Linda Sue's Crazy Cabbage

I had a couple of requests for the crazy cabbage recipe, so I thought I'd share it here. I found this recipe, which was posted by my friend Linda Sue, on the Low Carb Discussion forum. It's a favorite at our house and we eat it frequently.

Picture by Linda Sue

MOM'S CRAZY CABBAGE

1 1/2 pounds ground beef

1 small onion, chopped, 2 1/2 ounces

1 small cabbage, coarsely chopped, about 1 pound 13 ounces before trimming *

14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained

3 strips bacon

Salt and pepper, to taste

Brown the beef and onion; drain off the grease and season with salt and pepper. Put half of the cabbage in the bottom of a greased 9x13" baking dish. Season with salt and pepper. Top with the meat then the remaining cabbage; season again. Pour or spoon the tomatoes evenly over the cabbage and lay the strips of bacon over the top. Cover with foil and bake at 325º for 3 hours. Discard the bacon before serving.

Makes 6 servings

* I figured 1 1/2 pounds after trimming into the carb counts. Don't use a larger cabbage or it won't all fit in the baking dish.

Per Serving: 259 Calories; 15g Fat; 22g Protein; 10g Carbohydrate; 3.5g Dietary Fiber; 6.5g Net Carbs

Linda's Note: I found this recipe in a healthy recipe cookbook that I bought many years ago. I never got around to trying it until now and it was already low carb without any tweaking. I couldn't figure out why the recipe would say to bake this for three whole hours but I went ahead and followed the instructions. Although the pan is going to be a pain in the neck to wash, the result is that the cabbage and ground beef have a wonderful slow roasted flavor. I thought that the cabbage would turn to mush but it's just right. I don't really taste the bacon but I'm sure that it added a depth to the over flavor of the dish. If your oven bakes a little too hot, you may want to set it to 300º. The bottom of my baking dish got very dark but those dark bits add a lot of flavor as long as they're not burnt.

I make mine in a crockpot. I spray the inside of the crock and after browning the meat add all the ingredients in the order listed. Then I put on the lid and set the crockpot on high for 3 hours. It comes out fantastic! The cabbage shrinks a lot, so don't be surprised to find only half of what you started with in volume. It's great reheated too!

If you'd like to see other fantastic recipes from Linda Sue, be sure to visit her website at Linda's Low Carb Menu's and Recipes.