Non-Dairy Grain-Free Stuffing

I hope you had a wonderful thanksgiving! We sure did! I had GREAT brain day, so I spent a good amount of it in the kitchen making all sorts of yummy things for our Thanksgiving gathering with friends.

All six recipes were new to me, but the one I was most excited to try was the non-dairy, grain-free stuffing created by my amazing sister, Carisa, who runs the Clean & Lean Facebook page. If you want to be inspired to live a healthy life, you are going to want to check out her page. If you want inspiration to eat clean and move your body, you'll find it with Carisa's recipes, ingredient substitutions, motivational thoughts, and workouts.

If you are in Minnesota, you can catch Carisa on Fox 9's cooking segment. Follow her page for show times. Two weeks ago, she was on the show making this non-dairy, grain-free stuffing recipe.  Fortunately for those of us not in Minnesota, she posted the recipe to her Facebook page, as well.

It was such a big hit at dinner tonight, I asked Carisa if I could blog about it here, and she graciously agreed. So here are your step-by-step directions to my new favorite healthy stuffing alternative. And did I mention that it's made in a crock pot? Throw it in and take it easy, or, in my case, whip up five other recipes!

My Sister's Stuffing

created by Carisa Rasmussen of Clean & Lean

Ingredients:

• 3 cups low sodium, organic chicken broth 
• 1 cup wild rice 
• 1 cup quinoa (rinsed) 
• 3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 
• 1 package of sliced mushrooms (Sorry, Carisa, I skipped these!)
• 1 large onion, chopped  (I diced them)
• 2 large carrots, diced
• 4 celery ribs with leaves, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped 
• 1 cup finely cut chives (I used 1/2 cup dried)
• 2 bay leaves 
• 1 tsp poultry seasoning (or two, if you prefer)
• 3 tsp sea salt 
• ½ tsp black pepper 

Directions: 

1.  Add rinsed quinoa and wild rice to the crockpot. I've yet to figure out the best way to rinse quinoa without making a mess. Anyone have any hints for me?

2. Add 3 cups chicken broth. I used to buy a ton of chicken broth until a friend told me about Better Than Bouillon.

3. Add 3 Tablespoons olive oil. (Ignore the mess. It was crazy in my kitchen today!)

4. Dice 1 onion, 2 carrots, and 4 celery ribs (including leaves). Add to crock pot.

5. Add 4 cloves garlic (about 2 teaspoons).

6. Add 1/2 cup dried chives (or 1 cup fresh chives)

7. Add 2 bay leaves.

8. Carisa said to add 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning. I like seasoning. I added two. I make my own poultry seasoning. Eventually I'll make a post about that.

9. Finally, add 3 teaspoons salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Set the crockpot to 3 hours on high.

10. Three hours later, the stuffing is done!

11. I put the stuffing in a casserole dish for easier transport to our friend's house.

A few notes from Carisa.
This is a stuffing that you can cook ahead of time because it reheats well. (She cooks hers overnight on low). This is a very moist stuffing, it’s not dry at all. If you prefer a more dry stuffing, start by leaving out a half cup of chicken broth and a Tablespoon of the oil. I love the flavor of this stuffing, it’s my absolute favorite, but my husband prefers it with more salt. You may need to add salt depending on your personal preference.

A few notes from Jen:

I thought the texture was just right, not too dry, and not too moist. It's really savory and with my particular poultry seasoning, I think I will cut the salt by half next time, and believe me, there will be a next time! Also, this recipe makes a very generous amount of stuffing. If you are making this for a smaller group, you may want to half the recipe.

I've made a printable recipe so you can get a started on next year's menu!

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Thankful

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A few days ago, I wrote about our Thankful Tree. Although we try to teach our son to be generous and grateful all year long, there is a special emphasis in the months of November and December. As the leaves on D's thankful tree have been filled with mentions of rockets and space and NASA and Houston, we have been gently trying to think of other things, perhaps closer to home, for which he is thankful, like perhaps his mommy or daddy, or warm home, or good food to eat.

I love the challenging question, "What if you woke up today with only the things you thanked God for yesterday?" There are lots of printable versions of this question on Pinterest, most of them our words only. I liked the idea of giving D a visual reminder of how blessed we are so I made my own printable to kick off our third week of thanksgiving.

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Teaching Our Child to Give Thanks

A decade ago, I was single and living in Michigan. I was "adopted" by some friends of mine who had a beautiful family with four young kids. In addition to being a wonderful model of marriage to me, Dan and Sara taught me a lot about parenting, as well. 

I spent countless hours with the Kennedys, celebrating holidays and birthdays, playing Catan, discussing my woeful love life, and in general, just sharing our lives together. After I sustained my brain injury, the Kennedy family helped me with my therapies, made sure I had food to eat and that I actually ate it, and in general, generously loved on me. 

I was writing my book, Generation Ex (<--Amazon affiliate link) during this season, and I often tucked little marriage and parenting ideas away. Some I mention in my book. Others I noted internally, for someday, if God would bring me a spouse and children.

One tradition I just loved was their Thankful Tree. I will never forget how loved I felt when I came over one day and saw a leaf with "Auntie Jen." on it. I knew that I would have a Thankful Tree in my house.

We started our Thankful Tree last year when our son was three and able to articulate the things for which he was thankful.

I bought the foam tree on clearance at a craft store on clearance. I think the reason it was so cheap is that one section is slightly discolored. But we don't mind. We like to save money!

It took a bit of searching, but I did find a site that still sells this. 

We put up our Thankful tree on November 1. Our particular tree is basically a foam puzzle. 

We match the numbers on the back, and then tape the seams. This is a lesson learned from last year, when tree limbs fell down toward the end of the month!

Ready to start adding our leaves of gratitude! We put the tree in our dining room so we can talk about gratitude at dinner.

For leaves, I picked out some pre-cuts at a local curriculum store. You can also cut out your own, or--if you have one and know how to use it (ahem, I'm still working on that), you can use a Silhouette cutting machine, if you have one. (<--Amazon affiliate link). Next year, I'm going to use the file One Creative Mommy shared.

Each day, we add a new thing for which our son is thankful. Last year, we had a definite train theme to our thankful tree. 

This year, we've made to tweaks to our tradition. The first is that our 4-year-old now writes on the leaves himself. (Sneaky handwriting practice!). 

The second change is that I've added a frame with thoughts about gratitude. 

I love this one from Ink Happi. 

There are several great printables on Pinterest, so I think I will be swapping out quotes each week. Next week I'll put up this one from Balancing Home.

Please do NOT pin this image from our site. Instead, pin from the source, Balancing Home. 

You can find more gratitude printables on my November board. 

Follow NOVEMBER by Jen | de Jong Dream House on Pinterest

At the end of the month, keep your leaves because it will be fun to see how your child's interests change over the years.

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