Every year for Thanksgiving, I must have something that tastes like stuffing. In order to make a healthier, gluten free version this year, I decided to make a brown rice stuffing.

I couldn’t find an exact recipe out there of what I wanted. All of the rice stuffing recipes were kind of fancy with added meat or vegetables. I just wanted something that tasted like stuffing, but was made with rice.

I started out by making my brown rice. I don’t know about you, but brown rice can be a pain to cook. It takes forever and doesn’t always turn out very fluffy. If that has been your experience, I want to introduce you to the Instant Pot. This was a gift from my husband last year from Christmas (I might of tipped him off that I wanted this…). I love it because it helps me make healthy foods in half the time. It cooks foods faster because it is an electric pressure cooker.

Back to the rice. I added 2 cups of brown rice with 2 1/2 cups of water to my Instant Pot. I took out any rice that was floating or that looked like chaff. Then I set it to Manual for 22 minutes. Once it was done I let it natural release for 10 minutes. I ended up with about 5 cups of fluffy, brown rice.

While the rice was cooking, I chopped up one onion and 4 celery stalks. Then used my handy bench scrape shovel to get it all into the skillet from my chopping board (without dropping it all over the floor, like I normally do when I just use my knife to transfer).

I melted one stick of butter in a large skillet and set the stove to medium low. Once the butter was melted, I added the chopped onion and celery to saute until translucent and soft. About 10 minutes.

Once my rice was done, I added it all to the celery and onions. Then I added about 1/2 cup of chicken broth, 1 1/2 tsp thyme, 1 tsp sage, 1/2 tsp pepper and 1 tsp salt. You can adjust the seasonings to taste.

Then I poured it all into a 9×13 pan (this lady uses disposable during Thanksgiving) and baked at 325, uncovered for 30 minutes. I made this the day before and then just reheated it the next day in the oven.

I really enjoyed it and will be making it again next year! So easy and would make a yummy side dish to any meal.

Don’t forget to PIN this recipe so you can find it later!

After I spent the day baking in the kitchen, we went to our town’s Christmas Parade. It was 70 degrees on Friday and the next day it dropped to the 30’s. It never fails. The day of the Christmas Parade the temperature drops.

This was my youngest daughter’s first experience of really cold weather, since she just moved here from Africa. She could not believe how cold her hands were (of course she wouldn’t keep the gloves on), but her face lit up at her first Christmas parade and she loved it!

Her biggest highlight? Seeing Santa for the first time and getting a free teddy bear.

You gotta love seeing Christmas through a child’s eyes.

It’s magical. In more ways than one.