Sage Scented Fettuccine and Butternut Squash and Chicken

I found this recipe on www.godariyfree.com and tweaked it to work with the ingredients I had on hand.  WE LOVED THIS!!!  And it felt so....FALL!

Ingredients:

• 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil, divided
• 1 Pound Butternut Squash, peeled, seeded and dice into 1/4-inch cubes
• Sea Salt
• 1 Cup Chicken Stock (mine was homemade using a variation of this recipe: Chicken Stock)
• 1 Yellow Onion, halved and cut into 1/4-inch slices
• 1/4 Cup White Wine
• 1 Tablespoon Maple Syrup
• 1/2 Tablespoon Raspberry Balsamic Vinegar**
• 1/2 Tablespoon White Wine Vinegar**
• 2 Teaspoons Rubbed Sage
• 6 Ounces Fettuccine 
• 2 Tablespoons Nutritional Yeast (I could not find this so I omitted it, but it is a great substitute for cheese, I plan on ordering some and trying this again)
• Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• Fresh Sage Leaves, optional
• 6 chicken tenderloins
• garlic powder

**Alternatively use 1 Tablespoon Balsamic Vinegar instead of Raspberry Balsamic and White Winne Vinegar; the original recipe called for this but I had to improvise because I did no realize I was out!

Steps (fettuccine):

• Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
• Add the squash, sprinkle with salt, and cook for 5 minutes. Don’t worry if the squash starts to break apart.
• Add the chicken stock and cook, still stirring gently until the liquid is almost evaporated, about 7 minutes.
• Add the onion and season with a little more salt. Cook until the onion begins to soften, 3 minutes.
• Add the wine, and cook until moisture is almost evaporated and mixture is caramelized.
• Stir in the maple syrup, vinegars, and sage. Keep warm.
• Cook the pasta in a pot of boiling salted water until tender, about 10 minutes.
• Drain the pasta and return it to the hot pot.
• Add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil, the nutritional yeast, and salt and pepper to taste; toss to combine.
• Add the vegetable mixture to the pasta and toss again to combine.
• Serve hot garnished with fresh sage leaves, if using.

Steps (chicken):

• Cut chicken into bit size pieces.
• Heat 1 tablespoon of of oil in a medium skillet over medium heat.
• Place chicken in pan and sprinkle with salt, pepper and garlic powder--this is to taste.
• Flip chicken and sprinkle again.
• Remove from heat when cooked through.

Serve:  Serve the chicken and the pasta tossed together or the chicken on the side; we served it separate and just mixed some bites together and others not.  We did remove the larger pieces of onion before serving it to our 11 month old; our 2 year old did not notice the onions mixed in.

Yield: 4 servings

Timing:  Due to the wine and spices I would recommend around a year.  Little Asher was 11 months and is still cutting 6 teeth on top (not all the way in) and he ate it all fine.  He ate the chicken chunk-ed up just fine too!

Storage: 3-5 days in the fridge.  I am going to attempt to freeze the "sauce" to see if it reheats well; I would imagine so.

Difficulty:  3 out of 5; I ONLY give this a 3 because I had to stand over it and stir.  Anything that I have to stand over while I have a 1 and 2 year old running/crawling around automatically gets difficult.  However, no kids---this is a 2 easily.

Epicutie Rating (see left side of page for descriptions)

• Little Joy:  Somewhat Yummy; she joyfully ate it but like most two year olds she just acted difficult when she saw we were thrilled she loved it (because we loved it too).  She ate a big helping of noodles.
• Little Asher:  Yummy in the Tummy; Little Asher has been funny with finger foods.  Around 9 months he did not want anything to do with purees and then around 11 months he decided purees were preferred (we chalk it up to cutting 8 teeth the past month). BUT thats how we knew he loved this---he gobbled up a TON even after a full meal of purees.  SCORE!