Asian Lettuce Wraps - 100 Days of Real Food

I feel like we have been in a rut with how we cook with ground meat. We tend to use ground turkey instead of ground beef or pork, but we do the same things, burgers, tacos, or meatballs most of the time. This recipe was a welcome change to the usual.

We are big fans of Oriental style food in our house. The boys will eat Kung Pao Chicken, Mongolian Beef, and Sesame Chicken, which we call Chinese chicken nuggets. I thought I would try the Asian Lettuce Wraps in this cookbook since they would probably have some of the same Oriental flavors. I was a little bit nervous about this recipe though because Hubby is very outspoken about his dislike of water chestnuts and this recipe includes an 8 ounce can of them. At least they were diced water chestnuts.

Since I was making this for dinner I knew I would need something on the side and assumed I would make brown rice like I do with most of our Oriental dishes. At the last minute, I thought I would try the Asian Inspired Rice dish in the book, but I was missing a couple ingredients, so I just ended up making regular brown rice.

I did make one necessary modification to this recipe. I did not include the cilantro because neither Hubby or myself like it at all. We are special people who feel like cilantro tastes like soap, so we do not use it at all. I know there are plenty of people who really like it and would want to include it though. Our poor children have never tried it though because we do not keep it in the house. Someday, someone will have to broaden their horizons for us.

I was pleasantly surprised when I served dinner this night. The boys were suspicious of the lettuce leaves and what to do with them. Hubby and I told them they were lettuce tacos, and they use the lettuce as the tortilla. The older two were very skeptical and refused to put theirs in the lettuce leaves, but they ate the filling with a fork. Mr. T put his in the lettuce and insisted on rice in his lettuce as well, then he ate it like a pro. He is usually willing to try new things, but I was very proud of him for this. Hubby was very happy with these as well, although, he preferred not to use the lettuce leaves either. He did notice the water chestnuts and just asked that they be chopped even smaller next time.

Timing: Recipe States: 30 to 40 minutes, My Actual Timing: 37 minutes
Servings: Recipe States: 4 to 5 servings, Servings For My Family: 6 servings, but rice was added as a side
Leftovers: Hubby said the leftovers were great!


Family Ratings:
Me: These are great and a nice way to do something different with ground meat.
Hubby: Let's have them again soon, just chop the water chestnuts more finely please.
Big Man: "These are actually good!" This is a compliment from him. When he is suspicious about something and you get this response it's a huge win!
Bear: Bear requested no carrots in his next time. Sorry Bear, we will keep feeding you carrots.
Mr. T: "This is too hard to eat." He struggled with having put too much food into his lettuce leaf, but once we gave him a fork he had no problem eating this one at all.

Will I repeat: Yes!

What will I change: I will offer the lettuce leaves, but not worry about it too much if the boys choose not to use them. Also, I better chop those water chestnuts more finely!