Grilled cheese with butternut squash

I had such a busy past month that I'm really far behind on this blog from where I wanted to be. So I decided I needed another post today. And it's another food one!

I made this recipe for lunch today. It was really easy to make. I'm going to be honest, I didn't have very high hopes for it. I don't like grilled cheese sandwiches and this recipe calls for that gross soft tub margerine plastic that people seem to think is a butter equivalent. I also haven't had great luck cooking with butternut squash.

I think I have pretty much given up on attempting food photography. So if you're wondering why I am just posting pictures of the recipe book, that's why.

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup sweet potato or butternut squash puree

1 tablespoon of previously mentioned plastic food substitute

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 slices of whole wheat bread

Nonstick cooking spray 1 teaspoon olive oil

I started this recipe by baking the butternut squash. I cut it in half and faced it flesh down on a baking sheet for 45-50 minutes at 400 degrees. I scooped it out of the skin when it was done and put it in the food processor until it was smooth.

I mixed 1/2 cup of the squash puree with 1/2 cup of the shredded cheese and 1/4 teaspoon salt. I should have added the plasic food substitute here but I left that out entirely since no one needs to eat that. I didn't think the sandwich would need any more flavor since the salt was being added to this mix. I spread half the cheese/squash mixture on one slice of bread and put a plain piece of bread over the top to close the sandwich.

I put the sandwich on a frying pan that was sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. The recipe says to put olive oil on the pan but I didn't think that was necessary because I was using a nonstick frying pan. I just grilled the sandwich until the cheese melted and cut the sandwich into little squares so my kids could eat them.

The result: I loved them. I thought the squash made the sandwich taste really good and I have never really liked butternut squash. My kids... well... to be fair, they don't like any sandwiches and never eat them. I also fed this to them just before nap time so there wasn't a whole lot I could have fed them that was going to make them happy. But when they get a little older I'm going to make this for them again because I thought it was a great alternative to regular grilled cheese.

As a side note, I packaged the rest of the butternut squash into plastic bags in 1/2 cup portions and stored them in my fridge to use for future recipes or more grilled cheese sandwiches.