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Goal Update and Clean Eating Mac & Cheese with Butternut Squash Purée

by Emily Buys 3 Comments

In March I was inspired by my sponsors at Finish Power and Free Alliance of Moms to “clean it forward” by making 3 goals to grow a healthier me through clean living. I am now a few months into my goals and wanted to share my progress and what I have learned thus far.

Goal: Plant a garden
As of this morning, we have all of our seeds and plants planted in our garden in hopes of some delicious garden veggies this summer. It has been a lot of work taking a piece of un-worked land and weeding, turning and fertilizing it to turn it into a garden. It has been a lot of fun though, and I have enjoyed doing this project with my kids. It has been great to teach them about seeds, soil and compost as well as getting a little (OK… A lot) dirty!

Gardening
We planted some tomatoes, cucumbers, sugar snap peas, watermelon, zucchini, pumpkins, and butternut squash. We also have these cute little pumpkins growing in our garden which we didn’t plant, but where a nice little gift from the pumpkins that we threw into our compost pile last fall!

Garden
I am excited for all of our little plants to grow and produce veggies, but I am especially looking forward to some home-grown butternut squash to purée, freeze and turn into delicious clean eating “Mac & Cheese with Butternut Squash Purée“.

Goal: Clean Eating

I made a goal to start cutting out processed foods by making more foods from scratch rather then buying them pre-packaged.

One of my clean eating successes, is a recipe that I created for homemade Mac & Cheese with butternut squash purée. It has a delicious rich and creamy sauce that the kids love! It’s totally kid-friendly and they have no clue about the hidden veggies! I also feel so good about feeding them a family favorite that is prepared from scratch rather then a box full of preservatives and artificial ingredients.

Clean Eating Mac & Cheese with Butternut Squash Puree

Leanne (Cleverhousewife.com)

Clean Eating Mac & Cheese with Butternut Squash Puree

A clean eating recipe for Mac & Cheese, while sneaking in some veggies!
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes mins
Cook Time 10 minutes mins
Total Time 20 minutes mins
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 1 lb whole wheat macaroni
  • 1/4 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 1/4 cup milk
  • 2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
  • 1/4 cup Parmesan
  • 1 1/2 cups puréed butternut squash

Method
 

  1. Boil 1 medium sized butternut squash
  2. When squash is cooked and cooled remove from skin and blend into a purée
  3. Whisk 1 cup milk and flour until smooth
  4. Heat milk and flour mixture on medium heat stirring constantly until thickened. Remove from heat at the very first signs of boiling
  5. Mix in shredded cheese until fully melted, then add in Parmesan cheese.
  6. If sauce is too thick add in remaining 1/4 cup of milk gradually over low heat until you reach the desired consistency
  7. Add 1 1/2 cups of butternut squash purée to cheese sauce while stirring constantly over low heat.
  8. Add to macaroni noodles, cooked according to package.
  9. Enjoy the satisfaction of knowing your kids are enjoying a yummy and healthy meal!

Baby Bullet with Butternut Squash Puree

A great product to use to make your squash purée is the Baby bullet made by the makers of the Magic Bullet. This is a fantastic little blender to use for this job because it is especially designed to make very smooth purées. This makes it a useful tool for new moms who are making homemade puréed baby food.

The nice thing is that it comes with a set of baby food storage BPA free plastic jars to store all of your pre-made baby meals. Also, because the baby bullet is smaller then a large blender or food processor it makes clean-up of a small batch or butternut squash purée very easy!

Which brings me to my last clean-living goal…
Goal: Reduce Chemicals in my home

I have been using the new Finish Power & Free for over a month and I am in love! This line of dishwasher capsules and Jet Dry formula uses the natural cleaning power of hydrogen peroxide to leave dishes sparkling clean, while using less harsh chemicals. Because I am using less harsh chemicals I feel confident about using them to clean baby and toddler products such as my baby bullet and my toddler’s NUK toys, spoons and cups.

Baby Bullet in the Dishwasher
I don’t think that I really noticed how much I appreciated this until I recently ran out of my Finish Power & Free capsules and used another brand that I had in my cupboard. After running a load of dishes using the other brand, I could see that my dishes where not as sparkly clean as I had been accustomed to with my Finish Power & Free Capsules. I also noticed that I didn’t have the same confidence in my dishes that I usually do, knowing that they have been cleaned with a less harsh chemical. That being said, I stocked up on Finish Power & Free on my next shopping trip. To learn more about Finish Power & Free be sure to check out their website to learn tons of info as well as request a free sample.

Free sample of Finish Power & Free

I feel like I have made good progress on my clean living goals, but still have a long ways to go! We need to continue to nurture our garden so that it grows some of the veggies we have been anticipating. I still have a lot of work to do in the kitchen to cut out processed foods (I have 3 failed attempts at homemade tortillas, but I’m not giving up) and I want to find ways to use less harsh chemicals in other places in my home. I will continue to keep you updated on my progress as I “clean it forward” to grow a healthier me!

Filed Under: Entree, Recipes Tagged With: baby bullet, clean eating, clean living, finish power & free, mac & cheese, nuk, recipie

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Janice says

    August 27, 2015 at 3:56 AM

    how is this clean eating when it has all purpose flour?

  2. Emily Lyon says

    August 27, 2015 at 12:47 PM

    HI Janice, I think Leanne just means it’s a cleaner way of eating, with the good ol’ veggie sneak. 😉

  3. Leanne says

    August 27, 2015 at 1:38 PM

    hi Janice! Thanks so much for the question! The only all purpose flour which was used in the cheese sauce can be substituted for whole wheat flour. I have tried it this way, and it works perfectly well, but has a slightly different texture to it that might not be as “kid friendly” but tastes fine. The noodles that I used where also whole wheat, my kids don’t seem to notice a difference there. Sorry, I should have mentioned that in the post, but hope that clears it up for you! I would love to hear how you/ your kids think with the flour substitution!

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