Greenling cabbage casserole

Greenling Market Box gave me a huge cabbage. I've been chiffonading the greens we've been getting and sauteing with lentils and onions (yummy!) but the cabbage was a little much for that. So I whipped up a cabbage casserole since I really didn't feel like making cabbage rolls. We've been nibbling on the leftovers for a few days now and it's still that good. Not all of the ingredients are from the box, but it's not quite tomato season yet. I bet lentils instead of meat would work as well, and whatever fresh herbs you feel like adding that complement the dish. I was going for simple, since I knew there would be leftovers. This is a modification of a recipe that called for milk and eggs, but I can't follow recipes and there's no telling that I got all of it down since it was being created on the stove. I'm guessing the quality of the ingredients made this so delicious.

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1 med head of cabbage, shredded (i have a mandolin). Set aside. You can saute in oil or butter if it tastes nasty, but the cabbage we had was deliciously fresh and not at all stale tasting, so I wanted to preserve the crispness of it and cook it in the casserole without that extra step.

Rice Layer:
1 bag of however much mushrooms came in the Greenling box - 10 ounces? Torn into pieces.
1 whatever was left of the yellow onion (about half, more if you like onions)
a bunch of those green onions from last week's Greenling box
a couple of globs of olive oil (or butter, but I'm dairy-free right now)
about a cup of brown organic rice, uncooked, rinsed. You could also used cooked.

Saute the onions and mushrooms in the oil, season, add the rice and soak up the oil (and flavor) until coated. Add a little water (or broth) and cover, cook until the liquid is soaked in, add more liquid and continue until the rice is mostly cooked. I only cooked mine 20 minutes because I wanted the extra crunch of the rice to stand out in the dish. Put in another dish and set aside. If using cooked rice, just add to the sauted onions and stuff and cook until warmed through and coated with that yummy deliciousness of onions and mushrooms. I know people who can't cook worth a darn but start every meal preparation by sauteing garlic, onions and mushrooms and it doesn't matter how bad the final product is, the kitchen smells so wonderful, everyone eats.

Meat layer
about 1 pound of the best ground meat you want. We used grass-fed, hormone-free lean (90/10) angus since AC was craving meat.
1 can of stewed tomatoes (28 ounce)
For seasoning, I added coarse hawaiian sea salt, garlic powder, nutmeg and cayenne. You can add whatever. If you've got icky old cabbage you might want to add a little apple cider vinegar or brown sugar to give it a little bit of sweet. I didn't. The cabbage was sweet enough.

Start the meat in the skillet. Add the spices. Cook until brown. Add tomatoes (squish with your hands if you're working with the whole tomatoes like I was. If you have cherry tomatoes, I bet they would be delicious as well). Cook until tomatoes are soft. Pull off heat and set aside.

Layering:
1/3 onion stuff, 1/2 cabbage, all meat, 1/3 onion stuff, rest of cabbage, rest of onion stuff in a 9x13 casserole dish (or whatever you have), oiled or sprayed or whatever.

350 for about 30 minutes (I left mine uncovered, and I wish I had covered it to keep the top layer from drying out since I didn't have a very saucy-sauce on top, nor did I saute the cabbage first. Let sit for a bit to cool down (not much). Delicious reheated! Probably freezes well, too.