Forgive me for yet another 2 week hiatus friends. I promise... this will not be a regular occurrence. You see, the problem is, I've been feeling a little less than inspired these days. The desire to cook is still very much alive and well. I've cooked many inspiring meals in the last couple of weeks, in fact. But with life being busy as usual and with daylight only sticking around until 4:30 or 5 these days, photos don't always get taken and posts don't get written, and well... the rest is history. And I won't lie... there are many other projects with my new house - and my newfound freedom from academia! - that I'd rather be working on. But sometimes you just have to push through, right? Blogging is good for me, and I'm not ready to give it up yet.
And this recipe is a great place to draw some inspiration. Just when winter food begins to feel heavy and stale, this dish takes winter produce and gives it a refreshingly light spin. The butternut squash transforms into a luxurious, velvety sauce that seems 10 times more decadent than it actually is. It gives the illusion of creaminess without the caloric punch, which is, especially this time of year, a huge bonus. Even my self-proclaimed squash-hating husband loved this dish! Of course, I didn't really tell him it had squash in it until he had finished his whole plate, but whatever. Feel free to let your picky eaters go on believing that it's cheese sauce... they'll never know any better. :)
If you've been following TLC for a while you've probably noticed that I don't cook a whole lot of seafood. That's because neither the boy nor I are huge fans - Dane more so than myself. I do happen to love shrimp, so I went ahead and prepared this dish with the shrimp as directed for myself, but I served his pasta with grilled sirloin steak instead and found both ways to be very satisfying. And either option is still diet-friendly! But if red meat or seafood aren't your thing, feel free to sub in some grilled chicken or forego the meat altogether. Trust me, you won't be disappointed!
