Thanksgiving Recipe Makeover: Bread & Sausage Stuffing (Vegetarian Rendition)

I love bread stuffing! There, I said it! I look forward to enjoying the stuffing every year. I have my tried and true light stuffing that I developed years ago but I also like to try a new stuffing recipe each year too. In honor of Thanksgiving week, I've done a bread & sausage stuffing "makeover," not onlyto make it lighter in fat, saturated fat and calories but to make it vegetarian. Don't worry; I'll have non-vegetarian options listed in the recipe as well.

Here's what I did:

• I used canola oil to sauté the vegetables instead of butter.
• I used some veggie sausage links instead of pork sausage and used half as much as the original recipe called for.
• Instead of adding more butter to moisten the bread cubes, I added a little more broth.
• I used cracked wheat sourdough or whole wheat bread for the bread cubes.

HERE ARE THE SAVINGS!
By making these changes, each serving went from:

• 430 calories to 221 calories per serving
• 28 grams of total fat to 6 grams per serving
• 11 grams of saturated fat to .7 grams per serving
• 55 mg of cholesterol to 0 mg cholesterol per serving

Vegetarian Sausage, Apple and Cranberry Stuffing

Photo: Elaine Magee

Ingredients

5 1/2 cups cubed cracked wheat sourdough bread (or whole wheat bread)
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
8 ounces veggie sausage links, defrosted and coarsely chopped (i.e. Morning Star Sausage Links), light turkey sausage or light breakfast sausage can be substituted
2 teaspoons dried sage
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 crisp apple, cored and chopped
1/2 cup dried cranberries
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley (or 1 tablespoon parsley flakes)
1 cup vegetable broth (chicken or turkey stock can be substitute)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350-degrees. Coat a 2 quart covered baking dish with canola cooking spray. Spread the bread cubes in a single layer on a large nonstick jellyroll pan. Bake for 7 minutes or until evenly toasted, set aside.
2. In a large, nonstick saucepan, add the canola oil and begin cooking the onions and celery, stirring often, until evenly browned. Stir in the chopped sausage links, sage, rosemary, and thyme and cook, stirring often, for another 2 minutes to blend flavors.
3. Add the bread cubes to the saucepan and combine with the onion mixture. Mix in the chopped apple, dried cranberries and parsley. Drizzle the broth or stock over the stuffing mixture and gently toss. Spoon mixture into the prepared baking dish, cover, and bake for 40 minutes. Enjoy!

Yield: Makes 8 servings

Nutrition per serving: 221 calories, 9.5 g protein, 33 g carbohydrate, 6 g fat, .5 g saturated fat, 3.5 g monounsaturated fat, 2 g polyunsaturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 5.5 g fiber, 376 mg sodium. Calories from fat: 24 percent. Omega-3 fatty acids = .3 grams, Omega-6 fatty acids = 1.3 grams


Related Topics:

• Healthy Cooking with Elaine Magee, RD
• Healthy Cooking Newsletter - recipes, kitchen and shopping advice in your inbox

Home for the Holidays: Emotional Eating Edition

What are some ways to avoid emotional eating when you're home for the holidays?

Over the years I've been asked this question by people visiting my WebMD message board and by magazine reporters writing holiday stories.

I think there are three specific things you can do to avoid emotional eating around the holidays:

• Stay on track in terms of your exercise program (helps reduce stress too)


• Don't skip meals (so you don't physically go to that vulnerable super hungry place)


• Eat meals with mostly whole foods that are balanced and satisfying most of the time

Then when you ARE around those "dreaded" childhood favorite foods your mom and other family members have made special...you will be more likely to enjoy them without overeating them.

The people who have asked me the question, "What do I do when family and friends put my favorite childhood foods in front of me over the holidays?" are usually looking for tips on how to avoid eating these foods altogether.

I personally would not suggest depriving anyone of a favorite childhood food over the holidays. Enjoying them and including them (in sensible amounts) in an overall healthy daily diet is the healthiest way to go physically and emotionally. When you know you can have these favorite foods if you want to and you are feeding yourself nice, balanced meals on a regular basis (so you aren't stressed or anxious or hungry from dieting), most of us tend to be satisfied with smaller sensible amounts.

