How To: Use Up Cabbage You Were Conned Into Buying But Don't Want to Eat as Salad (Blech)

After being suckered into buying two heads of cabbage (one green and one purple. No, not the half ones. "Whole BALL ones. 'DIS ONE! Right here. And 'DIS PURPLE ONE! No not 'DAT one! 'DIS one!") by my little angel, I put out a call for recipe suggestions from my fellow bento-ers. Anything but sauerkraut (yuck!) or cole slaw (bleah.) Myra from Mommy + Me Lunchbox came back with the only one that looked simple enough even a monkey I could do it. Plus I could pronounce all the ingredients!

Filipino-Style Cabbage Stir-Fry

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 cabbage, shredded
2 cloves or 2 tsp garlic, minced
1/8-1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2-1 cup water
salt/pepper, to taste

Directions:
Step 1: Brown ground beef. Drain some of the excess oil, but leave enough for Step 2. Set ground beef aside.

Step 2: Saute garlic and onions, until onions start to become translucent. Add back ground beef.

Step 3: Add cabbage; stir.
There was soooo much cabbage I had to add it in waves, letting it cook down before adding more. There was much stirring. So either use a really big pan/wok, or plan on feeding the baby first not needing to step away for a bit.

Step 4: Add 1/2 to 1 cup water. Stir.
I added a whole cup. In for a penny...

Step 5: Season with soy sauce (1/8 to 1/4 cup, depending on how salty and soupy you like it.) Season with pepper and salt (may not need salt, depending on soy sauce amount.)
We weren't sure if the soy sauce was meant to be added while still cooking, or after. But since Myra said 'season with' we assumed it meant after. 1/4 cup was waaaaaay too much. Our stir fry was swimming! I had to drain a bunch of it out. Next time I will try using less and adding it with the water during cooking.

The Verdict: Meh. I wasn't in love with it. It wasn't no PF Chang's Lettuce Wraps, but it wasn't "hoy-ri-boh" [how Z pronounces 'horrible'] either. And it was certainly easy enough to do. I clearly used too much soy sauce, which made it a dominant flavor. But that's fixable, with a do-over... Plus I got a larger package of beef and saved the rest of the onion to make Porcupines another night, which saved me some money (I don't usually plan meals close enough together to share ingredients, so often get some waste or just buy smaller quantities,) which pleased Hubby to no end. He likes when I feed him, especially when I make imminent plans to do so again!
Hubby liked it enough to eat the rest as leftovers and still want it again. Luckily I happen to have another head of cabbage lying around...