Aunt Gail's Italian Sausage & Apple Lower Carb Stuffing

The best stuffing you will ever eat. If I am going to choose one carb at a holiday meal, this is the pouch worthy one.

You will see a pattern in the first four ingredients. They are meat and vegetables! The key to making this really moist flavorful stuffing lower in carbs is to have lots of sausage, sautéed vegetables and apples that crowd out the bread cubes.

My mother's sister Gail is the undisputed "best cook" in our Italian family, and while contested, it is generally acknowledged that she was the first to have used the sausage and apple combination.

When vegetarian friends join us for Thanksgiving, as their main dish I make this without the sausage and cook individual portions in roasted acorn squash halves Bells Seasoning is a New England standard that has been around for 150 years and the stuff is money! I can't cook Thanksgiving dinner without it and even smuggled it into Mexico when we lived there for our 'roast pavo'. You really need to find some for your holiday.

Ingredients

• 1 pound sweet Italian sausage, from an Italian store is best, otherwise I use Jimmy Dean as it is very lean
• 2 cups sliced celery, about 5 large stalks, I use the tender heart and leaves
• 2 cups diced sweet onion, about 2 medium
• 2 cups diced Granny Smith apples, about 2 large or 3 small peeled
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons sea salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 tablespoons Bells Seasoning. Little yellow cardboard box with turkey on front - it's worth the effort to find
• 2 cups Pepperidge Farms stuffing cubes or cornbread stuffing - NOT the whole package
• Swanson Natural Goodness Chicken Broth
• 1/2 cup chopped Italian flat leaf parsley

Instructions

• Brown the sausage in a large skillet breaking it up into fine pieces while stirring.
• Add the celery, onion, apples, butter, olive oil and cook over medium high until the onion softened and translucent.
• Stir in the garlic powder, salt, pepper and Bells Seasoning.
• Place the bead cubes in a large bowl, add the sautéed vegetable sausage mixture, parsley and toss to combine while adding enough chicken broth to make a very moist stuffing. An upside down roasted turkey it's too difficult to stuff the turkey so we have become 'dish people'.
• Cover with Pam sprayed or buttered foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes covered, plus 20 minutes uncovered to crisp edges.