Who doesn’t like cornbread? It’s always been one of my favorites to accompany any meal. In the past, I’d have it smothered in butter and accompanied with beef stew in true east Tennessee fashion, but now that I know how to eat healthier, I wanted to come up with another option. While I think we can all accept that this isn’t really cornbread, it does come pretty close, and being able to make it in a cast-iron skillet makes it feel just right.

For our wedding, my great-aunt-in-law passed down her set of cast iron skillets to me. She was just going to give them to Goodwill or the Salvation Army, and she said I was welcome to do the same if I had no interest in them. Little did she know how much it meant to me to now have those in my kitchen, and I love to cook with them. It’s special to have items like those passed down between generations, and I’m sure she cooked up many meals for the whole family with those. Talk about well-seasoned! Since she passed this week, I felt it appropriate to share a recipe like this. She might have told me to quit it with the health stuff and throw some butter in there, but I know she’d love that they’re getting use and making meals for our little family (even if it is just us and the dog!)

There’s two ingredients replaced in this recipe that make it healthier than normal cornbread. If you notice, the butter is replaced with butter-flavored coconut oil, and the eggs are replaced with flax eggs. In doing so, you’re missing out on unnecessary fat and cholesterol. Give it a try!