What are your favorite holiday foods? Let me know and I'll post a series of holiday recipe makeovers (with color photos) in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Related Topics:

• Healthy Cooking with Elaine Magee, RD
• Healthy Cooking Newsletter - recipes, kitchen and shopping advice in your inbox

The Food Synergy Gift Bag!

I'll admit it - I'm a gift basket maniac. I love creating designer gift baskets for friends and family. Each basket has a theme, though (it usually falls under the category of pampering yourself or inspiring romance.) You fill the baskets with the thickest, softest, most comfy socks, the best CD you can find, wonderfully scented candles...you get the picture.

But I don't stop there (I told you I am a gift basket maniac)...Given that I write books; I also like to give books packaged with food gifts. For example, for my book THE FLAX COOKBOOK, I've given the book with a pound of ground flaxseed and a cute tablespoon measure. For my book, FRY LIGHT, FRY RIGHT! I've given it with a nonstick frying pan and canola oil sprayer and Teflon spatula wrapped like a gift basket.

For my new (and favorite) book, FOOD SYNERGY, I'm going to give it in a re-usable canvas shopping bag along with 7 of the 10-synergy superfoods that are nonperishable like:

1. Nuts
2. Ground flax (comes in 1 pound bags)
3. Extra virgin olive oil (small or large bottles)
4. Canned tuna (for fish)
5. A bag of whole-wheat pasta or a small bag of whole-wheat flour or a package of whole wheat Boboli Pizza Crust (for whole grains)
6. A fun box or can of green tea (choose a fun flavor like tropical green tea or blueberry green tea or chai green tea)
7. A can or jar of fancy marinara or pizza sauce (for tomato and tomato products)

Including the 10 synergy superfoods will surely get the food synergy gift bag recipients started on the road to a higher level of health courtesy of food synergy secrets.

The whole shebang will run you about 13 dollars for the book (on an internet bookstore) + 99 cents for the re-usable canvas grocery bag + $16 for the food synergy superfoods = $30

This is a great last minute gift, especially if you need a something for someone dealing with the four chronic diseases spotlighted in my book: diabetes, cancer, stroke and heart disease.

Related Topics:

• WebMD Video: Food Baskets for Seniors Are a Welcome Treat
• Top 10 Food Synergy Super Foods

Frugal Food Gift #4: Chocolate Dipped Cookies

An Easy, Decadent Treat That Everyone Will Enjoy

Admittedly there is nothing healthy about this food gift. Well, you could use high cocoa chocolate chips to pump up the antioxidant value of the melted chocolate...but that's about it. I can tell you though that these chocolate dipped peppermint sandwich cookies are loaded with flavor and if you take your time eating and enjoying it, just one cookie is usually very satisfying. This is a great way to use up some of the leftover holiday sprinkles you have hanging around in the back of your spice cabinet. You could recycle holiday bowls, plates, and small gift boxes or place the cookies in holiday gift bags you have lying around.

Each box of cookies cost about $2.50 each ($5.00 total) plus you can pick up a bag of chocolate chips for about $2.00 for a total of $7.00. Since the batch makes about 6 food gifts, each gift will cost about $1.16.

Chocolate Covered Candy Cane Peppermint Sandwich Cookies

Ingredients:

• 11.5-ounce bag semi sweet chocolate chips (milk can be substituted)
• 2 boxes of peppermint sandwich cookies, about 66 cookies total (I buy mine at Trader Joe's - they look like Oreos but the vanilla filling has crushed candy cane in it--but if you can't find them, just use Reduced Fat or regular Oreos)
• Holiday sprinkles, or if you are using regular chocolate sandwich cookies, crushed candy cane works well

Preparation:

