Meat and Cabbage

I don’t eat a ton of pork but one Saturday while waiting in line for my son to buy a balloon animal at the Farmer’s Market a sign caught my eye. I saw that a farmer had sustainably raised ground pork for just $5 a lb. My hubby LOVES pork so I bought a pound thinking “I’m sure I’ll use it in something”. Well, months later I am staring at the same pound of pork in my freezer wondering what to make with it.

As a family we eat a lot of the same meals each week because we everyone loves them and it makes dinner planning easier. We have the following meals just about every week.

Crispy Whole Chicken: My kiddos actually cheer when they hear that “crispy chicken” and roasted veggies are for dinner. This makes my heart happy since I know they are crazy happy for this healthy meal. I also need the bones to make chicken broth for soup for the hub’s lunch at work. So it’s win win!

Rice or lentil pasta with home made sauce: This is an easy one that my husband can make when I am late getting home from errands, field trips, or the gym. And what kid doesn’t love pasta.

Taco salad with home made seasoning: My husband craves Taco Bell on a weekly bases and he says that this meal hits the spot so he can go on for months without his beloved fast food splurge. We eat it every Saturday unless we have dinner plans elsewhere. I love that each family member can top theirs with whatever they like. I don’t have to eat chips or cheese and mine is more like a salad. While my hubby gets his “taco fix” with the organic corn chips. The kids get a nice huge helping of lettuce and on theirs and they can have all the fixings they want. We are all happy on taco salad night! Our favorite chips are Jackson Honest made with coconut oil. I usually get them from Thrive Market.

Sundays are leftovers so that we can rest and no one has to cook. So that leaves me with only 3 days to think up what else to cook. I usually rotate through our other favorites and welcome family requests. While I love making new meals we have just been swamped with selling our house, buying a house, then finally moving to our new house. I’m just happy to have any home cooked meal on the table.

So when I saw the pound of pork sitting in my freezer, I figured it was time to change things up a bit. My husband gave me “first prize” (competing against myself I can only guess) after eating what we now call “meat and cabbage”, so I believe it will be a part of our dinner rotation in the future.

I call it “meat and cabbage” because I’ve since made this same meal with ground turkey and my husband couldn’t tell the difference. I won first place again! So I didn’t dare spoil it by saying “Could you tell it’s turkey?!” The man loves pork. You could probably also try ground beef, but I haven’t yet, so you will have to let me know how it turns out if you do.

Here is how I made my “Meat and Cabbage”:

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of ground pork or ground turkey (if you use turkey you may want to add more salt to the dish in the end)
•  1 head of cabbage chopped
• 1 tsp coconut oil
• 1 tsp of dried onion (what I had on hand) or you could use maybe a half an onion chopped
• 3 garlic cloves minced
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/2 cup of coconut aminos (I buy mine from Thrive Market)
• sea salt to taste (I buy my Redmonds Real Sea Salt from Thrive Market)
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• optional: “Everything but the Bagel” seasoning (from Trader Joes) or maybe some sesame and/or poppy seeds
• optional side: white rice

Directions:

1. If making white rice, go ahead and make a batch. We cook about a cup. My husband and kiddos like to put their “meat and cabbage” on top of white rice. I like mine as is.
2. Chop the head of cabbage and set aside.
3. In a large stainless steel pan or wok, heat coconut oil on med/high heat and sauté the minced garlic and onion until golden brown. Be careful not to burn it.
4. Add the ground pork or turkey to your pan/wok and cook the turkey or pork until it is no longer pink.
5. Once the meat is fully cooked add the ginger, sea salt, pepper and coconut aminos.
6. Add the chopped cabbage and cook until tender.
7. Add more sea salt if needed.
8. If using “Everything But the Bagel” seasoning, sprinkle that on top.
9. Voila! It doesn’t get much easier than that.

You can eat it as is or top it on rice.

Now I’m happy to have another easy dinner option and a great source of pork at my local farmers market. I can also sub ground turkey from time to time since my family loves it just the much as the pork version!

If you happen to try any other ground meat be sure to let me know in the comments below.

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