new recipe...................

This evening I had decided upon fish for supper. What to go with it? Well I had cabbage that needed to be used up and some zucchini squash and green pepper. What to do, sounded bland to me so..........hmmmmm thinking......well Spaghetti sauce brightens things up and is always tasty so what about, stuffed cabbage? Too much trouble and not enough time. So I chopped the cabbage up and diced the zucchini and what was left of the pepper, went out and got some Basil (I am in love with Basil)
So here is what I did. I will say right off the bat, I was not thinking. I should have sauteed the stuff first but didn't.

Getting the lid of the jar was the hardest thing. Had to get Gabby to help me with that. Eventually we had success.
Basically this is what I did, I will write what I would do next time when I am done.
I chopped and washed the cabbage and zucchini and a large onion. I had a green pepper to use up and chopped that too. I poured 1/3 of the jar of sauce in an 8 x 12 dish and sprinkled on some instant rice.


I layered this with more sauce and then another layer and a little more rice. Then salt and pepper and some garlic powder to be sure the veggies had taste, it looked a little dry to me.I was thinking when the rice soaks up the sauce, so I added a can of diced tomatoe's salt, pepper and garlic salt

I was cooking the fish at the same time and so the oven was on 450. It was cod in beer batter. I thought maybe it would be too hot, maybe it was because it did soak up a lot of sauce, I think next time I would lower the heat and maybe put in a little less rice. I didn't measure anything.
I put it in the oven and baked it, I had figured 1/2 hour and so checked when I put the fish in (that took 20 mins). Then when it was almost done I put on cheese,

It looked awesome. It tasted awesome.
However the cabbage pieces that were bigger or thicker were a bit crunchy. I think I would boil the cabbage next time until it was tender but not fully cooked. I would not want it slimy. So don't fully cook. If you slice the cabbage thin and don't use the tough bits it would have been fine. I would do that with all the veggies actually so that its not in the oven so long. That way the sauce would not soak up so much.
On the plate with some sour cream.......

It was really tasty and very good especially if you like stuffed cabbage.

To recap
1/2 head of cabbage shredded, take out tough bits (unless you precook al dente ) I would suggest that you do that depending on what veggies you cook with it. It would cut back oven time.
1 large zucchini.
1 Large onion
1 large jar of spaghetti sauce (I used with basil)
fresh basil
1 can diced tomatoes.
1 cup of instant rice.
Pepper and salt and garlic powder sprinkled to taste
1 bag of shredded cheese, I had Mexican.
Layer the veggies and sauce as you would when doing lasagna.
Cook in the oven 350 until the rice is done. (I was cooking fish and it required 450 temp, it did well and took about 30 mins so adjust accordingly. If using 350 oven then precook veggies al dente )
Mix it up and be sure the rice is cooked. I turned it all over and mixed it well.
cover in cheese and bake until the cheese is bubbly and browning. Takes 1/2 hour to 45 mins. It will stay hot for some time because of the cheese on top

This would be a good side dish with baked chicken or fish. I am not a chef and so I cook what I think compliments each other. The bland veggies needed something tasty to go with and the sauce was just right with added basil. Because I added more tomatoes I used salt and pepper. If you cook it I hope you enjoy.