(10 seconds each to read and are almost that quick to prepare)

By Lisa Messinger
Food and Cooking at Creators Syndicate

You can accomplish more than just getting filled up when you indulge in eating Thanksgiving stuffing. You can instead pack yourself with superfoods. Butterball is not only a longtime turkey expert extraordinaire, their home economists came up with the following standout stuffing that just may give you enough nutritional "extra credit" (along with turkey, of course, of which the breast meat especially is a lean protein powerhouse) to make up for most other overindulgence in the traditional feast.           

The dressing is, in fact, well dressed with a multitude of top superfoods recommended by nutritionists: seven-grain bread, fresh kale, butternut squash and almonds. Not only does it taste great, but the fiber and nutrients in the multigrain bread means your blood sugar doesn't spike (and then crash) as it might with a white bread-based dressing. The vegetables and almonds also have that effect, as well as all being energizing, as opposed to some other rich holiday foods that can make you sluggish.           

The additional stuffing below is from "Vegan Holiday Kitchen: More Than 200 Delicious, Festive Recipes for Special Occasions" by bestselling author Nava Atlas, who has penned 10 vegan and vegetarian cookbooks. It is also a dietitian's dream for Thanksgiving and a way to safeguard your good nutrition without giving up flavor.           

The superfoods lined up to stuff you in Atlas' recipe? Whole-grain bread, olive oil, an entire large onion, apples and apple juice, walnuts or pecans and plenty of herbs, like thyme and tarragon.       

If you are making your own split-second mixture of ingredients, keep these additional nutritional powerhouses in mind:           

• Whole, multigrain or bran cereals     
• Brown rice     
• Quinoa      
• Barley      
• Rye      
• Pistachios      
• Hazelnuts      
• Chile peppers     
• Diced prunes      
• Dried blueberries      
• Chopped kale      
• Chopped spinach      
• Chopped broccoli      
• Chopped cauliflower      
• Chopped beets      
• Chopped pears      
• Brewed green tea, black tea or herbal tea instead of one-quarter of your broth or water            

With super-charged stuffings, the good nutrition news just keeps coming: Have them for leftovers, too, and you will continue not breaking your diet while still enjoying a delicious post-holiday delight.           

Fun fare like this also proves food preparation can be easy, nutritious, inexpensive, fun - and fast. The creative combinations are delicious proof that everyone has time for creating homemade specialties and, more importantly, the healthy family togetherness that goes along with it!           

Another benefit: You almost effortlessly become a better cook. These are virtually-can't-go-wrong combinations, so whatever you - or your kidlet helpers - choose to do can't help but draw "wows" from family members and guests.           


Seven-Grain Bread Thanksgiving Stuffing     
10 (7-grain) bread slices (15 ounces), cut into 1/2-inch cubes (about 8 cups)     
1/3 cup butter or margarine     
1 large onion, chopped (about 1 cup)     
1 cup chopped celery     
4 cups moderately packed chopped fresh kale     
1 medium butternut squash, about 1& 1/2 pounds), peeled, seeded and cubed     
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh sage, or 2 teaspoons rubbed dried     
3/4 teaspoon salt     
1/4 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper     
1/2 cup smoke-flavor almonds (from 6-ounce can), chopped     
1 (14.5-ounce) can chicken broth   
       
Yields 16 servings stuffing of 1/2 cup each; enough to stuff a thawed (if was frozen) 16-pound turkey.           
Preheat oven to 350 F. Spread bread cubes onto bottom of large, shallow baking pan. Bake 30 minutes, or until lightly browned and dried, stirring occasionally. Leave oven on, or preheat again before baking again below.           

Melt butter or margarine in large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and celery; cook and stir 5 minutes, or until crisp-tender. Add kale and squash; stir to combine. Cover; cook 6 minutes, or until kale wilts, stirring occasionally. Stir in chopped sage, salt and pepper.           

Place browned bread crumbs in large bowl. Add vegetable mixture, almonds and broth.           

Place mixture in a large shallow baking pan that's been sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. As also directed by Nava Atlas, in her following recipe, bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until the mixture is lightly browned and still slightly moist. Stir once during the baking time.           

-Adapted from www.Butterball.com           


Walnut-Apple Stuffing      
6 cups firmly packed diced whole-grain bread     
1 & 1/2 tablespoons olive oil     
1 large sweet white onion, such as Vidalia     
2 peeled, diced tart apples, such as Granny Smith     
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley     
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme     
1 teaspoon dried tarragon     
1 tablespoon all-purpose seasoning blend      
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans     
Salt, to taste     
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste     
1 cup apple juice, or as needed 
         
Yields 8 to 10 servings.           

Preheat oven to 350 F.           

Place the diced bread on a baking sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, or until dry and lightly browned.           

Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the onion and saute over medium heat until golden. Add the apple and saute for 5 minutes longer. 
         
In a mixing bowl, combine the bread cubes with the onion and apple mixture. Add all the remaining ingredients except the apple juice and toss together. Drizzle in the apple juice slowly, stirring at the same time to moisten the ingredients evenly.           
Transfer the mixture to an oiled shallow 1 & 1/2-quart baking pan. Bake 30 to 35 minute, or until the mixture is lightly browned and still slightly moist. Stir once during the baking time.  

-"Vegan Holiday Kitchen: More Than 200 Delicious, Festive Recipes for Special Occasions" by Nava Atlas.


QUICK TIP OF THE WEEK:  An innovative, quick gourmet touch is to slightly warm up store-bought or homemade vinaigrette or other salad dressing as a sauce for vegetables, poultry or fish, or as a mildly heated salad dressing that will gently wilt your salad greens.

Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food and nutrition writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the National Council Against Health Fraud and author of seven food books, including the best-selling The Tofu Book: The New American Cuisine with 150 Recipes (Avery/Penguin Putnam) and Turn Your Supermarket into a Health Food Store: The Brand-Name Guide to Shopping for a Better Diet(Pharos/Scripps Howard). She writes two nationally syndicated food and nutrition columns for Creators Syndicate and had been a longtime newspaper food and health section managing editor, as well as managing editor of Gayot/Gault Millau dining review company. Lisa traveled the globe writing about top chefs for Pulitzer Prize-winning Copley News Service and has written about health and nutrition for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Reader's Digest, Woman's World and Prevention Magazine Health Books. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com.