Cornbread Stuffing with Apples, Raisins and Walnuts (Light Version)

The road trip is over and family back home still had an abundance of Thanksgiving leftovers. The full fatted version of this stuffing was such a hit, it begged to be made again.  Never thankful for a growing backside during the holidays, a calorie reduction was in serious order.  The original version called for 16 tablespoons of butter.  This lighter version shaves off 1200 calories just by reducing the butter, alone.  This recipe makes 12 half cup servings, each a full 100 calories lighter. 

After assembly it was alarming to see that it was much wetter than the original. Four hours later, when packed up for the voyage to Uncle Meat and Potatoes & Auntie EQ's, it looked perfect.  Now for the big question: Does it taste as good as the original? 

Winner Loser or Meh

This was delicious. Crunchy and crusty on the outside, moist in the inside.  Three of us ate dinner. Dinner included a major gravy based potato, vegetable, and turkey casserole.  After dinner, there were only two half cup servings of the stuffing left.  What we made up for in butter calorie reductions, we lost to second and third helpings of stuffing.  Burp.

While the butter festival version of the stuffing is better, I keep reminding myself that butter makes anything taste better.  Think about the divine taste of escargot.  Somehow I think a butterless version of escargot would taste just like...well...an icky garden snail.  Oh...wait....escargot are icky garden snails, they just have lots of butter and garlic. I rest my case.

Recipe

I used a 6 quart crock for this.  I used two bags from a big box of stuffing cubes, so this could easily be halved and made in a smaller crock.

Ingredients:

• 1 twin bag box Mrs. Cubbison's Stuffin' Seasoned Cornbread
• 4 Tbls butter divided, 2 of the Tablespoons cut into tiny cubes (vegans can use margarine or good quality oil)
  
• 1 large yellow onion, peeled and chopped
• 5 inner ribs and leaves of celery, diced (enough to make 1 1/2 cups)
• 1 tart apple, cored and diced (I used Granny Smith)
• 1/3 cup walnuts, chopped
• 1/3 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped
• 1 3/4 cups vegetable stock (I used Vegetable Better than Bouillon and water to make stock)
  

Spray crock with no stick spray.  Pour contents of seasoned stuffing cubes into crock. Heat 2 Tbls butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Saute the onion and celery until translucent and soft.  Add contents of skillet to the crock and stir.  Add celery, apple, walnuts, raisins, parsley, and butter chunks to crock and stir to distribute all ingredients evenly.  Slowly drizzle stock over crock ingredients, while stirring at the same time.  Cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours OR cook on high for 1 hour and reduce heat to low for 5-6 hours.