Asian Lettuce Wraps

These Asian Lettuce Wraps were excellent! The kids loved them and the parents were only disappointed that there weren’t any leftovers for lunch. They were so good in fact, we brought them back for a second week in a row! I left out the chile and red pepper flakes and added sriracha sauce for the adults.

Asian Lettuce Wraps
Adapted from Our Family EatsAsian Lettuce Wraps

  • 1 head iceberg lettuce
  • 1 Tbs olive oil
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 1 small Poblano pepper, diced (we skipped this)
  • 1/2 cup grated carrot
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
  • 1 pound ground turkey
  • salt and pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (skipped this too)
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • cilantro for garnish

Bang the stem of the lettuce head on counter to remove the core and gently separate leaves.  Set leaves aside. Heat oil in a large skillet.  Add onion and carrots to skillet and saute for about 3 minutes, until they begin to soften.  Add ground turkey to skillet and cook until no longer pink.  Add garlic and ginger and season with salt and pepper to taste.  Add chili powder and cumin and saute about 1 minute.  Pour in soy sauce and continue cooking about 3-4 more minutes, or until most of the liquid has been absorbed.

Place one or two lettuce leaves on a plate and spoon about 1/2 cup of the turkey mixture into them. Sprinkle with cilantro.  Serve immediately.

Chicken with artichokes in creamy mustard sauce

Dinner a Love Story is one of my favorite sites for meal ideas. The recipes tend to be good, family friendly and relatively easy to make. The site also features stories of their lives, meals, readings, etc. This particular recipe caught my eye, not only because it looked yummy, but because it started with a note from one of the kids about the pains of being a child of a food blogger and having to wait another fiiiive hours for mom to finish taking photos of dinner before they could eat! As you may have gathered looking around my blog, I generally snap a quick shot or two before digging into a meal…Anyway it was yummy and fairly quick to make. I made a few substitutions based on what was on hand.

Chicken with Artichokes in Creamy Mustard Sauce

Adapted from Dinner A Love StoryChicken with Artichokes in Creamy Mustard Sauce

  • 1 1/3 pounds skinless chicken thighs
  • 3 Tbs olive oil
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 1 chopped tomato
  • 1 can artichokes (drained), cut in half
  • 1 Tbs lemon juice
  • 1/2 cup red wine
  • 1/2 cup chicken broth
  • 1/4 – 1/3 cup cream
  • 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
  • chopped parsley or thyme

In a large skillet, brown chicken pieces in olive oil over medium-high heat, about 2-3 minutes a side. (They do not have to cook through.) Remove, decrease heat to medium, and add onion. Cook a minute or two, scraping brown bits leftover from chicken. Add tomatoes, artichokes, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Cook another 2-3 minutes. Nestle chicken thighs in the vegetables then add wine and chicken broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover. Cook another 10 – 12 minutes.

While it’s simmering, whisk together cream and mustard. Remove skillet from heat and stir in creamy mustard mixture.

Garnish with parsley or thyme and serve with a good crusty bread to soak up all the sauce.

Meals for March 31 – April 6

  1. The Asian Lettuce Wraps from last week were so good, we’re doing them again!
  2. These two pizzas from Pink Parsley seem different enough that we can do both…Greek Pita Pizzas
  3. Balsamic Steak, Roasted Red Pepper and Goat Cheese Pizza
  4. And making it officially Pink Parsley week here…Mexican-Style Steak Sandwiches
  5. Chicken and Strawberry Spinach Salad
  6. Chicken and Rice
  7. Sausage and baked beans…a la Dinner a Love Story

Asparagus pesto ham and cheese sandwiches

The Fine Cooking Raw Asparagus Pesto recipe sounded good, and the picture that went Asparagus pesto sandwichalong with it sealed the deal. I was tempted to increase the garlic, but was glad I stuck with the small clove as it was good, but more would have been too much.

We’ve used Charle van Over’s Best Bread Ever recipe for many years now, so I made some bagettes and added ham and cheese. We served it with sweet potato fries.

Overall, while you need to be around most of the day, there’s not that much involved in making this, and it was very good.

 

 

Butternut squash pizza

Butternut squash pizzaWe get Fine Cooking, and when it arrives in the mail, it’s always fun to flip through the pages and read about food and pick recipes to try out. We do end up using many of the recipes, though probably not as often as we should…Then there are a few that we use all the time, over and over again…I think I’ve about memorized the Cream Scone recipe we’ve made it so many times! The pizza dough recipe from a recent edition looks like it will become another standby…we’ve already made it twice and it is really good. A couple of weeks ago, I was looking for a pizza topping and ran across A Zesty Bite’s Butternut Squash Pizza. We ended up using a red sauce, and it’s really good.

Butternut Squash Pizza

  • Pizza dough
  • Spaghetti sauce or pizza sauce or pesto
  • Butternut squash, diced and roasted
  • Cubed ham
  • Goat cheese

Make the pizza dough ahead of time. The recipe calls for at least 3 hours in the fridge (so 5 hrs total), but we’ve had really tasty dough leaving it in the fridge for 2 days. Take the dough out and let it warm up for a half hour or so before rolling it out into pizzas.

Dice and roast the butternut squash (450 for 20-30 min).

Preheat the oven with a pizza stone in it to 450-500.

Spread the sauce on the pizza, top with butternut squash, ham and goat cheese. Bake until nice and brown.