4… 3… 2… 1… Start Your Stuffing Now!

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There’s a cardinal rule of shopping that every smart shopper knows: Don’t buy it just because it’s on sale. Case in point, holiday grocery shopping. There are some items that should never make it into your cart, no matter how wowser the sale.

Take canned gravy, dry gravy, and packaged stuffing mix, for instance. These items should be banned from your shopping list forever! Why? Well, for starters, it seems immoral to sell stale bread crumbs for four times the price of fresh bread! But, more importantly, you can make delicious stuffing for free in your own kitchen at home. And, it only takes you a few minutes at a time to prepare. Here’s how:

Start saving bread now for your holiday stuffing recipe. Save a few of the end-slices of bread, and bake them in the oven for 5 minutes. If you use a bread maker for your bread, just use the leftover pieces from your automatic bread maker.

After the bread bakes for 5 minutes, let it dry out in the oven and just store it in the inactive oven. Every time you are almost finished with a loaf of bread, repeat this process. Just be sure to take out the bread you baked the time before and toss those slices into a zip-lock storage bag.

Don’t worry about the re-baked bread going stale. It won’t mold or go bad at all if you keep it in the oven to dry out.

When you are ready to actually make your stuffing, follow these steps:

1) Use a rolling-pin to crush the dried bread inside the zip-lock bag. Keep crushing the bread until it has the crumbly texture of stuffing.

2) Sautee onions and celery in a skillet and season with sage, parsley, salt and pepper.

3) Combine the seasoned onions and celery with the bread crumbs. Moisten with chicken broth, milk or water, until the stuffing reaches a consistency to your liking.

4) Stuff your turkey with your homemade stuffing and get ready for a mouth-watering recipe your family will love!

Simple, and it definitely won’t cost you as much as the store-bought, sodium-spiked stuff. You can even try using leftover cornbread and mix it with your regular bread. Rosemary bread is another great choice. A variety of breads will give the stuffing an interesting flavor. Who knows, you could end up with a signature stuffing mix for years to come!