Macaroni and Four Cheeses

It was a slow, quiet day at work today. And cold. It's days like these that it's really, really hard to drink plain water. We have a water cooler in our break room, which unfortunately cools the water. Cold water is just not appealing. I haven't yet developed a taste for plain, hot water.

I know, for the sake of WeightWatchers' guidelines, only half of the six 8-ounce servings need to be plain water, but I tend to strive for more than that. I strongly believe I'm fighting my genetics here. According to my mom, I would often go through most of the day without drinking anything.

I'm not sure if that's because I just don't get thirsty, if I'm secretly a camel, or if that just goes to show I hated plain water even when I was an itty-bitty.

I managed to get one water bottle full of water down, (a Kleen Kanteen knock-off) which I'm guessing from holds roughly 32 ounces. I should double check that and I've been meaning to, but well, what can I say — I'm lazy.

Then I *had* to switch to hot fruity herbal teas for my sanity. I was already wearing two sweaters (my cardigan I wore to work today and my "Mr. Rogers" sweater coat) and I just couldn't take another drop of cold water.

Tonight's dinner was a happy accident in terms of planning. A warming comfort-food dish: Macaroni and Four Cheeses, Ellie Krieger's take on a lighter mac and cheese. I've seen this on a few blogs last month and I have her cookbook out from the library, so I thought I would give it a go.

The winter squash intrigued me, and I'm determined to like it in one form or another. I've spent years wishing a store near me would carry frozen winter squash, and now that they do.. I feel compelled to make use of it.

The end result? Eh, it was wasn't really all that cheesey and it was grainy. I've made better. It's not bad as long as you aren't expecting macaroni and cheese.

Here's my other attempts at making macaroni and cheese (with mixed results). Some are light versions and others aren't: Creamy Stove Top Macaroni and Cheese, Grown-Up Mac and Cheese, Macaroni and Cheese