Did I tell ya? Yours truly is cooking Thanksgiving dinner this year. Yup... first time. I have always helped mom but never have I hosted the family here at home for the big day. This will be a first!
The head count may be up to 13, THIRTEEN! I don't think I even have 13 chairs! But that's the least of my worries.
Turkey day is a big deal. You got the bird, the potatoes, and most importantly the stuffing! It's like the cooks signature on the Big Day. Right?
So I couldn't wait until the big day to try a new stuffing recipe. I had to take at least one dry run. So I defrosted a small chicken and called Mom. :~)
See... mom makes a mean stuffing. She doesn't have a recipe, every year it's a little different but every year it's good! (well, except the year she slipped on the pepper :~)
So this was a stab at Mom's technique, with a GreenLiteBite makeover, of course. :~P I plan on doubling this recipe for my "Big Day".
Oh! and the husband liked it! He wasn't as excited as I would have liked but, whatever. I thought it was AWESOME! The toddler, not so much. He tried but was turned off by the look of it. As you can tell, it's hard to photograph a big bowl of stuffing and make it look appetizing! Or at least as good as it tastes! :~)
Ingredients
- 6 large slices of 100% Whole Wheat Bread
- 1 tablespoon olive oil (14g)
- 1 medium onion (I used a red one it was all I had)
- 15 baby carrots (about 3 regular ones) diced
- 3 celery stalks diced
- 8 oz white button mushrooms diced
- 2 turkey sausage links
- 3-4 cups of baby spinach chopped
- Kosher Salt to taste
- 2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
- 1 teaspoon each ground sage, garlic powder, onion powder
- 1 tablespoon dried parsley
- ⅛ - ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 cups of chicken fat free chicken broth
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
Lay the bread slices on a cookie sheet and back for ½ hour flipping once until crunchy all the way trough.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and carrots. Cook for a minute or two before adding the celery and mushroom. Stir and keep on heat while you prepare the sausage.
Lightly cut the sausage lengthwise by piercing the casing (skin). Remove and add the sausage meat to the skillet. Cook while breaking apart with a wooden spoon. As it browns it will get easier.
Start adding your spices while the sausage is browning.
Once the sausage is broken up, add the baby spinach. Stir in and it will cook down.
Now you may have some good bits sticking to the bottom of the skillet. That OK, good even! Add about half of the chicken broth, stir and all the goodness will come up. :~)
At this point the bread is probably done. Remove from the oven and cut into cubes. Add the cubed bread to the skillet with the remaining broth. You may want to add the broth a bit at a time, so you don't make it too moist. If it's not moist enough, add a splash of water.
Shut off the heat and let it sit a minute. Enjoy now or stuff in the cavity of a chicken or turkey. Put any leftovers in a bowl and keep warm in the oven.
I didn't official weigh the serving sizes but I was able to estimate about 4-5 cups of finished stuffing. So I'm going with 6 servings of just over ½ cup each and that's a conservative estimate. There was a lot of stuffing there! Worse case scenario, you can separate into 6 equal portions for more accurate nutrition information.
Thanksgiving Prep: Mom's Stuffing
Ingredients
- 6 large slices of 100% Whole Wheat Bread
- 1 tablespoon olive oil 14g
- 1 medium onion I used a red one it was all I had
- 15 baby carrots about 3 regular ones diced
- 3 celery stalks diced
- 8 oz white button mushrooms diced
- 2 turkey sausage links
- 3-4 cups of baby spinach chopped
- Kosher Salt to taste
- 2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
- 1 teaspoon each ground sage garlic powder, onion powder
- 1 tablespoon dried parsley
- ⅛ - ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 cups of chicken fat free chicken broth
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
- Lay the bread slices on a cookie sheet and back for ½ hour flipping once until crunchy all the way trough.6 large slices of 100% Whole Wheat Bread
- Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and carrots. Cook for a minute or two before adding the celery and mushroom. Stir and keep on heat while you prepare the sausage.1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 medium onion, 15 baby carrots, 3 celery stalks diced, 8 oz white button mushrooms diced, Kosher Salt to taste
- Lightly cut the sausage lengthwise by piercing the casing (skin). Remove and add the sausage meat to the skillet. Cook while breaking apart with a wooden spoon. As it browns it will get easier.2 turkey sausage links
- Start adding your spices while the sausage is browning.2 teaspoon poultry seasoning, 1 teaspoon each ground sage
- Once the sausage is broken up, add the baby spinach. Stir in and it will cook down.3-4 cups of baby spinach chopped
- Now you may have some good bits sticking to the bottom of the skillet. That OK, good even! Add about half of the chicken broth, stir and all the goodness will come up. :~)2 cups of chicken fat free chicken broth
- At this point the bread is probably done. Remove from the oven and cut into cubes. Add the cubed bread to the skillet with the remaining broth. You may want to add the broth a bit at a time, so you don't make it too moist. If it's not moist enough, add a splash of water.1 tablespoon dried parsley, ⅛ - ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- Shut off the heat and let it sit a minute. Enjoy now or stuff in the cavity of a chicken or turkey. Put any leftovers in a bowl and keep warm in the oven.
