Runzas

When my last baby was born, my mother-in-law came out and stayed with us for about a week. She had a home-cooked meal ready for us every night. It was amazing, and very therapeutic to have good food when I wasn't feeling up to cooking. And I loved that she introduced so many new recipes to my family. This is one of them-- it has definitely become a favorite!

A runza is basically a stuffed roll. If you're interested in freezing some, here are some good tips.

I stuff mine with the following:

1 lb ground beef 

1 small head of cabbage 

1 onion 

1 clove of garlic

Brown and rinse the ground beef. Combine with finely chopped (or food processed) cabbage, onion, and garlic in a large bowl. Most of the time I freeze half of this for another day. It's so nice to have it already to go!

I like to use my mother in law's Bread Maker Roll Recipe:

1 egg

1 cup water

3 Tbsp sugar

4 Tbsp butter

3 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

2 1/2 tsp yeast

For the rolls, I just throw all the ingredients in my Kitchen Aid and mix well. Pull off a small piece of dough and flatten and stretch it in your hand. Spoon some of the beef mixture into the center, and fold the edges over the top, pinching them together so nothing will leak out. Place the roll pinched-side-down on a greased baking sheet. Continue with the rest of the dough and filling, making about 16 rolls. 

I usually let the rolls rise for about 15 minutes, then bake at 400 degrees for 12 minutes or until the rolls begin to brown slightly.

There are several routes you can go for a dipping sauce for the runzas:

-soy sauce and a little rice vinegar, or

-your favorite Asian salad dressing, or

-Ken's Steakhouse Creamy Caesar salad dressing (my absolute FAVORITE!!!!)

I often serve our runzas with some cooked carrots as a side, but my husband thought a good Asian salad would be a nice addition. 

Confession: when I made this last, I decided it would be fun to try red cabbage instead of green. :) Can you tell from the above picture? Pretty PURPLE stuff!


Up next at Our Sweet Lemons... Camille's Glazed Lemon Cookies