Slow Cooker Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese Recipe

This Slow Cooker Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese is an easy and healthy spin on the classic comfort food, making a festive Fall side dish.

I am LOVING Fall this year! After desert dwelling for the past 7 years, I am soaking up every little bit of the season that I can. That means watching the leaves changing color, cooler weather, breaking out the sweaters. It also means pumpkin spice & salted caramel everything!

Aaaand this is the time of year when I shift my eyes from grilling everything I can get my hands on to baking. This week was orange zucchini bread and cream cheese-filled pumpkin spice snickerdoodles. Not just that, but I am getting back to roasting and slow cooking all kinds of warm and cozy comfort food.

Which brings us to mac & cheese, obviously.

Cutting the fat

Holy cow, I love this stuff. And, really, what’s not to love about it? It’s pasta and cheese, people! All good things.

But, because of all of that lovely pasta and melty cheese, it is also usually super high in calories and fat. This means small portions (big thumbs down) that don’t fill me up.

The solution? Add more vegetables!

The kind that are sneaky and you can’t really tell they’re there. However, they still give you all of their wonderful health benefits.

This creamy mac & cheese is the ultimate comfort food. It is made healthier and more satisfying using whole wheat pasta, with an added vegetable boost from roasted butternut squash.

And, bonus – it’s a one pot meal (yay for less dishes!).

The slow cooker does all of the work, so you can get on with your life and still have a delicious homemade meal on the table at dinnertime!

The hardest part of this Slow Cooker Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese recipe is peeling and dicing the butternut squash, which I do this way.

This can even be avoided by buying the bags of ready-to-use squash, so you just have to throw it straight into the slow cooker! Unless your store runs out like mine did….drat!

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Slow Cooker Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese Recipe

Yield: 8 servings

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 8 hours

Total Time: 8 hours 10 minutes

This Slow Cooker Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese is an easy and healthy spin on the classic comfort food, making a festive Fall side dish.

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Ingredients

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• 1 medium (~4 cups) butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1" cubes
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 3 tsp minced garlic
• 5 c. low sodium chicken broth
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried rosemary
• 1 (13.25oz) box uncooked whole wheat macaroni
• 8 oz Neufchatel cream cheese
• 1/2 c. freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Add squash, onion, garlic, broth, and spices into slow cooker.
2. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4-5 hours.
3. Blend with an immersion blender (or in small batches in a regular blender) until smooth.
4. Add pasta and cook on high for 30 minutes, or until pasta is al dente.
5. Add salt and pepper and stir in cheeses until melted.

Nutrition Information:

Serving Size: 1/8th
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 293Total Fat: 10gSaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 40mgSodium: 374mgCarbohydrates: 46gFiber: 9gSugar: 4gProtein: 12g