the little lettuce wrap that could

the wee one is across the cul-de-sac at the neighbor's house for a couple hours and i found myself, alternately, running around the house wondering what to do with myself (i get the.whole.house. to myself for 2 hours!?) and peeking out the window to make sure they weren't bringing him back early.

i cleaned a little. i read a little. i turned on some carla bruni, and now, i write.

i am always on the hunt for dinner inspiration and am always so thankful when a friend comes to the rescue. my sweet friend christie shared her menu for the week with me and these lettuce wraps jumped out at me and sounded perfect. her idea of adding extra veggies to it to make it more healthful was a spark of genius.

please don't be angry with me, but i don't have a real recipe with real measurements and whatnot for this but it is super easy to throw together and adjust to your palate.

i used ground beef because i had it on hand, but these would be equally delightful made with ground pork, ground chicken or ground turkey.

you will need-

1 lb of ground meat (of your choice)

2 cups already cooked rice

brown sugar

minced ginger

sriracha

fresh basil

fresh lime juice

soy sauce

s+p

it goes a little something like this-

brown the meat in a skillet over medium heat until nearly all the pink is gone. add the minced ginger (i cheat and buy organic minced ginger by the jar) and stir, stir, stir. add a couple Tbsp. soy sauce, 1 tsp of brown sugar, as much or as little sriracha as you like and mix it up. toss in chopped basil, start with 1/4 cup and you can add more later if you like. add some s+p and a couple squirts of lime juice. stir and taste. add more lime/basil/sriracha/soy or sugar as you like. add the rice and mix it up.

serve with butter lettuce leaves, shredded carrots and shredded cabbage.

enjoy!