; so it took me a while to puree everything. But in my freezer are neatly labelled bags of those foods waiting to be incorporated. I have to admit, my family eats vegetables pretty well by themselves; its just sort of a cooking challenge for me to add these purees in when I can. Plus a few of the baked goods recipes don't have any oil in them; they use the purees instead. I'm game for saving calories and adding a little nutrition.

So tonight, I thought I'd make the mac-n-cheese to go with our sloppy joes. It cooked up really nice, I added the 1/2 cup of squash, and away we went. The recipe has cream cheese in it and I think that ruined it. It made it very sticky and that taste overpowered everything. I could have added liver and the cream cheese would have blocked that out. If I do this version again, I would omit the cream cheese and it would probably be better.

The verdict on how it tasted? Ryan--he ate it (I didn't tell him there was squash in it--he HATES squash). I ate a little bit, but didn't care for the consistancy. Paige--ate a few bites and ate 2 sloppy joes instead. So I don't think we'll make this version again.

I'm not going to abandon the concept, just this recipe. I am going to work my way up to the brownies that have spinach in them!