Better Homes and Gardens Pumpkin Mac and Cheese

I really love pumpkin. As far back as I can remember fall has been my favorite season and one of the big reasons for my love of the season is pumpkins. I love just about any recipe using pumpkin and bake a ton of pumpkin recipes during the fall. One of my favorite memories growing up was the day after Thanksgiving every year when my mother would let me have homemade pumpkin pie for breakfast, to this day it is one of my favorite foods in the world. Unfortunately, my mother isn't around to make my favorite pie anymore, but my two children have grown up sharing my love of everything pumpkin and I have found creative ways to use it in recipes. I was excited when the October issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine had a recipe for Pumpkin Mac and Cheese, which looked delicious.

This recipe has 14 ingredients. The approximate prep and cooking time is about an hour. Now, I am usually a very detail oriented cook. I make lists every week for my meal plans and create my grocery lists based on sales, pantry cupboard stock etc. Well, this last week I thought that I had all the ingredients for this recipe and low and behold the day I was to make it I was missing some ingredients. Therefore I modified this recipe quite a bit. First, I substituted ziti for elbow macaroni, since it was the only type of pasta I had on hand. Second, my two sons drank all my whole milk, so I used the non-fat milk I already had in the fridge. I used fresh pumpkin, instead of canned since I had already made a bunch and stuck it in my freezer. Finally, instead of soft bread crumbs I used panko. I prefer the crunchy texture of panko in most recipes and use it frequently as a substitute for bread crumbs. I left out the sage since I was unable to find it at my local grocery store and had no desire to drive out of my way to find one ingredient.

I was very impressed with how well this macaroni turned out even with all the modifications. I think I actually preferred the ziti to the macaroni. Using the ziti made the recipe more of a baked pasta and it was delicious. My two boys loved this recipe and ate all the leftovers over the course of the following two days. The taste of the pumpkin is delicious without being overly sweet and the cheese blends nicely. Overall, a great way to use fall ingredients.

For the recipe go to Pumpkin Mac and Cheese.