1. Pour chocolate chips into a 2-cup glass measure (or similar) and microwave on LOW for about 1 minute. Stir gently and if not melted, microwave in 30-second intervals until almost completely melted. Stir with spoon to distribute the heat evenly and finish melting the chips.
2. Line two jellyroll pans with wax paper. Dunk one of the cookies halfway into the melted chocolate and scrape away some of the excess chocolate with the flat side of a dinner knife or use the edge of the glass measure. Lay dipped cookie on the wax paper.
3. Repeat with remaining cookies until all the melted chocolate has been used (about 33 cookies per cup of chocolate cups). Sprinkle holiday cookie decorations/sprinkles or crushed candy canes over the chocolate of each of the cookies. Place jellyroll pans in the refrigerator to harden the melted chocolate.
4. Place cookies in holiday gift bowls, bags or boxes or on cookie plates. If you use about 11 decorated cookies for each gift, this recipe will make about 6 gifts!

Yield: makes about 66 halfway dipped cookies

Nutrition Information: 77 calories, .6 g protein, 11 g carbohydrate, 3.8 g fat, 1.4 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, .6 g fiber, 60 mg sodium. Calories from fat: 44 percent.

Frugal Food Gifts...The Series

Holiday Food Gifts That Make Cents
#1: Light Cran-Raspberry Sauce
#2: Tea Time
#3: 5-Minute Peanut Butter Rocky Road Fudge
#4: Chocolate Dipped Cookies

Related Topics:

• Healthier Holiday Cookie Recipes
• Holiday Cookie Swap

Frugal Food Gift #3: 5-Minute Fudge

Peanut Butter Rocky Road Fudge

One of the food gift ideas one WebMD community board member shared was a really easy recipe for peanut butter fudge. I played with her microwave instructions for the fudge and turned it into an 8 x 8-inch pan of higher fiber, higher cocoa rocky road by adding some Fiber One bran cereal and using high cocoa chocolate chips.

You can buy the chips for $2.50 and we are only using half a bag for one batch of the recipe ($1.25), plus one cup of natural-style peanut butter which will cost about $1.25 (on sale a small pint jar will run about $2.50). A cup and a half of the added marshmallows will add a cost of about $.75 and a cup and a half of Fiber One will add a cost of about $.50, for a total cost of $3.75. The batch of rocky road will make about 4 food gifts.

Each food gift will cost about $.93 if you recycle some holiday dessert plates or wrap each slab (cut the square of rocky roady into 4 smaller squares) of the rocky road in plastic wrap, and decorate with holiday stickers and some ribbon.

5-Minute Peanut Butter Rocky Road

Ingredients:

• 1 cup high cacao bittersweet chocolate chips (ie. Ghirardelli 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate chips)
• 1 cup natural style peanut butter
• 1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows
• 1 1/2 cups Fiber One bran cereal

Preparation:

1. Line an 8 x 8-inch baking dish with foil.
2. In microwave-safe glass bowl, combine chocolate chips and peanut butter. Microwave on HIGH for 1 minute. Remove bowl and stir with spoon for a minute to finish melting chocolate chips. If necessary, microwave mixture for an additional 30 seconds and stir again.
3. Stir in the marshmallows and Fiber One cereal and pour mixture into prepared dish, smoothing mixture out to cover the bottom of the dish. Keep in refrigerator until hardened (about 1-2 hours). Lift foil from dish and place rocky road on a flat surface. Cut into 4 square slabs and wrap each with plastic wrap or cut rocky road into bite-size squares.

Yield: Makes 36 large bite-size pieces.

Nutrition Information per serving: 77 calories, 2 g protein, 7.5 g carbohydrate, 4.5 g fat, 1.3 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 2 g fiber, 11 mg sodium (this value will be higher if there is salt added to the peanut butter). Calories from fat: 52 percent.

Frugal Food Gifts...The Series

Holiday Food Gifts That Make Cents
#1: Light Cran-Raspberry Sauce
#2: Tea Time
#3: 5-Minute Peanut Butter Rocky Road Fudge
#4: Chocolate Dipped Cookies

Related Topics:

• WebMD Video: Dark Chocolate's Heart-Healthy Benefits
• Chocolate Pictures Slideshow: This History of Chocolate in Photos

Frugal Food Gift #2: Tea Time

Here's an easy gift for the tea drinkers on your list. Keep your eyes open for a great deal on coffee mugs or tea cups. Often you can find them on sale for about $2 dollars each or a set of 4 mugs or tea cups for $8. You can also check the dollar store - they almost always have mugs in stock. And don't forget resale shops - you can sometimes find cups with matching saucers that are quite lovely.

