thai lettuce wraps

(Thinking happy thoughts. NOT thinking about the centipede trapped in my bathtub. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts, happy thoughts...)

Here's one of the meals from this week's menu plan. I didn't follow a recipe, but had an idea what I wanted it to taste like.

Thai Lettuce Wraps
Peel and shred 2 medium carrots, slice 2 stalks of celery and 1 red pepper. The picture below shows only 1/2 a pepper, but I later cut up the other 1/2. I'm glad I did. You will be too.


Saute 2 cloves of garlic in 1 Tbsp of coconut oil for a few seconds. Throw all the other veggies in and saute for a couple of minutes. You could use another type of oil, but coconut oil is all sorts of good for you and it tastes great in Asian cooking. It also remains stable at much higher temperatures than all other oils.

While the veggies are softening a bit, chop up your chicken and throw it in. The chicken is already cooked so you're just heating it through. If you were to use raw chicken, I'd stir fry it before add all the veggies. Since I'd roasted two chickens Monday night, this was a fabulous way to use up leftovers.

Add about 1/4 cup of Sweet Red Chili sauce (a bit more if you like it spicier).

Add a heaping spoonful of some sort of nut butter. I used cashew butter here, but peanut butter would be fine. Stir to combine and melt the nut butter. At this point, I also added a big splash of rice wine vinegar.

there's the chili sauce in the corner of this picture

Once it's all heated through, it's done. Serve by scooping into lettuce leaves (I used Boston Lettuce) and wrapping like a tortilla.

This was so quick and easy, and so amazingly good. It is hands down our new favorite way to use extra chicken. Simon and Liam ate so much that, once they were done, I made a second batch for Peter and I. We ran out of Boston Lettuce (note to self, buy two next time) so made little sandwiches out of baby spinach leaves. Still yummy, but didn't have the same crunch as the lettuce.

In review,

Thai Lettuce Wraps
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 medium carrots, peeled and shredded
2 stalks of celery, sliced
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
3 cups of cooked chicken, cubed
1/4-1/2 cup of Sweet Red Chili sauce
1-2 Tbsp of nut butter
1-2 Tbsp of rice wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Saute garlic. Add veggies to soften slightly. Add chicken to heat through. Add next three ingredients. Stir to combine. Serve with lettuce leaves. Wrap and eat.

Simple, no?