Gluten-Free Mango Cashew Cornbread Stuffing

We discovered during the past year that my 4-year-old son Ronin and my 21-month-old daughter Ellie are both gluten and dairy intolerant. My husband John is gluten-free too. The good news is that changing Ronin’s diet has helped his anxiety-related sleep issues decrease immensely. He used to have night terrors every night, but now only has them on the rare occasions we miss cutting out the gluten.

Since John has been gluten free for a while, I came up with this stuffing recipe a few years ago for Thanksgiving. And its always been a huge hit. This year I’ve modified it to also remove the dairy for the kiddos.

It. is. SO. Yum. If I do say so myself!

MANGO CASHEW CORNBREAD STUFFING (Modified Gluten & Dairy Free)

INGREDIENTS

· 1 (9 inch) pan cornbread, cooled, crumbled and dried overnight

· 1 (8 ounce) package herb-seasoned dry bread stuffing mix (For gluten-free, use dry corn bread stuffing or an extra pan of dried cornbread above)

· 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

· 1/2 teaspoon salt

· 3/4 cup butter (or margarine for dairy-free)

· 1 cup chopped onion

· 1 cup chopped dried mango

· 1/2 cup chopped cashews

· 2 cups vegetable stock

· 3 eggs, beaten

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter a 3 quart casserole dish.

2. Melt the butter or margarine in a heavy saucepan, and saute the onion, mango and cashews for 8 to 10 minutes, or until tender.

3. In a large bowl, combine the cornbread, stuffing mix, parsley, and salt. Mix in the onion mixture, veg stock, and beaten eggs. Spoon dressing into prepared casserole dish.

4. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, or until heated through, and lightly browned on top.

I hope some of you have a chance to use this recipe next week for U.S. Thanksgiving! Its my birthday too, so let me know if you do and how you liked it. That would be a GREAT birthday gift to me.

Cristi Comes is a wife and mom to a gluten-free family. She blogs at Motherhood Unadorned: Motherhood naked, plain and uncensored. She is an advocate for mental health and suicide prevention. Follow her on Twitter @MotherUnadorned or Facebook.com/MotherhoodUnadorned