I was so very much craving a nice homemade comfort food meal, but we’ve been in a terrible heatwave and just the thought of cooking a big meal was not appealing. Not gonna happen.

So, again, I called on my new best friend, Ms. Crock Pot! She has so far been a darn good friend and hasn’t let me down yet! 

Not that I’m completely new to crock pots. I used to use them a lot back when I had my catering business. But mostly, I just used them to “hold foods” and transport them to locations to keep food warm. 

So with this heat, I’ve decided to try actually cooking in them! This large oval one is my favorite. It’s just an el cheapo from Walmart that was maybe 20 bucks, has 2 settings, Low and High, and works perfectly!

I have several other ones, but they seem to always look too small to cook main dishes or casserole type foods in. This one holds about anything!

So if you’re looking to buy one, I’d highly suggest just getting a large one as I never seem to ever use my smaller round ones. Just a suggestion for you! 😀  

So anyways, enough about crock pots! 😉 I’m hungry! So let’s get to the good stuff! 

I decided to try my hand at slow cooking cabbage rolls and they turned out absolutely wonderful! I was a bit worried that they wouldn’t get done, or burn on the bottom, or take 2 days to fully cook through! But actually, they didn’t even take as long as I thought they would! 

The only thing to “cook” were the cabbage leaves! I boiled 3-4 at a time, but I’m betting I could’ve just put most, if not all into the pot, then covered it with a lid, turned off the heat, and just let them sit in there until tender.

But, I really wanted to make sure they were extra pretty and didn’t want to risk it. So you can do this any way you feel comfortable doing! 😀 

Just remember one trick. After cooking, always cut out the very end thick part of the stem making a v-cut so that they roll easier. 😉  I just snip it right out with kitchen scissors and that works really well. 

I didn’t get a very good shot, so I hope you can see in the photo above ok!

Looking pretty good, aren’t they? 😀 Each leaf is, of course, a different size, so only use as much meat filling as needed per leaf so that you can fully close it around the filling. 

Place some of the sauce on the bottom and stack away! I got two beautiful layers with half of the sauce in the middle, plus two extra ones on top! 😀   

Lastly, before cooking, top with all of the rest of the sauce! Turn the crock pot on High, put the lid on and go relax! 😉 Let Ms. Crock Pot do the rest. 😉  

Once the rolls were done, I topped them with half of the mozzarella cheese, a little parmesan, a nice sprinkling of garlic salt and some parsley. Then it was just 15-20 minutes to the table after the yummy cheeses had melted!

Since it’s just the two of us, I waited until the first layer had been devoured before melting the rest of the cheeses over the bottom layer. This worked really well! 

So, I do hope you enjoy these soon! A great way to have a nice comfort meal without heating up the house too much! The only little bit of heat is doing the leaves, but it really isn’t bad at all! 😀 They only take 4-5 minutes and do as many as you can at once and you’re done in NO time! 😉 

With this awful heat and humidity, we just had a simple Caprese Salad on the side and that went perfectly! Cool, simple, creamy and delicious! 😀 But corn on the cob and mashed potatoes (on a cool, fall day!) would also be ideal with this. So I hope you enjoy and have a wonderful week! 😀  

Italian-Style Stuffed Cabbage Rolls Smothered in Homemade Spaghetti Sauce & Mozzarella (Crock Pot)

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Ingredients

For Sauce:

• 3 (14.5 oz.) cans Hunt's tomato sauce
• 1 (6 oz.) can Hunt's tomato paste
• 1 (14.5 oz.) can Hunt's Diced Tomatoes with Basil, Garlic and Oregano
• 2 Tbl. red wine
• 1 tsp. worcestershire sauce
• 2 Tbl. dark brown sugar, (yes, Tbl., not tsp.)
• 2 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
• 2 tsp. whole fennel seed
• 1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. Italian seasoning
• 1 tsp. dried basil
• 1/2 tsp. dried marjoram
• 1/2 tsp. Herbs de Provence
• 1/2 tsp. coarse ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp. dried thyme, crushed between your fingers when adding
• [br]

Rest of Ingredients:

• 1 lb. lean ground beef
• 1 lb. mild italian ground sausage, I like Johnsonville's
• 1 well-beaten egg
• 1 (8 oz.) cont. fresh sliced mushrooms, torn or coarse chopped into smaller pieces
• 2 ribs celery, quartered lengthwise and very thinly sliced
• 3/4 cup instant rice, such as Minute Rice, *1 cup if you prefer a firm cabbage roll
• 1/4 cup coarse grated parmesan cheese, I simply used Kraft's
• 2 finely chopped shallots
• 15-18 cabbage leaves
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 lb. shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup more parmesan cheese
• garlic salt and dried parsley for top

Instructions

For Sauce:

In large bowl, stir together all ingredients. Remove 3 cups sauce to second large bowl and stir in 1/4 cup parmesan cheese. Set aside first bowl of sauce.

To second bowl with parmesan added, crumble in ground beef, sausage, beaten egg and rice, and add mushrooms, celery and shallots. Stir to mix to get started, then mix more evenly by hand. Cover and refrigerate.

For Cabbage Leaves:

Bring a pot of water to a low boil, add 1 tsp. sugar. Add 3-4 leaves at a time, and boil for just 4-5 minutes. Remove with tongs to a baking sheet. Cut out very end thick part of stems for easier rolling making a 1" deep v-cut.

To Assemble:

Place 1/2-3/4 cup meat filling (depending on size of leaf) into center of stem-end of cabbage leaf. Fold sides over, then roll up towards end of leaf. Place seam side-down into sprayed and lightly sauce-coated large, oval crock pot. ) *I used a 1/2 cup of sauce on the bottom of mine. Pour some of the sauce (a little less than half) over the rolls to coat when bottom is filled. Repeat with a second layer and cover with rest of sauce. Place on lid and turn crock pot onto HIGH. Cook for 4 hours. Turn down heat to LOW, cover, and cook for 2 more hours or until rolls are done inside. Remove lid, cover with shredded mozzarella and parmesan, sprinkle with garlic salt and parsley, put lid back on and continue cooking for another 15-20 minutes until cheeses have melted. *You can just put it all on top and serve rolls going two deep. Or you can carefully lift the top layer of rolls and place some of the cheese underneath to top the bottom layer. I served the ones on top, then added the rest of the cheese, more garlic salt and parsley, and let it re-melt. But you can dump it all in at once, and let them fight over it if you want! 😉

Notes

Tip to separating leaves: Slice off core, not cutting too much in that it ruins the good leaves after removing the outer 2-3 yucky ones. See which leaf is top and first to remove, slice through that leaf at stem and gently pry open a bit. Wherever there is resistance, run under hot water to soften and leaves will fall and pull away easily. Take your time doing this with each leaf and they'll all be picture-perfect and not tear. Doesn't take long, either.