RunZa Casserole

I thought I'd make an attempt at adding a recipe to my blog. Being from Nebraska, one of my favorite things to eat is Runza. If you've never heard of Runza than I would say that you are missing out. The local bakery in my hometown used to make something similar except they called them Ranzens and now Bierocks. I've also heard of these little delicacies as krautburgers. Anyway, Runza patented the name and according to their website it is Homemade dough made from scratch everyday — stuffed full of Choice ground beef, onions, cabbage, and secret spices—and then baked fresh and served hot. That pretty much sums it up for whatever you want to call it. MMMmmmmmm yes...pure heaven!

When I was growing up, my grandma would occasionally make runzas (even though the name's patented we still referred to them that way). I think my mom may have made them a time or two as well. I personally have never made them. I guess I thought they would take more work then I really wanted to put into them. But, someday I do plan to make them. For now, however, I make what I refer to as RunZa Casserole.

Ingredients: Ground beef, shredded cabbage, mozzarella cheese, two tubes of crescent roll mix, salt, pepper, minced onion, minced garlic, garlic salt, and onion

This time I decided to add some cheddar cheese and mushrooms.

Start by browning the hamburger and onions. I used about 1/4 cup of fresh onion (chopped). Since you're using minced onion you really don't need the fresh onion. We LOVE onion so the more the better!

 The next step is to season the meat/onion mixture. I used lean meat so I really didn't have any grease to drain, but be sure to drain if you have too.

Add lots of minced onion, minced garlic, garlic salt, pepper and salt. The key to flavor is really in the spices.

Add the cabbage to the meat mixture. I used about 4 cups. This particular mixture had carrots.

Cook the mixture until the cabbage shrinks down. I used more spices, especially salt. At this point you may want to have a lttle taste test.

In a 9x13 pan, place one can of crescent roll mix. It doesn't have to be pretty, but knock yourself out if you want it to be perfect.

 Add the meat/cabbage mixture on top of the dough.

 Optional: Add one can of mushrooms

Here comes the love! Sprinkle one package (2 cups) of mozzarella cheeze on top of the mixture.

 

Optional: More love (aka cheddar cheese). I used about 1/4 cup.

Place the second can of crescent mix on top. You may want to make it look prettier than I did. But, if you don't care and you just want to eat it then you will end up with a top crust that resembles Frankenstein!

Fresh out of the oven.

Yummy...ready to eat! (unfortunately this is a bad picture). We like to eat this with ketchup and mustard, but it's good by itself too.

My husband had a big smile on his face when I served this to him for dinner. Of course, I told him that I thought it looked ugly (ie, Frankenstein), but he said, "who cares...it tastes good!"

Enjoy!!!