Recipe: Cabbage Roll Casserole

TGIF! It has just been one of those weeks and I'm so glad it's Friday. I don't have anything interesting or fun to share so but I wanted to post my new recipe for this week. I love cabbage rolls, my mom used to make them when we were younger. However, they are a royal pain to make. You have to boil the cabbage and peal the leaves. The process is not only incredibly time consuming but it's messy and the cabbage is fricken hot and I always burn my fingers. So, instead of doing it the hard way, I found a recipe to turn one of my favorite winter dishes into a casserole!! Here is the recipe, as always I made small changes but the integrity of the dish stands.

You will need:
1 medium onion, chopped
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 packet French onion soup mix
10 c. chopped cabbage, about 1 medium head
2 cans tomato sauce (15 oz. each)
1 can beef broth (16 oz.)
3/4 instant brown rice, uncooked
1 Tb. Italian seasoning
2 Tb. brown sugar (optional)**
1 c. 2% milk fat cheddar cheese

In a sauce pan cook ground beef, onion and soup mix over medium heat. When browned, drain excess grease. Mix in cabbage, rice, tomato sauce, broth, Italian seasoning and brown sugar (if you're going to add it). Pour into a sprayed casserole dish. Cover with tinfoil and bake at 400 for 1 hour. Take off foil and stir. Sprinkle cheese on top and bake for another 30-40 minutes. This makes about 8 servings each around 285 calories with a whopping 5 grams of fiber!

**When I was growing up my mom added sugar or brown sugar to almost all of our tomato based dishes (spaghetti, chili, cabbage rolls). Because of this I prefer them to have a sweet taste now so I added this to the dish. Feel free to leave it out if you'd like.