HAMBURGER CABBAGE STIR-FRY

1 pound ground beef

2 cloves garlic, minced

16 ounce bag coleslaw mix *

8 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon sesame oil

Pinch ginger, optional

Pinch cayenne, optional

Salt and pepper, to taste

2 teaspoons granular Splenda, optional

1 bunch green onions, cut on the bias (about 8 onions or 3 ounces after trimming)

In a very large skillet or wok, brown the ground beef with the garlic and a little salt and pepper. Drain the fat, if you like, or just leave it in. Add the cabbage and mushrooms and stir-fry until the cabbage is tender-crisp. Add the remaining ingredients and heat through. Adjust the seasoning to your taste.

Makes 6 servings

* You can save a lot of money, like I did, by buying a head of cabbage and shredding it yourself. A 1-pound bag of coleslaw mix was $1.39 and cabbage was 34¢ pound. To end up with a pound of shredded cabbage, I bought the smallest one they had which weighed 1 1/2 pounds. After trimming, I ended up with almost exactly a pound of usable cabbage. This whole dish, minus the condiments and seasonings, only cost me $3.50 to make because I bought marked down hamburger and got good prices on the cabbage, mushrooms, and green onions.

Ground beef 99¢

Cabbage 50¢

Mushrooms $1.49

Green onions 50¢

TOTAL - $3.50

Per Serving: 263 Calories; 16g Fat; 22g Protein; 7.5g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 4.5g Net Carbs

This is a popular recipe at Low Carb Friends that they call Crack Slaw. I don't know why they call this "slaw" when it's a cooked dish. I wasn't crazy about the name so I'm calling mine something else. There are so many variations of Crack Slaw that I couldn't decide which one to try so I just took the ingredients that appealed to me and came up with my own version. I saw some versions that called for as much as a stick of butter. Instead of adding extra fat with butter, I just left in the fat from the ground beef. This made a huge amount of food and I could only fit about two thirds of it in the serving bowl in the photo. Click the photo to see a close-up.