Cook’s Illustrated (I’ve been a long-time subscriber, and have mentioned them here previously) just sent me out a sample copy of their relatively new Cook’s Country magazine. This is the second sample issue, and it reminds me a lot of Penzey’s One Magazine.

In both cases, neither of these really appeal to me (though I love both Cook’s original mag and Penzey’s spices). This is probably not an accurate characterization, but both of these mags strike me as county fair cooking. Not exactly my style.

But hey, it was a free magazine, so I’ll read it. What was interesting was that the sample of Cook’s Country I got had a makeover for macaroni and cheese in it. I don’t recall how they did their makeover, but I do recall that they mentioned that a serving of traditional macaroni and cheese (which is definitely a fave comfort food for me) has over 1,000 calories!

Yikes!

Now, I tend to do boxed mac ‘n cheese (you know which one), and I typically throw a can of corn in mine, so perhaps the damage isn’t so great. But still!

Anyways, all of this is just a long preamble to bookmarking a recipe for a healther macaroni and cheese I saw on Healthy Appetite with Ellie Krieger (a relatively new FoodTV show).

According to the nutrition info, a serving of this mac ‘n cheese has less than 400 calories. But what I really like is that she uses winter squash as the base for the sauce. How cool is that?

Now mac ‘n cheese is not going to be a staple of mine (even with a whole grain pasta), but at least this version has a lot of nutrient power going for it!