Then buy a box filled with an assortment of individually packaged tea bags (you can find these on sale for about $3) and distribute the tea bags between about 3 of the mugs/cups.

Each of these food gifts will cost you about $3!

You can dress up each of the cups with some see-through cellophane wrap and ribbon too.

Frugal Food Gifts...The Series

Holiday Food Gifts That Make Cents
#1: Light Cran-Raspberry Sauce
#2: Tea Time
#3: 5-Minute Peanut Butter Rocky Road Fudge
#4: Chocolate Dipped Cookies

Related Topics:

• WebMD Video: Age-Related Vision Loss
• Holiday Tea is Here!

Frugal Food Gift Idea #1: Light Cran-Raspberry Sauce

Around the holidays, cran-raspberry sauce comes in handy for turkey dinners or turkey sandwiches or as topping for brie served as a holiday appetizer. The beautiful bright red color brightens up any holiday table.

Making the recipe below for Cran-Raspberry Sauce will make 3 gifts of about 1-cup each. You can use three 8-ounce jars that you have around the house (just make sure they have been washed well preferably in a dishwasher). Add a bow or some ribbon and keep it in the refrigerator until you are ready to give it as a gift.

The fresh cranberries can cost about $3 plus the raspberries (one pint) will cost around $2.50. By using jars you have around the house, an orange you have in the fruit bowl, and some sugar from your pantry, the total cost is about $5.50 with the cost per gift around $1.83.

Lite Cran-Raspberry Sauce

Ingredients:

• 15 ounces fresh cranberries (about 4 cups)
• 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• Zest from 1 orange, finely chopped
• 1 cup water
• 2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries

Preparation:

1. In a medium saucepan, combine cranberries, sugar, orange zest, and water. Bring to a boil, reduced heat to LOW and cook for about 5 minutes.


2. Stir in raspberries and continue to simmer on LOW heat for 5 minutes more.


3. Ladle mixture into three 1-cup jars (or similar), cover and keep in the refrigerator until ready to serve or give as a gift.

Yield: Makes about 3 cups

Nutrition Information (per tablespoon): 17 calories, .1 g protein, 4 g carbohydrate, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 1 g fiber, .2 mg sodium. Calories from fat: 0 percent.

Frugal Food Gifts...The Series

Holiday Food Gifts That Make Cents
#1: Light Cran-Raspberry Sauce
#2: Tea Time
#3: 5-Minute Peanut Butter Rocky Road Fudge
#4: Chocolate Dipped Cookies

Related Topics:

• Crazy for Cranberries!
• THE 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS (FOOD GIFTS)

Holiday Food Gifts That Make Cents

Frugal Food Gifts

Even without a tight holiday budget, homemade food gifts are a great way to share the holiday spirit of giving. People usually welcome homemade food gifts because they are consumable (you don't have to worry about where to put it or how to return it). And people usually give you food items you don't normally make for yourself, be it an old family recipe for marinara sauce or a pan of homemade light wheat cinnamon rolls, light cran-raspberry sauce or a loaf of freshly baked pannetone bread.

If you get your ingredients on sale or at a member-style warehouse like Sam's Club or Costco, it will cost you even less per food gift. In the next four days, I'll post four easy but festive food gift ideas (complete with prices and photos) that you can give as hostess gifts or to friends and neighbors.

Here's the part where you save money!
The average cost of the food gifts I'll be posting is about $2 per gift (ranging from $1.25 to about $3). If the gifts you would normally bring to friends and neighbors cost about 15 dollars, you will spend about $20 for 10 homemade food gifts compared to about $150.

