I love it when I make a recipe that my whole family can enjoy. You would think my kids would turn their noses up at the sound of stuffed cabbage rolls (they would) but when I gave them a dish of these for the first time, I didn’t say too much about it and made sure to cut it up real well so that cabbage just blended in with the meat and rice mixture. They didn’t ask any questions and I kept my mouth shut as they ate away. Recipes like this one get noted for regular rotation in my house.

Napa cabbage is starting to become a favorite veggie of mine. It’s so versatile. You can add it to soups, use it as filling for potstickers, make a slaw or salad like this Asian Chopped Salad or of course use it to make stuffed cabbage rolls like shown here today. It’s a mild and delicate cabbage, which is why I think my kids didn’t make too much of a fuss. I find myself purchasing it more often these days, and was happy when my friend Bev shared this recipe with me from Whole Living last year which I changed up slightly with what I had in my own kitchen to create these Asian Stuffed Napa Cabbage Rolls.

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As much as I love salads, I haven’t been into them so much lately. I think I’m kind of bored with them maybe? That’s really what it is. We all get into our routines with what we eat, and variations of my super salad just hasn’t been cutting it these days. This salad though, this salad got me and my friend Julie excited last week.

This simple Asian Chopped Salad was the result of what we thought were going to be vegetarian dumplings. We created a vegetarian filling to try in a dumpling but to be honest, I wasn’t thrilled with how they were turning out. While Julie was cutting out her dumplings into a round shape with a biscuit cutter, the outer scraps were collecting into a pile on the cutting board. Being from the “waste not” mentality, I couldn’t bear to throw them in the trash, so I fried them up in a little bit of oil until they were crisp. We added them to our “reject” vegetarian dumpling filling and voila – this amazing salad was born.

I love everything about this salad. The crunch from the veggies and the fried wonton scraps makes it so good. And the dressing was incredibly simple – a little rice vinegar, sesame oil and soy sauce.

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Last week my friend Julie and I had a play date. We’ve been wanting to get together for a while, and even though she lives just a little over an hour from me, it seems like it’s always hard to find the time with both of our busy schedules.

We talked about cooking up some lunch, playing with our cameras and just hanging out but little did I know that our time together was going to stir up both of our creative juices in the kitchen. Personally, I’ve been in somewhat of a cooking slump since the holidays, really not in the mood to try anything new…basically it’s been survival mode around here with lots of easy pasta dishes and big pots of soup. That’s not a bad thing. But I’ve missed the excitement and energy I get when I start playing around in the kitchen, and of course I’ve been wanting to share new stuff with all of you!

Our plan that day was to learn how to make Chinese dumplings together. It’s one of my kids’ favorite things to order when we pick up take-out and something I’ve been wanting to get better at making at home. Well, it turns out, Julie was a natural at putting these dumplings together. They turned out delicious and my kids scarfed them down at dinner time. I’m seriously so excited about making them again and experimenting with different types of fillings.

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