Asian Stuffed Napa Cabbage Rolls

These Asian style cabbage rolls are a great twist on stuffed cabbage. They are light and healthy, yet still a filling “one-pot” meal perfect for busy weeknights.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb lean ground beef or ground turkey
• 2 carrots, shredded
• 1 cup cooked brown rice or quinoa
• 4-5 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons ginger, minced
• 1 small onion, minced
• 3 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
• 2 teaspoons Nakano rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon chili or chili-garlic sauce
• salt and pepper, to taste
• leaves from 1 large head of Napa cabbage
• 
  

 Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Prepare your filling by gently combining uncooked beef (or turkey), shredded carrots, cooked rice (or quinoa), garlic, ginger, onion, soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, chili sauce and a pinch of salt and black pepper in a large mixing bowl.

To make your leaves easy to roll, use a rolling pin to flatten to make leaves more pliable. If you find that your leaves are on the smaller side, use two to roll, overlapping both ends to make one big leaf.

Spoon your filling to each leaf. Carefully roll each leaf tightly and place side by side in a large baking dish. Pour 1 cup of water over stuffed cabbage rolls and cover with aluminum foil. Bake in preheated oven for about 30-35 minutes or until completely cooked through.

Serve with juices from baking dish and additional chili sauce.

Our Pregnancy Story

I share this story for no other reason then to simply share our story. It is in no way intended to provide medical advice or to slam our medical system as we had some amazing doctors along the way. We are grateful for their support, without them our sweet little Karis would not be with us.

Early in this pregnancy I was experiencing some severe pain and it was decided to do an early ultrasound to rule out tubal pregnancy. The first ultrasound was too early and it was not possible to say that it was not tubal. We went back a week later with the hope of ruling out a tubal pregnancy. The doctor came in at the end of the ultrasound and told us the baby was gone. They could not detect any cardiac activity and we were told to go get a D&C.

By that evening we didn't "feel" right about the diagnosis. We talked to our GP and maternity doctor and they agreed to support us in "waiting" it out to see what happened.

What followed was the longest 10 days of my life. Daily blood work to test the hCG levels. In early pregnancy the hCG usually doubles every 48-72 hours and it should normally increase by at least 60% every two days. My levels were doubling as expected but there was a 2% chance that I was experiencing a "missed miscarriage". This is when your body has lost the baby, but still continues to produce the hormone and act pregnant, even though you are not. We were told continually that the results looked optimistic but we should be cautious and not get our hopes up. It really made it difficult to not question my mental sanity. I wondered how deep my grief was that I just couldn't let go.......fast forward to the Friday before Christmas......our third ultrasound was scheduled.

Jeff and I went to the appointment, more nervous and anxious then we had ever been for anything before. It was the worlds longest hour. The technician was lovely and amazing but not allowed to discuss with us what she was seeing until the doctor was able to come and review the findings.

The findings were: twins. One that was viable, and up until this point had not been seen, and one that was not. This condition is referred to as vanishing twin syndrome. (Vanishing twin syndrome was first recognized in 1945. Vanishing twin syndrome is when one of a set of twin/multiple fetuses disappears in the uterus during pregnancy. This is the result of a miscarriage of one twin/multiple. The fetal tissue is absorbed by the other twin/multiple, placenta or the mother. This gives the appearance of a “vanishing twin”). The sweet little babe that they had found first was being re-absorbed by my body. The sac was almost empty by this point. The second baby that was just discovered appeared to be healthy. We were told to wait another two weeks to make sure that the baby was developing as they expected before we got too excited but at this point everything looked very hopeful.

With the Christmas holiday we ended up waiting for 3 weeks for ultrasound number 4. During the ultrasound everything checked out. The second sac was still present but empty and our other baby was thriving.

By the time we got to our 18 week ultrasound we had a healthy and super active babe. The babe that was discovered first was now 100% gone. Had we not had early ultrasounds we would have never known that it had been there. Other then the initial pain there were no symptoms to suggest that this was happening within my body. For the remainder of the pregnancy I was grateful for the super active baby that remained. I had constant reassurance that she was there.

On July 31, 2014 our sweet Karis Hope was born.

Healthy. Beautiful. Real.

You need a Challenge Group

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