Every year I try to invent a few more food gifts - it's part of what I do for a living as a nutrition expert and writer. Of course I tend to focus on the healthful options. Over the years I've done:

• Homemade cinnamon rolls (always a favorite) with wheat dough and light in fat and sugar, but still delicious


• Cranberry walnut bread or pumpkin pecan bread (less sugar and fat and more fiber)


• Homemade pannetone bread


• I did designer fudge one year (inventing various different fudge recipes for people's specific favorite flavors)


• Remember those jars with layers of ingredients that end of being a batch of cookies or brownies? I've done that too!!

For 4 more food gift ideas, stay tuned for the next 4 days.

Frugal Food Gifts...The Series

Holiday Food Gifts That Make Cents
#1: Light Cran-Raspberry Sauce
#2: Tea Time
#3: 5-Minute Peanut Butter Rocky Road Fudge
#4: Chocolate Dipped Cookies

Related Topics:

• The Recipe Doctor's Top 12 Healthy Cooking Gadgets
• 13 Food Gifts NOT to Give

Easter Basket Makeover

That's right... even the well-established Easter basket isn't safe from the Recipe Doctors clutches. Seriously though, I just want to give you some more healthful options in addition to the obligatory chocolate bunny. I would never in my wildest dreams suggest a chocolate-free Easter basket (unless that's what the recipient wanted).

There's a big difference between a basket that is wall to wall candy and a basket that has a few featured treat items but also includes other fun (non-food) surprises like fuzzy socks, little bouncy balls or adorable Kelly Dolls or Polly Pockets or Hot Wheels. For older children or teens (or adults) these items can be CD's, books, golf balls, or tennis balls. So here are my 5 tips for building a "better" Easter basket:

#1 Go for the chocolate but only include the items your basket recipient is truly going to enjoy. If their favorite candy bar is Milky Way, add a few Milky Way Eggs and call it a day. If your recipient enjoys pure chocolate, you could include a hollow bunny of high quality chocolate instead of a solid bunny (those are easier to eat anyway). If you have an M&M lover on your hands, you can opt for the Peanut M&M's, which are a more substantial snack because the chocolate comes with a dose of healthful peanuts. 1/4 cup (1.5 ounces) of peanut M&M's will satisfy most of us and it contains 220 calories and 11 grams of fat (some of which are healthful fat from peanuts), 4.5 grams saturated fat, and 4 grams of protein and a gram of fiber. Compare that to one of my favorite chocolate treats, Dove Truffle Eggs with 1 1/2 eggs (1.35 ounces) containing 225 calories, 15 grams of fat, 10.5 grams saturated fat, and 1.5 grams protein.

#2 Add fun fillers that encourage playing or sports. I think an Easter basket is a great opportunity to add toys and items that inspire physical activity. Just walking through Target the other day I found fun pink gold balls and tennis balls (I believe some of the proceeds go to fight breast cancer) and colorful Frisbees and badminton sets. At Walgreen's I found 4-inch soft puffy balls decorated with your child's favorite Disney characters. There are all sorts of small sports items that can help fill an Easter basket.

#3 Inspire playfulness and child-like fun (even with adults). There's something almost magical about sitting on the front porch in spring and blowing bubbles. Fill your basket with cool bubble blowing toys. Play-doh is always coming out with creative ways to play with colorful dough. I don't care how old you are, this can fun!

#4 Add something religious or spiritual. For a lot of people, Easter isn't a religious holiday but if it has a religious significance in your family, you can add something to the basket that reminds them about the spiritual aspect of the season--like small angel figurines, inspirational books, rosaries, religious jewelry, wall crosses, religious book marks, etc.

#5 Add healthful or interesting food items. You can add some interesting (age appropriate) food items to the basket too like sugar-free chewing gum (helps clean teeth), sugar-free breath mints ('nuf said), packets of flavored green tea to try (green tea is brimming with health benefits), little packets or cans of nuts, etc...

Wishing you all a lovely Easter filled with tossing Frisbees and blowing bubbles with your family, and of course, a few glorious bites of your favorite chocolate!

~~Elaine

Related Topics: Easter Recipes, Video: Easter Basket Basics

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