Okay, I decided not to type at all this weekend, it was nice to enjoy the amazing weather and be with my family.

So for meal #6 – Saturday April 14th…..well there wasn’t one.  I drove my son and his friend to Richmond for the X-Chili Cook-Off and then proceeded to spend a day of shopping and fun with my daughter.  What a glorious day.   So we did not make it home until after 8pm and by then my dh has already taken our other 2 boys out to dinner and we had snacked in the car on the way home.  It was a wonderful day.

We all should have time to enjoy what we have in our lives and I sure did.

So on Sunday I was ready to cook something yummy and I was inspired by a small-plate I had at the Cheesecake Factory.  FYI if you are out and about and looking for something NOT fast-food but won’t break the bank I suggest these small-plates and since I cut out the nasty soda beverages I am happy to have water with lemon.  The dish I got was called Chicken Lettuce Wrap Tacos, they came in three varieties and I chose the Asian, they were amazing and healthy and nothing small about this.  I was full after the second one but was not going to let it go to waste.  Anyway this flavor inspired my dish last night.

I made Asian Style Lettuce Wraps, because I was worried about coming up with the right flavor I did buy at Trader Joe’s a Sesame Soy Ginger Vinaigrette but the flavor was a wee bit off so I added about 2 tablespoons of brown sugar and red pepper flakes to my final dish to get a wonderful flavor.

So here you go Meal #7:

Asian Style Lettuce Wraps

1lb Ground Turkey (you can us ground beef, cut up chicken or beef, your choice)
1 Carrot grated
4 Clove Garlic – pressed
1/3 C Chopped Onion
4 Small Sweet Peppers (these were my last four, yay, goal accomplished of not wasting food I buy, I tend to do that, you know forget they are in there etc and before you know it is rotten and in the trash, not this time, woo hoo)
1 C Brown Rice – cooked ahead of time
1/4 C Soy Sauce
1/2 C Water
1/2 C Sesame Soy Ginger Vinaigrette (next time I will make a dressing from scratch but this worked for now)
2 T Brown Sugar
1t Red Pepper Flakes
1t Salt
Some ground pepper

Cook up your turkey until almost done, add the carrot, garlic, onion and sweet peppers.  Cook through until soft.  Add in rice, soy sauce, water, dressing, brown sugar, red pepper flakes, salt and ground pepper.  Cook about 10 minutes.  Time is hard for me I just cook until I can smell a really good flavor from the mixture and it is nicely browned.

Serve this on Lettuce of your choice, next time I will use a softer lettuce for easy wrapping but the head lettuce worked fine too.  The top of Roman lettuce might work nicely.

I served this with a sauteed Asparagus this just had a bit of salt and pepper and was sooooo good, sometimes less is so much more.

The general consensus was that I should make it again.  They liked it a lot.  This is why I right things down as I go so I don’t forget and I can make it again.  I will make some changes, ie; make my own sauce and probably use whatever veggies I have available to mix in.  That is what I love about cooking, there are so many flavors to end up with just by changing the ingredients even a little bit.

The cooked mixture

Fresh Asparagus

The mixture on lettuce

Happy Cooking.