Kosher Vegan Thanksgiving Dressing

This hearty dressing makes a great vegetarian main course.

Home made bread cubes really aren't that hard to come by. If you pick up a baugette from the store, just leave it out overnight and it'll go rock hard. If you're well prepared, you can even cut it into chunks first. A baguette is easy, but this recipe works great with artisan breads. Go ahead and pick up that Rosemary and Basil Foccacia or Roasted Garlic Herb Bread. It'll add more flavor. Stay away from sweet breads, though. I'm not sure how this would turn out with Cinnamon Swirl Bagels or Blueberry Muffin Loaf.

• Roughly 7 - 8 cups of stale bread ripped into cubes
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 granny smith apple
• 1 onion
• 1 red bell pepper
• 6 cloves garlic
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp sage
• 1 tbsp dried thyme
• 1 tbsp salt
• 2 tsp basil
• 1 tsp rosemary

Preheat your oven to 350.

Peel the apple and cut it into roughly 1 inch cubes. Now peel the onion and do the same thing. Ditto for the bell pepper. Most people put celery in their dressing, but I don't like it. Therefore, we're going to forgo sauteing the onion so it'll still give a little bit of crunch.

Now, in a large bowl, mix all the spices and 2 tbsp of the olive oil with the canned vegetable broth. If your broth has some frighteningly high sodium content, feel free to leave out the extra salt. You're mixing the spices with the broth to better distribute them into the bread. Otherwise, you risk ending up with a big bite of sage at one corner and an unseasoned chunk of dull bread at the other.

I happen to like my dressing moist. I didn't grow up with gravy, so the dressing had to be able to stand on its own. For a vegetarian recipe, this is extra important. If, however, you like your dressing a little drier, only use 3 cups of broth.

Now dump your breadcubes, onion, apple, and bell pepper into the broth. Mix until everything is pretty damp and well blended. Let it sit for 10 minutes or so. This should give the bread a chance to really soak up all the broth. This is especially important if you used a dense artisian bread, like foccacia or cibata.

Rub your remaining tablespoon of olive oil over the inside of a large cake pan (I recommend glass or pyrex, as dark pans are more likely to make the bottom and edges burn.) Press the dressing into the pan. Don't be afraid to squish it down a little. You don't want it too fluffy.

Bake at 350F for 30 minutes. Check it with a fork. Now, this is the only tricky bit. Some people like their dressing a little runny and others like it bone dry. I err on the moist side. If in doubt, go ahead and scoop out a discrete fork full from near the middle. If it's not dry enough for you, let it bake for another 10 minutes. If you bake it too much longer than that, once it hits the table, it'll dry out tremendously. (So much you won't want to use it for leftovers, which is always the best part of the holiday for me.)

Kosher Lite Apple Cinnamon Muffins

Unlike the Blueberry and oh-so-tasty Banana Chip muffins, these are Healthy with a capitol H. I still like them, but keep in mind, these are for enjoying the sensation of fullness after a hard workout, not for kids lunchboxes (unless you want them trading up for Fiery Hot Cheetos.)

• 1 1/2 cups lite apple pie flavored yogurt
• 1 cup lowfat milk
• 1 cup quick cooking oats
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 large eggs (or your favourite egg substitute equivalent)
• 1 cup diced dried apples
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup white flour
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 4 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp cinnamon

Preaheat oven to 350F. In a large bowl, mix yogurt, milk, oats, vanilla, and eggs. Let sit around 5 minutes (so the oats will soak up the moisture. Otherwise, you'll have tough muffins.) While waiting, take your cup of dried apples (an entire bag of the Sunmaid brand) and dice them up. Add them to the bowl and mix well. Let sit another 2 minutes (again, so the dried apples can soak up some moisture.) Add all remaining ingredients to the bowl and mix thoroughly. Either use paper liners or spritz your muffin pan with cooking spray. Fill muffin cups about 1/2 full of batter. Bake at 350F for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Makes about 32 muffins at 2 Weight Watchers points per muffin. These freeze well for a couple months.

Kosher lite Blueberry Muffins

I've been looking for a low-fat blueberry muffin recipe that isn't chock full of artificial sweeteners. Most recipes either go overboard with healthiness, substituting wheat bran and oatmeal for normal flour, or they're loaded up with so much butter and eggs they're a gazillion calories each. This is my personal compromise. These light and fluffy low fat muffins are moist but still pleasantly sweet. They're not healthy, but they're not cholesterol-o-rific, either.

