Baked Acorn Squash Stuffed with Breaded Mac & Cheese

What's Thanksgiving without a homemade mac and cheese recipe? You guys always get healthy recipes from me and are probably wondering how I could make a non-dairy free mac and cheese recipe for you all. Because you deserve to eat your comfort foods without having to remove the fun from them. For this holiday I wanted to enjoy a wholesome mac and cheese recipe, and that's what I did. Watching the milk, fontina cheese, and havarti cheese melt in the pot of pasta made my own heart melt.

Then scooping the mac and cheese into the freshly baked acorn squash that smell like rosemary was the highlight of my week. I highly recommend incorporating this recipe into your Thanksgiving diet because of how easy, yet festive the recipe is! Your guests will love the unique way you decided to serve your mac and cheese. So, if this is a meal you'd like to try, keep reading for the full recipe.

Yields: 2

Portion: ½ squash

Prep time: 20 minutes

Total time: 1 hour and 30 minutes

This recipe is vegetarian.

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Ingredients:

1 cup of elbow pasta

½ cup of whole milk

½ cup grated fontina cheese (measured after grating)

½ cup grated havarti cheese (measured after grating)

2 TBSPs unsalted butter

1 acorn squash

Extra virgin olive oil

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Rosemary

Breadcrumbs

Grated parmesan cheese to garnish

Fresh parsley to garnish

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Instructions:

1. First, preheat the oven to 375. Grab your acorn squash and chop it in half.

2. Scoop out the seeds and place the halves on a baking pan. Drizzle on olive oil and season with salt, black pepper, and rosemary.

Make sure each half is seasoned evenly.

3. Bake in the oven for 50 minutes or until the insides soften fully.

While the acorn squash is baking, boil a pot of elbow pasta.

4. While the pasta is cooking, grate the fontina and havarti cheese. When the elbow pasta is cooked al dente, strain the pasta.

5. In that same pot, add in ½ cup of whole milk, 2 TBSPs unsalted butter, and stir. Once the butter has melted, add in the grated cheese. Stir until the cheese has fully melted.

6. Add in the pasta and make sure all of it is well coated with cheese.

Save to the side. Once the acorn squash is done, gently take them out of the oven and scoop in mac and cheese evenly into each squash.

7. Add 1/2 TBSP of breadcrumbs onto each squash and grated parmesan cheese for garnish. Bake them in the oven for 10 more minutes.

8. Gently take them out of the oven and allow them to cool. Garnish the squash with fresh parsley and season with salt and black pepper to taste. Enjoy!

I hope you love this recipe as much as I did, so if you do, please leave me a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! I always read through my suggestions and comments, so please let me know your thoughts. If you have any questions you can feel free to DM me here or through Instagram. Speaking of Instagram - please tag me in all of your creations! I love seeing how the recipes come out and seeing how talented you all are. Sending my love.

xoxo,

Jasmin D the RD