I remember the first time I made this dish quite clearly. It was not long after I started my post-baccalaureate in Biology and the reality of my situation [read: I’M BROKE!] was really sinking in. I was still basking in the victory of my last complicated attempt at cooking–a chicken coq au vin–and was hungry for something else that was complicated. I had never cooked with butternut squash nor created a béchamel sauce before… but was convinced I was more than up to the challenge.

My poor husband and mother. They were so supportive of my cooking at the time and ate it without complaint, but it was not very good. I spent most of the time almost cutting myself with the dull knife I was using on the squash, and the rest of the time trying to pull my knife out of said squash. Needless to say, the squash was in huge chunks and didn’t cook thoroughly. I looked up “is squash okay for dogs” and it is so I fed some to our dog. I burned myself while trying to boil the lasagna. I didn’t chop up the sage leaves and left them in the lasagna whole, making each bite a sage-y surprise. And the béchamel sauce–it looked like clotted cream. It was a hot mess, but the me of three years ago was fiercely proud of it. (Seriously, I still have the picture of it! Oh, the embarrassment.) Lucky for me (and my husband especially), I’ve gotten much better at cooking since then.

I don’t usually cook with butternut squash–James isn’t a fan–but I ended up with a leftover squash after a dinner party and decided to have another go at the lasagna. And it turned out absolutely sublime. The caramelized, roasted cubes of butternut squash almost melt into the creamy béchamel–but still offer a sensory ‘bite’, much like meat. The fresh sage is subdued but not underrepresented, and plays off the sweetness of the squash nicely. The mozzarella cheese is a nice, salty touch. And the sweet Italian sausage packs a savory punch, making this lasagna the full package and the real seasonal deal.

I won’t lie–this is not a quick or easy dish to make. Just prepping the squash alone takes 15-20 minutes–cutting off the skin, dicing, scooping out the seeds, and so on. But I think that this is one of my favorite ways to use butternut squash in a way that is more savory than sweet. I tagged this recipe as being vegetarian, even though I clearly have Italian sausage on the ingredients list–to be honest, you can leave the sausage out completely and this dish will be a vegetarian crowd-pleaser! I would add a little more salt and pepper to the béchamel if you are leaving out the meat to make sure that the sweetness of the squash doesn’t overwhelm the rest of the dish.

This lasagna would be right at home with the rest of your Thanksgiving spread–or just a nice, hearty meal for you & your family on a cold winter night. And if your lasagna looks as busted as my old one did–don’t worry, you’ll get there eventually! I’m certainly no Julia Child, but I can look back at my progress from four years ago and laugh.

The idea of any kind of pickled cabbage tasting good with a milk derivative–yeah, I sound like I should be locked up for even suggesting it, right? But contrary to popular belief, kimchi and cheese are agreeable bedfellows in a crazy variety of dishes.

When James and I lived in Denver, a [sadly, now closed] Korean restaurant in Aurora offered a ‘kimchi and cheese dolsot bibimbap’ on the menu. I had always been intrigued by the listing, but couldn’t bring myself to order it until my sister-in-law tried it on a lark one evening. (She and I have an almost masochistic streak regarding weird flavor combinations.) It was absolutely delicious–the creaminess of the cheese carried the tangy, spicy flavor of the kimchi very well. And despite the odd texture combination of crunchy (kimchi), creamy (cheese) and mushy (medium-grain rice), I was a fan.

Apparently this ‘match made in heaven’ wasn’t a secret; Kogi BBQ came into prominence in LA a year after I tried the bibimbap and a kimchi quesadilla was a featured item. I decided to try making the recipe Roy Choi provided to Gourmet soon afterward and found myself addicted to the kimchi + cheese combination. I’ve subsequently made kimchi quesadillas for potlucks, snacks and late-night cravings.

When you look at that eventual progression of foods, kimchi mac n’ cheese doesn’t seem like such an oddity now, does it? Well… it’s okay, I understand that it’s still a crazy idea. It was born out of a “I want kimchi quesadillas, but don’t have tortillas or cheese… but I DO have this instant mac n’ cheese box…” whim. And after I discovered it was indeed delicious, I whipped up this recipe on the fly.

So what does it taste like? Rich, sharp cheddar cheese sauce with flecks of crunchy, tangy kimchi with a slow burn of heat, all carried atop the al dente consistency of shell pasta. I like to top it with smoked paprika, which gives a hint of smokiness to the cheese and compliments the slightly caramelized kimchi cabbage. If you’d prefer even more spice, you can mix in cayenne pepper to taste at the end–but I find that less spice is more when balancing the flavors together.

Give the recipe a whirl and let me know what you think! It’s so crazy that you just might like it too. Be careful though–if you like it a lot more than you think, you might start dreaming up crazy ways to put kimchi in everything! (Not that I’m speaking from experience of course…)

Everybody makes the resolution to lose weight at the beginning of the year—so much so that it’s trite. But with the prevalence of Bad Food in our grocery stores and supermarkets today, it becomes increasingly harder to not only keep your resolution, but to continue it even after you’ve lost the weight. A great way to stay on the path to your fitness goal is to alter your diet in a healthy and non-dramatic way. But healthy weight loss is kind of slow… and so, I go the crazy-pants route by cutting carbohydrates out of my diet completely. (Disclaimer: This is NOT healthy and NOT maintainable! I will explain further below.)

My girlfriend’s bachelorette party is in Las Vegas, and one of the events on the itinerary is a Beach Club—if you’re not familiar with the idea, it’s a day club that is poolside and outdoors, with cabana service replacing bottle service along the sides. Basically, everyone is in their skivvies and there is no place to hide from judging eyes. I realized that this was going to be a part of the trip about a month before the trip… and that’s why I took such drastic measures and cut carbs out.

With all of that said, I decided to try my hand at cauliflower pizza because it was, in my mind, a great way to have Bad Food (pepperoni pizza) without sacrificing my diet. And yes, technically there are no starchy, carbohydrate components. But what it doesn’t have in carbs it makes up for in fat: cheese, cheese, and more cheese. This cauliflower pizza crust recipe is delicious, but I just wanted to debunk the idea that it is healthy because it doesn’t have bread in it. This is not the case. However, if you are looking for a way to have pizza that is gluten-free… this is the recipe for you. Keeping an eye on portion sizes and counting macros for weight loss can help ensure that even healthier swaps align with your nutritional goals. For those exploring surgical options, understanding the gastric sleeve uk cost can be an important step in planning a long-term weight loss journey.

The key to making the crust cohesive and not crumbly is the amount of water you wring out of the ground cauliflower before shaping the crust. You cannot do this half-heartedly—I don’t know how else to emphasize this point, other than to say that your hard work will look more like cheesy cauliflower mash than crust. I spent over 5-7 minutes just wringing the water out of the cauliflower as hard as I could, and I ended up with a perfect crust that held together—even when I picked it up by the edges.

This recipe is for the crust only and not for the toppings, as I am assuming you have an idea of what you would prefer on your own pizza. For reference, I have used tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and thinly-sliced pepperoni… simple, but delicious!

Recipe adapted from The Lucky Penny Blog.