Cabbage Rolls

I was given this recipe from a friend who found it on a friend of a friend's site. We both thought it looked really healthy and delicious....So, I gave it a try.

Actual Recipe:
1 head of cabbage
1 egg
1-8oz can tomato sauce
1/2 cup uncooked brown rice
1-envelope onion soup mix
1 lb lean ground turkey
1/3 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
2 cups regular V8 juice (see note in directions)

Directions:
-Core your cabbage and save it for the guinea pigs
-Very carefully, peel off large cabbage leaves (8-12) and wash them. You need to lightly steam the cabbage leaves to wilt them enough to handle. You can put the leaves in a covered casserole dish and microwave on high for 2 minutes.
-In a mixing bowl, combine the turkey meat, raw rice, egg, onion soup mix, cheese and the can of tomato sauce. Mix well - the mixture will be like very gloppy meatloaf.
-Using a spoon, scoop about 1/3 cup mixture into each cabbage leaf and roll or fold. Put the stuffed cabbage leaves into the bottom of your crock-pot, seam side down.
-If you cabbage has a bunch of nice leaves, use them all. I (the person we got the recipe from) was stuck with only 8 good ones and got frustrated and fed the rest of the cabbage to the guinea pigs.
-It's okay to stack the rolls on top of each other in the crock-pot.
-Top with 2 cups of V8 juice. I used 2 cups of juice because I made 8 rolls. If you are using more rolls, use another cup of juice. The original recipe called for an entire 46 oz bottle of V8 which is an awful lot. I didn't want to use that much and did not fully submerge my cabbage rolls. They steamed and cooked fine in less juice. Cover crock-pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Ours cooked for exactly 6 hours and the meat was cooked the the rice was tender. That's what you're looking for.

Ready to cook.

Done.

My Version & Opinion:
-I was able to get 10 usable cabbage leaves, so I ended up using 3 cups of V8 juice. I'm thinking I should have at least used 4 cups to submerge them because the bottom ones turned out better cooked than the top ones.
-I didn't realize until I was making the recipe that I didn't have shredded cheese. So, I used just under a 1/3 cup of grated Parmesan cheese. I wonder how differently it would have been if I had been able to use the right kind.
-I think my family is done using ground turkey. I used to be into it and didn't mind substituting it for ground beef every once in a while. But, we've had some bad ground turkey in the past and I've had a few too many recipes that didn't taste good with it that I think I'm done using it. I think we did some of those recipes while I was pregnant and it really created a bad flavor. It just doesn't taste good to me anymore. So, my suggestion is that if you do want to try this recipe and are on the fence about ground turkey - go ahead and try the ground beef with it. It would more than likely taste better to you.
-The rice was not cooked as well and the recipe said it would be. I cooked my batch for 8 hours and the rice still wasn't done. I was afraid it was going to be mushy but I was not home and had to let it cook that long. Maybe more V8 juice would have helped this.

We ate it with mashed potatoes and green beans.
I mixed every bite together to get through it all.

Well, it's not a recipe I am going to be using again. Not even one I want to play with because it put such a poor taste in my mouth. Blah! You win some, you lose some. You got to experiment to find out what works for your family and with this one, I found out what doesn't work. Good luck to the rest of you if you want to try it out.