Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls

This is pretty good diet food though I had some sausages in the fridge that needed to be used up.  I added them to the turkey, making it a little less healthy, though they would certainly add more flavor.  This dish is known as "lazy cabbage rolls" and is really easy to make.  It works for me since on two previous tries, I did a lousy job of trying to separate the cabbage leaves successfully and then roll - definitely not an easy task!   Tonight I used:

• 1 lb of ground turkey meat

• 4 Garlic & Herb pork sausages by Jamie Oliver, casings removed and broken up into pieces

• 1 large onion, diced
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 small cabbage, cored and shredded (I used my food processor)
• 2 cups of Hunt's no salt tomato sauce
• 3 cups Kirkland no salt chicken stock
• 5.5 oz can of no salt tomato paste
• Handful of parsley, chopped
• 1/2 cup of fresh oregano
• 1 tablespoon of Trader Joe's no salt "21 Seasoning Salute"
• Fresh cracked pepper
• Kosher salt
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup Costco's organic Ancient Grain Blend (white & red quinoa, millet and buckwheat)

I preheated the oven to 350°F.  I started with a tablespoon of Extra Virgin olive oil in a dutch oven.  I sauteed the onions, garlic, sausage meat and turkey until browned.

I added in all the seasonings, parsley, oregano, tomato paste, sugar, grains and liquids.

I chopped the cabbage very small into slaw sized pieces as I find it easier to palette. This took three batches in the food processor.  Next time, I think the packaged slaw would be easier so might use that instead.

I stirred in the cabbage, batch by batch.  I sprayed a 13' x 9" baking dish with "Pam" and dumped everything in.  In hindsight, I probably should have brought it to a boil first, but I didn't.  Next time I would.  I put it on a foil lined baking sheet and put it in the oven.

I baked for 1 hour and took it out.  At that time the grains and cabbage were still slightly crunchy, but that is my oven for you, so I put back in for another half hour after stirring it all up.  It was ready then.

I really liked this.  It was kind of like a lasagna but totally tasted like cabbage rolls.  My son dislikes cabbage rolls and cabbage in general so I froze half.  He tried it and wasn't interested at all.  I will have no problem eating this for lunch all next week...