The Dainty Dish

I tried out the first recipe from the book I received for Christmas “Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food” and it was a massive success! I started out with the Butternut Squash Grilled Cheese sandwich.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup of butternut squash puree*

1 tablespoon of butter (The recipe in the book called for margarine, but we don’t use margarine in our house. We are strictly a butter using household)

1/4 teaspoon of salt

4 slices of bread (The recipe calls for whole wheat, but I used nut & oat)

nonstick cooking spray, if you don’t have a non-stick skillet

1 teaspoon of olive oil

* I pre-made all purees for the recipes I planned to try first (spinach, butternut squash, and cauliflower) the day before. Because butternut squash is not in season, I used frozen organic butternut squash cubes and steamed them, then pureed them using my handy Magic Bullet. After each puree cooled, I bagged them in small freezer bags. Each bag containing 1/2 cup. I froze the majority of the bags, while keeping out a bag, of each type of puree, that I planned to use within the next few days.

How to:

1. In a small bowl mix the puree, the shredded cheese, the butter, and salt.

2. Spread the mixture onto two slices and top with the other two slices. Be sure not to overload the bread, as it will spill over the edge if you do so and then its just a bit too messy. I then coated the top piece of each slice of bread with olive oil using a basting brush. The recipe said to add the olive oil straight to the skillet, but I tried that and the first slices ended up being drenched and the final taste was just overkill on the oil.

3. Heat up a non-stick skillet on medium heat. If you don’t have a non-stick skillet, add the non-stick cooking spray to the pan. Once its warm, place each sandwich into the skillet, olive oil side of bread facing down onto the skillet. While the first side is cooking, bast the upwards facing sides with olive oil. Allow each side to cook 4 to 5 minutes, or until the bread is crisp to your liking and the mixture inside is melted thoroughly.

4. Let each sandwich cool for a few minutes, then cut into pieces. Hawke loves when his sandwiches bites are in fun shapes, so usually I break out my stash of cookie cutters in fun shapes (like a star) and cut his sandwiches using those. This does leave the excess trimmings for me to snack on as well. A win-win situation for us both.

Butternut squash is low in fat, full of fiber, provides significant amounts of potassium & vitamin B6, has high levels of beta-carotene (which the body converts to vitamin A), and is packed full of antioxidant rich vitamin C.

Hawke LOVED his sandwich and I will definitely be adding this to our regular lunch meals!

- Sutton