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Amanda says
Roni--at what point do you put in the spices? From your details, they never go in but they are listed in the ingredients. I KNOW there are spices!
And is that garlic powder AND garlic salt? Surely not garlic powder, garlic powder. 🙂
I'm making this recipe this weekend. We travel for Thanksgiving but we LOVE turkey so we are having our own little Thanksgiving dinner this weekend which will lead to leftovers next week. YAY! 🙂
Laura N says
Oh, more T-day recipes please!!! We are hosting, too. I think we'll end up with 20+. Our house is nowhere near big enough, but it's our turn to host so what else can we do?! Thankfully I don't have to do the Turkey, though. And everyone brings a dish, but I'll still have more than my share to cook. You know you're my first stop for recipes, so I'm looking forward to more Thanksgiving info. Thank you!
Scale Junkie says
I like to keep it simple, whole grain bread cubes, poultry seasoning, garlic, onion, celery, apple, smart balance, ff chicken broth and a bit of fresh parsley.
allijag says
I just need to say - I'm so totally jealous of your whole weekend in Chi-town. You guys looked like you had so much fun - and even if you "say" you don't realize you aren't in your 20s any more - you certainly don't look a day older than any of those 20 year old girls!!!
I tagged you in the "7 interesting things" that is being passed around! 🙂 Don't feel like you have to do it! 🙂 Just wanted to let you know!
karen says
We all are looking
forward to Thanksgiving. Thanks for your help!!
got to tell you this.
My daughter -law said come look at the turkey we got from (her friend) Laura (home grown) it was huge..30 lbs Wow what drumsticks!!
She wanting to saw it in 1/2.
YOUR STUFFING LOOKS GREAT!! and SOUNDS REALLY GOOD.
We always stuff the bird need those juices from the bird to halp flavor the stuffing.
I like using my veggies from the garden I grind and freeze for winter use.
happy cooking,
Karen
Tawnya says
We make dressing too, with cornbread. Yummy! It usually has boiled egg, part of the turkey, celery, onion and sage. Sooo good!
MaryB says
Wow that looks great! Okay, I lied, it looks awful but SOUNDS great!
I am going to try it with Michele's idea of the RF Jimmy Deans
Lori says
Is it possible to calculate saturated fat on your recipes? Believe it or not, I use a lot of your recipes to cook for my husband who had a heart attack last year. Cardiac diets focus on fat, yes, but in particular - saturated fat. If it's easy, please consider adding it to your nutritionals. If it's a pain - don't worry about it. Thanks as always for your inspiration and fabulous recipes!
Annette says
that looks really good! I Love stuffing! We are having it at my mom's house...........big house.........and everyone will bring several things so mom doesn't have to do it all 🙂 I Always wash the dishes :)!!
Christy says
This looks great!
Christie says
I love bread stuffing. We don't stuff it so at my family's Thanksgiving we call it dressing. My grandmother always makes it but she passed away recently so I guess someone is going to have to try to live up to her recipe! She makes it similar to Paula Deen (we are in Georgia) with a mixture of biscuits, cornbread, and whatever else she has laying around.
Anyway, thanks for the healthier recipe!
Michele says
Sounds super yummy!! Have you considered using the Jimmy Deans 60% less fat pork sausage? My mom always used pork sausage in hers, and it was soo yummy! Just an idea for you Roni!
kyree90 says
My mom used white bread, a stick of melted margarine, celery salt, celery, onion and water. It was yummy, but sure not good for you.
Michele says
You will probably laugh when you hear how my family makes stuffing. We use:
Saltine crackers
Diced onion
Melted butter
salt, pepper and a little water
We just crush up the crackers in a bowl, add in everything else and mix with our hands and stuff it in the turkey. It's an old Lithuanian (sp) recipe and it's so good!!! I know it sounds weird but believe me when I say it's delicious!