Last week our supermarket was selling reduced fat, mixed pork and beef mince at the very good price of €1.22 for 400 grams. The meat is supposed to have no more than 13% fat. You can tell the difference when you are browning it in a skillet without oil!
On the day I went to stock up on meat, I also got some bargains from the produce section, among them was cabbage.
I bought one, knowing the children are not that keen, but I planned on feeding hubby and myself the cabbage and let the children have something different if they just wouldn’t eat it.

I made a nice German cabbage and mince casserole. It is very filling and tasty!

Ingredients

- 1 Cabbage (1-1/4 kg)
- 40 grams butter
- 125 ml water
- 400 grams mince
- 1 Broetchen or 2 slices of bread, crusts removed.
- 3 onions
- 1 egg
- pepper
- salt
- cumin
- mustard
- buttered breadcrumbs.

Remove tough and dry leaves off cabbage. Cut off the stalk. Section and slice as finely as possible, or shred in a food processor.
Place sliced or shredded cabbage in a pot, with the water and butter cut into pieces. Add a dash of salt and a dash of cumin. Cook on medium heat, covered, until cabbage is tender, for about 10 minutes. Uncover and let water evaporate, or drain. I didn’t want to drain the butter off, so I let the water evaporate instead (keep a close eye on the pot so you don’t accidentaly burn the cabbage)

Preheat oven to 200c.

While cabbage cooks, soak Broetchen or bread slices in water and squeeze out as much water as possible, and break up with fingers. Mince one small onion very finely. Mix meat, egg, moist bread, minced onion,salt, pepper, and 1 tsp. mustard together.

Prepare buttered crumbs by melting some butter in a pan (about 2 T), and adding 1/2 – 3/4 cup dry breadcrumbs, sirring until all crumbs are buttery. They shouldn’t form clumps or be too buttery.

Chop the other two onions coarsely.

Place half of the cooked cabbage on the bottom of a casserole dish.
Spoon meat mixture on top, and spread evenly, pressing down with a spoon.
Spread the rest of the cabbage on top.
Sprinkle with chopped onion and buttered breadcrumbs.

Bake in preheated oven until the breadcrumbs are golden.

It’s been a long and rainy week here, and having all three children at home all day, every day, has been a challenge.
One day I took them out to our local shopping center, on the bus. I took the boys over to the indoor play center, and went off to the supermarket to see what nice foods I could find.
I’d never had spaghetti squash, not that I remember, and they had some there among all the other pumpkins, so I bought one to try out.
You can read about the squash, which one to buy, and how to cook it over here

I brought the squash home and decided I’d try doing it with some meat and tomato sauce. I had a carton of chopped tomato with italian herbs, and decided to use that on some low-fat pork and beef mince.

Cutting the squash in half was not fun. I think next time I’ll pierce it and bake it, then cut it! I was afraid I’d chop a finger off or something.

The recipe couldn’t be easier. Make the sauce while the squash bakes.

Sauce:

- Heat a heavy skillet and brown the meat in it. Add onion and garlic if you wish. I didn’t. I was feeling very lazy.
- Pour tomato chunks with italian herbs over the meat, rinsing the carton with a little water, which you add to the sauce.
- Taste sauce for seasoning. I added some salt, pepper and oregano.

When the squash is soft, comb strands out of it with a fork, pile them on plates and serve topped with the sauce and a little grated cheese if you like.

A very light faux pasta dish!

My 5 year old ate it well, my 4 year old very carefully avoided all the squash strands…