A couple of months ago, when I was in chat, the discussion came around to cooking, baking and how each person's mother made a particular dish.  I mentioned stuffed cabbage as one of my favorite meals that my mom used to make but that I never made it myself because of all the work involved.  I decided to experiment and this is what I came up with:

Unstuffed Cabbage

2 bags (14oz each) coleslaw salad mix (Dole brand is the one I used)
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork
4 cups cooked brown rice
2 cans Amy's Organic Tomato Bisque soup (low sodium)
1 cup chopped onions, more or less
1 tablespoon minced garlic, more or less
[list type=decimal][*]In a large skillet, saute the beef, pork, onions and garlic in the canola oil until meat is no longer pink.  Drain off any excess fat.
[*]Fill a large pot with several quarts of water and bring to a boil.  Add the coleslaw mix and cook until just softened.  Drain and set aside.[*]In the empty pot you cooked the cabbage in, mix together the rice and meat and break up any very large chunks of the meat since you want to have a nice balance of meat texture to rice.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.[*]In a 13x9x3" baking pan, spread a thin layer of tomato soup on the bottom (about half of one can).[*]Place a layer of half the cabbage and spread it out evenly.[*]Place all the meat/rice filling on top of the cabbage and spread it out evenly.[*]Layer the remaining cabbage on top and pour the rest of the tomato soup over all.[*]Cover with tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 45-60 minutes.[/list]Notes:  I remember my mother using Campbell's Tomato soup in her stuffed cabbage.  If you use this brand or another brand of condensed soup you'll need to thin it out a bit with water, maybe a soup can's worth. 

The cabbage layers came out very thin so you might want to use an additional bag of coleslaw mix for thicker layers (but the filling is the best part of stuffed cabbage anyway!). 

I used brown rice for the extra nutrition but you can use white rice.  You can use any ground meat in place of the beef and pork, such as turkey.  I saved myself some time by making the filling the day before since brown rice takes a long time to cook.  Instead of chopping up onions, I used frozen chopped onions.

Try sprinkling a little grated parmesan cheese on each serving.  Yummy! 

I love making cabbage rolls... [img]/domainskins/bypass/img/smileys/smile.gif[/img]

What you are making is actually a great alternative lasagna for people with diabetes. Replacing the pasta with cabbage and layering it alternatively with sauce, browned meat and cheese is something I do quite frequently. I do love it!  

Reading this made me crave my Mom's "cabbage rolls". I believe it's the german way to make them and are called something differen, lol.

Yeast roll dough cut into large circles.

Filling:

Cabbage and onions sauteed in a small amount of oil.
Browned ground beef.
Tomato sauce (if you like)

That's it. Mix together and put a generous amount into dough circles, pull dough together any way you want (she made ball shapes) and seal edges. Bake in oven until light brown. As a child, I hated cabbage, so she would make a couple with just the hamburger for me. Then as I got older, I tried the cabbage but had to have ketchup with it. I still would eat them that way. I eat spring rolls with ketchup or spicy Thai sauce too. ha ha ha.

I think the yeast roll dough is what made these so yummy. And the fact that she made extra dough for cinnamon and/or pecan-caramel rolls.

Not sure if they can be eaten cold (as in refridgerated), but just the thought makes me gag, LOL! Sorry. 

I think room temp., which is what I assume you mean,  would be just fine. I don't have a microwave at my work, but since my apartment is only about a 50ft. walk across the courtyard, that's not a problem for me. I am now going to research the actual name of these savory pastries.

Interesting what you can find. Ok, these could be considered large, savory cabbage stuffed pierogies (which have a contentious origin), or a Russian concoction called Pirozhki. Same word, I think. That would sort of make sense to me since my Grandparents immigrated from a German settlement in Russia. There was probably a fair amount of Russian influence in my Mom's cooking.

I also found this recipe called a Cabbage Buger  and the peppers sound like a good addition: 

 

Oh yeah.....my favorite go-to meal in minutes. Boiled cheese and potato pierogies, tossed in butter with some shredded cheddar on top. Left in the pot with the lid on for the cheddar to melt. A little sour cream on the side is good on occasion. It takes all of 10 minutes after the water boils. Great on a cold winter's evening, after work, when nothing else sounds worth the time to fix or appetizing.