Easy Slow Cooker Stuffed Cabage & Bell Peppers

I had mentioned that we are so sick of the same dinners every week and I have been trying to spice things up in the kitchen. I've also read about planning weekly menus from other bloggers and sticking to them...my goodness this has helped. Now everyone knows exactly what we're having each night. AND it was much easier (and cheaper) to buy groceries!
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This week my first new dinner was Slow Cooker Stuffed Cabbage...it ended up being Stuffed Bell Peppers too!

I was supposed to use two cans of tomato sauce for the sauce but I only had two cans of stewed tomatoes. They worked just fine! I also added some fresh lemon juice, 1/2 cup brown sugar and ten shakes of Worcestershire sauce.

I was supposed to chop a whole onion but only had about 3/4 cup so I just added dried onion flakes to the meat. I also add one egg slightly beaten, 1/2 cup milk, and 1 tsp each dried basil, parsley and oregano. I needed two small cans of chopped mushrooms and didn't have any canned so I used 1/2 a carton of fresh. It was sooooo good!

I added my two pounds of browned ground beef and two cups of cooked rice to the spice mixture.

I was originally supposed to make 14 stuffed cabbage leaves but I ended up only getting 11 good leaves and the rest of the mixture I put in 6 large bell peppers. I made the same sauce mixture for these, spooned some on top and poured the rest on the bottom.

In the slow cooker I poured the tomato sauce mixture on top of my rolled cabbage leaves and let it cook on high for an hour and then turned it to low for 4 hours. Browning the meat helped speed up cooking time.

I cannot tell you how good the house smelled. We had to do deliveries and it was sooooo hard to not eat first. We came home with hungry tummies!

The stuffed cabbage is very similar to the Russian dish galubtsi. So we topped ours with sour cream just like you would galubtsi. It was beyond delicious!

I nearly cried when I looked at my little kitchen.... I was hard at work and I love cooking and trying new recipes...and I clean as I go. However, my kitchen still looked like this!!

I am LOVING peppermint bark!!! So I wanted to try my hand at making a batch. I bought all the necessary ingredients.

I lined a small pan and poured my chocolate chunks, baking them in the over til they melted.

While the chocolate was melting, my sweet Lena was smashing the peppermint canes.

I even took down a utensil from my Russian cutting board sets for her to use!

I set the chocolate in the fridge to cool once out of the oven. I melted my white chocolate in the microwave. I now know I need to buy and add some peppermint extract and use two boxes of white chocolate. I guess you learn as you go! Once the white chocolate was melted I added the smashed peppermint pieces.

Poured it on top of my cooled chocolate.....and let it set in the fridge til it cooled.

Not too bad for my first time. I do have to make a few adjustments....next time it should be perfect!

CC went to Mom to help her set up her new computer desk and entertainment center. CC must get it from her dad because I could NEVER do assembly stuff like that! After picking her up on the drive home I told her I had an urge for something bad...so did she...this girl read my mind!!

Nice, hot, melt in your mouth Krispy Kreme doughnuts hit the spot!!! And they have a seasonal doughnut..Peppermint Bark Chocolate Cake. Lena loved it!

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Today CC's thyroid doctors office called to make sure we were coming in for our 9:30 appointment. I woke CC up and got us dressed super quick and headed over there. This sweet receptionist forgot to tell me on the phone that we needed a referral from our PCP, as our referral was over a year old, and they could not see her. Well, thank you very much! They could have told me this when they called this morning at 8:30 before I drove all the way over there!! Ugh! Then on the way home we got soooo lost because of all the detours. It seriously took us over an hour to find our way home. I was so frustrated, I stopped by Ross on the way home to look for blue jeans. All my walking has got me down one whole size and I NEED new blue jeans. I didn't find any that fit right. It seems I'm in the between size...oh well! I did find new bed sheets though. I bought us satin ones a month or so ago...bad idea! We slip and slide everywhere, our pillows slide off the bed, we wake up aching from trying to sleep at night!

I was so excited to find this geometric sheet set for $14.99, the ultra-plush fuzzy black "comforter" for $15.99 and that wonderful black fuzzy long pillow for $9.99!!

I will surely get a good nights sleep tonight!

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This evening I made Beef Fried Rice...so easy and so delicious!!