świń w koc (Pigs in the blanket)

I know it has been a while since I posted. I'm sorry :( there have been several reasons...work has been crazy and this past week we ate out.. a lot. Also I have been sick and haven't felt like doing much. But I am feeling better now and have tons of pictures of things I have been making. I am going start with the świń w koc (Pigs in a blanket/stuffed cabbage) This is something that is very easy to make and it is cheap and pretty healthy. 


Did you know? Cabbage is an excellent source of vitamin C. It also contains significant amounts of glutamine, an amino acid that has anti-inflamatory properties. Cabbage can also be included in dieting programs, as it is a low calorie food.

Stuffed Cabbage served with Roasted Veggies

Ingredients:

3lbs ground turkey (you can use ground beef/chicken/pork if you like)

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

1 yellow bell pepper, diced

1 onion, diced

4 cups rice prepared (can use white, brown or quinoa)

1 large jar of tomato sauce

1 head cabbage

Salt

Pepper

Garlic powder

Italian seasoning

1 cup Parmasean cheese

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

**Pre-heat over 350 degrees F.**

1. Cut the core out of the head of cabbage and boil in a pot of water until leafs start to fall off and become plyable. Drain and set aside.

2. Heat a skillet with the olive oil and drop in diced veggies, season with Salt, Pepper, Italian seasoning, and Garlic. Saute until soft and set aside to cool.

3. In the same skillet that you used for the veggies brown your choice of ground meat. Season with salt pepper garlic and italian seasoning. (As always I do not use oil or spray or butter the meat naturally has enough fat for the browning process- often I have to drain the meat then continue to brown because of to much liquid released from the meat)

4. Once meat is done mix back in veggies, rice, and 1-1 1/2 cups sauce, mix and heat through.

5. Using a roasting pan use about another cup of sauce to cover the bottom of the pan. 

6. Take a leaf from the head of cabbage lay flat on your cutting board...

7. Take a 1/4 cup measuring cup of stuffing and place in the middle of the leaf...

8. Fold sides of leaf into the middle, the top down and flip over (creating a small pocket just as if you were rolling a burrito). Place in pan..repeat until pan is full.

9. Once Pan is full top with  Sauce and Parmasean cheese.

10. Bake at 350 for 20-25minutes until cheese is brown and sauce is bubbly.

You can serve this as is...it has everything you want, protein, carbs, veggies. But I think as yummy as a plate of these are I needed to serve something else with it. So I hunted and found veggies in the fridge. Broccoli, Mushrooms, Onions, Carrots, Celery, Potato and Tomatoes. Now I could have just made a salad but meh! I decided to make roasted veggies! Soooooooo yummy I don't know why I don't do this more often! Simply put what ever veggies you want on a baking sheet (cut into bite sized pieces) I topped with Salt, Pepper, Garlic and drizzled with Olive Oil. Mix to make sure everything is covered in the oil and roast at 450 degreese for 45 minues. Feel free to mix them on the try about half way through. When they came out of the oven I topped with Parmesan and Pecorino Romano Cheese and put back in for 5 min. Sooo yummy!

 

Normally I will continue the process of stuffing the cabbage until I run out of either filling or cabbage, unfortunetly the head of cabbage I bought was not very "leafy" and I stopped after the first pan. I made 12 rolls. Now this left me with more than half a head of cabbage and a ton of  stuffing. I have another recipe coming up this week that I will post that uses these left overs. This recipe will easily feed a crowd on very little money. Great for dinner parties, or pot lucks.

To make my life easier later in the week, before I put the cabbage away I ran my knife through it and shredded it up. Pre-planning and prepping -go me!

Reviews-  I make this every few weeks and we usualy have left overs for a few days to feed me on. Depending on the size of the roll I can usually eat one. So these are definetly WLS friendly! Great for those weeks we are running tight on a budget too! They are healthy but shhhhh don't tell him that!!

Enjoy!

<3Laura ^.^