Some cabbage never dies...

It lives on forever in a casserole! I had a manky small cabbage hiding in the back of the fridge, so I decided to make cabbage casserole. Or my son did. Easier to make than cabbage rolls. One small shredded cabbage apparently can expand exponentially on itself. I'm sure there is some law of Newtonian physics about that multiplicative powers of the cooked cabbage. So that's how I found myself with the endless cabbage casserole.

It was made of 1 pound ground meat, 1 shredded cabbage, 1 chopped onion, 2 cans of tomato sauce, 2 cans of beef broth & a package of boil n bag rice. Add salt, pepper, other spices, and mix and flop in a 9 x 13 pan and bake for an hour at 350. I used beef bullion as that's all I had, but it seemed to work ok.

I went with paprika & marjoram as spices. We ate it for 3 meals and froze the rest. I still have a good sized bag in the freezer, I just couldn't face it another day. It was really good though. My husband took it for lunch, my son at a ton of it, I ate it for lunch and as a side to dinner, and we still have some left! My son decided that I should blog about the budget friendly meals I make trying to make this food stretch. He says it's cool and amazing that I can make food out of nothing. I think it's horrifying and embarrassing that we get some assistance from food stamps and food banks.

We have no insurance since my husband changed jobs, and my husband loves his new job, but if I need to go to the doctor or take the kids, it's $80.00 to $100.00 for each of us. Plus prescriptions. We applied for children's health insurance for the kids from the state, but have not been able to get my step son covered because "someone" else has been claiming his benefits. And we are having to prove that we have had him for the past 3 years and that my husband has custody of him. And what this means in a nutshell is that he can't get state insurance because the State of Texas believes he has medicaid. Which he has never had.

So you can see my frustration, since he's been sick, we had to take him to the doctor, and each time it's a ton of money. I am however, happy that we at least have the money to make sure the kids & me get to see a doctor, but each time we're out $200.00 or so! So that's why we're creating casserole out of cabbage and hoping that the new year will bring insurance for the son so it won't be so out of control for us.

So I guess I'll take my older son's suggestion and write about the weird and random things I create based on what we can afford and sometimes what we are given. I don't want any one to think I am a whiney bitch, cos I am so grateful everything I have been given, it is a blessing for us.