Beginners Cabbage Rolls & Strudels

For dinner Tuesday night I made cabbage rolls for the first time ever. As far as I can remember I've only had cabbage rolls a handful of times in my life. Raven claims said he's never had them. The recipe I got from "Tasteof home for classic cabbage rolls" was beginner to medium difficulty. (See copy below) I added my pictures.
Cabbage Rolls

• Prep: 30 min. Cook: 1-1/2 hours
• Yield: 4 Servings

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Ingredients

My ingredients from the grocery store (above)

• 1 medium head cabbage
• 1-1/2 cups chopped onion, divided
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 cans (14-1/2 ounces each) Italian stewed tomatoes
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1-1/2 teaspoons salt, divided
• 1 cup cooked rice
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 pound lean ground beef (90% lean)
• 1/4 pound bulk Italian sausage
• 1/2 cup V8 juice, optional

Directions

• In a Dutch oven, cook cabbage in boiling water for 10 minutes or until outer leaves are tender; drain. Rinse in cold water; drain. Remove eight large outer leaves (refrigerate remaining cabbage for another use); set aside

Using Tongs and a strainer were helpful getting the cabbage out of boiling water.

• In a large saucepan, saute 1 cup onion in butter until tender. Add the tomatoes, garlic, brown sugar and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

The onions were had roots

• Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine the rice, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, pepper and remaining onion and salt. Crumble beef and sausage over mixture and mix well.
• Remove thick vein from cabbage leaves for easier rolling. Place about 1/2 cup meat mixture on each leaf; fold in sides. Starting at an unfolded edge, roll up leaf to completely enclose filling. Place seam side down in a skillet.Top with sauce.

I added sliced carrots to the bottom as a side dish.

• Cover and cook over medium-low heat for 1 hour. Add V8 juice if desired. Reduce heat to low; cook 20 minutes longer or until rolls are heated through and a thermometer inserted in the filling reads 160°. Yield: 4 servings. I'm sure there were more like 5-6 servings. I made 9 cabbage rolls. 

Nutritional Facts1 serving (2 each) equals 499 calories, 21 g fat (8 g saturated fat), 85 mg cholesterol, 1,845 mg sodium, 49 g carbohydrate, 8 g fiber, 32 g protein.

***I made some substitutions such as using ground turkey instead of ground beef and brown rice instead of white rice. This helped to decrease fat and a small increase in fiber. 

Overall I think eating brown rice is a preference and doesn't increase fiber by much. Brown rice is over priced in this country considering it is less polished and processed then it's counterpart white rice. On Wikipedia it says in Asia brown rice is associated with wartime shortages and poverty. Interesting when you think brown rice and raw sugar and more expensive at the grocery store.

This was the final product! Overall delicious except I would pick a more bland tomato sauce for the top to balance out the flavors on the inside. 

Now for dessert some simple peach and apple strudels...

Start by thawing an award winning puff pastry. Got this one from Trader Joe's.

Making the fruit filling is easy. Just medium to high heat add cinnamon and brown sugar. Then use a touch of cornstarch to thicken. (tsp)

The Garden

Wow! It's been a really long time since the last post. So much has happened over the last 2 years. We've done lots of great things like raising a puppy and starting our own vegetable garden. Here are some pictures of what we have so far. I got a bit later than I should have so some of the vegetables are still growing. 

This is a picture of Rosco our Whoodle (Soft coated wheaten terrier & Poodle). Rosco helps in the garden by keeping the squirrels and chipmunks out. He loves loves to play in the ivy box and relax in the shade.