• 3/4 cup lite vanilla yogurt
• 1 cup fat free milk
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup fresh blueberries

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Mix the yogurt, milk, egg, and sugar until smooth. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt and mix well. When the batter is smooth, gently fold in the blueberries. You don't want to overmix them or else they'll fall apart and turn the batter purple.

Either line a muffin pan with paper cups or spritz it with nonstick spray. Fill the cups 1/2 full of batter. Bake at 350F for 18 - 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Variations:

• If you're absolutely obsessed with low sugar as well as low fat, substitute 1 cup of Splenda for Baking (the type measured cup for cup like sugar.)
• To make this recipe parve, substitute plain soy yogurt and vanilla soymilk.
• If you really want more blueberry flavor, substitute low fat blueberry yogurt for the vanilla. If you do, be prepared for your muffins to be a lovely shade of blue.

Weight Watchers Points: 3 points per muffin. If you make them as mini-muffins, reduce the baking time to 12 - 15 minutes. The mini muffins only have 1 point each.

Kosher Lite Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips

I made some minor but tasty modifications to a Weight Watchers brand recipe to end up with these oh-so-tasty mini loaves. They make an incredibly filling six point breakfast for days when you have to be out the door in a flash. Cut in half, they're a great 3 point snack. Since there is no consistency in the size of a "mini loaf," I should add my Weight Watchers scale says my loaves are about 100 grams, baked in a 3x2 inch mini loaf pan.

• 3/4 cup lite banana yogurt
• 1/2 cup fat free skim milk
• 1/2 cup uncooked quick oats
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 large egg
• 2 very ripe bananas, mashed (black if you can stand them that long)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 1/3 cup flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
• 1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Mix yogurt, milk, oats, vanilla, and egg until well blended. Set aside for at least five minutes. This will give the oats a chance to absorb moisture. If you don't let it sit, you'll end up with very textured bread instead of tasty smoothness.

After five minutes, stir in the mashed bananas.

Now add all the other ingredients and mix well.

Spritz your mini-loaf pans with nonstick cooking spray and fill about half way with batter. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes, or until golden brown on top and a fork poked inside comes out clean.

Variations:

• To make this recipe parve (or to make it dairy free for people who are allergic to milk/lactose intollerant) substitute vanilla soy yogurt (banana flavor is better, if you can find it) and vanilla soy milk for the regular yogurt and milk. Leave out the chocolate chips (unless you have a source of good dairy free ones.)
• Instead of mini-loaves, bake the batter in the form of mini-muffins. The muffins take 15 to 18 minutes to cook and have only one point each.
• Have fun with the yogurt flavors! I used a generic Banana's Foster lite yogurt and had great results.
• If you prefer a more traditional tasting banana bread, leave out the chocolate chips, substitute vanilla for banana yogurt, and add 1 tsp cinnamon.

Kosher Bread Pudding

I love bread pudding, but it's almost always dairy. I whipped up this parve version at home recently and absolutely loved it. The soy chai adds a nice punch of flavor.

• 3 cups Italian bread, cubed
• 2 cups soy chai
• 4 eggs, slightly beaten
• 1/2 tbsp lite olive oil
• 2 shots bourbon or whiskey
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp salt

Mix everything but the bread until smooth, then mix in the bread. Pour mixture into a nonstick baking pan and let sit for at least 10 minutes so bread can soak up the mixture. Bake for 1 hour at 350. For an espically moist bread pudding, place your baking dish into a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with water until the water reaches about half way to the top of your baking dish. Put the whole caboodle in the oven, treating it like a giant creme brulee.

Since this is parve, there won't be a whiskey sauce. You can make one with veggie margarine, but it's just not as good, so why pretend? Instead of topping a good bread pudding with a merely adequate whiskey sauce, try combining 1 shot bourbon with 3 shot glasses of packed brown sugar (or a larger 3:1 ratio if you want more coating) so the sugar is soaking wet. Sprinkle wet sugar on top of your baked bread pudding and either heat dramatically with a creme brulee torch or just broil within 4 inches or less of the broiler for a few minutes, until the sugars start to carmalize. It'll make an incredibly tasty topping.

Variations:

• Slice 1/2 cup granny smith apple. Pour 1/2 bread mix into pan, layer half the apples. Add 1/4 mix in, layer remaining apples, then top with final 1/4 mix. Bake normally.
• Slice 1 medium banana. Mix in with the bread and liquid then bake normally.