With Christmas now less than a mere 3 weeks away – and counting – our preparations are in full swing.  Christmas lists have been created; letters to Father Christmas written; Christmas cards written and very nearly sent; presents bought, wrapped and squirreled away until the tree is up; and my attention has now turned to the small matter of the food.

Courtesy of mirror.co.uk

A couple of weeks ago, I was given the job of cooking a Sunday roast for my Aunt whilst she was staying with Mum.  As I prepared the chicken and veg, I felt a sudden desire for stuffing to accompany the meal.  I have fond memories of delicious home-made stuffing on Sunday lunch-times as a child and realised, with a pang, that G and M would have no such recollection due to their food allergies.  As a family, stuffing disappeared from our table two and a half years ago when M first started on his MEWS-diet.  It has made the occasional reappearance at Christmas for us adults, but never in a M-friendly format.

Inspired by the pleasing aroma of chicken seasoned with sage that was drifting from the oven, I decided then and there to find a recipe for stuffing that I could tweak to meet G and M’s food requirements.  I sourced a vegan recipe for Sage and Onion stuffing and set about pulling the necessary ingredients from my Mum’s cupboards to start the mixing process.

                                                                    M helped create the perfect breadcrumb

Despite my fears that this would turn out to be an unmitigated disaster, the final outcome was delicious.  Sadly, I was unable to convince G to even try a tiny morsel, but M set to with gusto.  He enjoyed the flavours, though he complained it contained too much onion for his tastebuds.  My final recipe can be found here and I am hoping to add recipes for other varieties for Christmas as I try them at home.  It was a great result for a Sunday morning’s work and I’m looking forward to tweaking more recipes to accompany the Christmas turkey.  The only question now is which one to adapt first – Chestnut, Sausagemeat, Cranberry or maybe all 3?

Unfortunately, I forgot to photo the final product and we ate the lot, so you’ll have to be satisfied with a photo of the pre-cooked version!