recipe review: cabbage roll casserole

i saw this cabbage roll casserole on instagram, probably earlier in the week or at some point last week, and decided to make it for meal prep. i like stuffed cabbage but i don't like making stuffed cabbage, so this definitely appealed to me. 

i used ground turkey b/c i had some in the freezer. there were 4 cloves of garlic left on a head of garlic i had, so i used all of them and then added garlic powder to the cabbage mixture. i bought "regular" tomato sauce instead of no-salt-added, and used a cup each of chicken broth and beef broth; since i was using turkey instead of beef, i figured it'd help boost the flavor a bit. the head of cabbage i bought was on the small side (~1 1/4 pounds before i cored and chopped it), which didn't yield as much cabbage as i probably needed but it still worked. 

the dried dill seemed like a lot at first: it's not overpowering, but i might dial it back a bit the next time i make it. it's entirely possible that i will never make traditional stuffed cabbage again now. i'd like to try it with ground beef, and if i ever manage to get more chicken chorizo from whole foods, i'd definitely try it with this.

recipe review: skillet potatoes and zucchini

i've been thinking a lot about self-care lately. sounds indulgent, i know, given the current (ongoing?) state of the world, but i also know i have to try to take care of myself before i can be of any help to others. sometimes that means going to bed early to read a book before i fall asleep. sometimes it means vegging out on the couch. recently, though, it's meant making sure i'm somewhat prepared for the work week so i'm not scrambling for meal ideas. 

i wasn't really committed to meal prepping for this week. i knew i'd be going out for or ordering dinner at least 2-3 nights, so i didn't feel any urgency in having full dinner options handy. for times like this, i've learned it's better for me to at least have part of a dinner ready to go so i could figure out the rest on the fly if i needed to. this time, i decided to have a vegetable/side dish on hand. 

the skillet potatoes and zucchini (first recipe on the list) jumped out at me when i first read about it in food & wine last week. why have i never considered adding zucchini to what is essentially a hash? i used a couple of russet potatoes that i wound up boiling for too long, so they came out more tender than they probably needed to be for this recipe. i used a small white onion and added a 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder because clearly the lack of garlic in the original recipe was a mistake. i'd make this again, maybe with refrigerated hash browns or diced potatoes (bonus if they include onions). also thinking about making a variation of potatoes with chorizo and adding zucchini somehow, or using yellow squash.