Flavorful Chicken Lettuce Wraps

I reinvented these Chicken Lettuce Wraps that I found in Southern Living Magazine, with my own little twist by using Spinach, Mushrooms, Onions and Red Bell Peppers as my veggies with ground chicken.  I added 2 TB of Teriyaki Sauce, 3 TB of Hoison, 1 TB of Creamy Peanut Butter, 1tsp Chili Sesame Oil, 1 TB ginger/garlic paste.  I loved my version way better!  The Magazine version is really sweet, too sweet for me.  Definitely remaking my take on this again.

If you want to try the Magazine version of Lettuce wraps- see pic below, they came out really sweet tasting and I had to add 1/2 cup of water at the end of the recipe to tone it down a bit.   Found this recipe in Southern Living.  Really tasty and good way to cut the carbs out of your diet!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup finely chopped carrots
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 (20-ounce) package lean ground turkey
• 1 cup chopped shiitake mushrooms
• 1 (8-ounce) can water chestnuts, drained and chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
• 1/3 cup teriyaki sauce
• 3 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
• 1/2 cup sliced green onions
• 1 head iceberg lettuce, separated into leaves
• Hoisin sauce (optional)

Preparation

• 1. Cook carrots and 1/2 cup water in a large nonstick skillet over high heat, stirring occasionally, 3 to 5 minutes or until carrots are softened and water is evaporated. Remove from skillet.
• 2. Reduce heat to medium. Cook turkey in skillet about 5 minutes, stirring until turkey crumbles and is no longer pink. Add carrots, mushrooms, and next 8 ingredients. Increase heat to medium-high, and cook, stirring constantly, 4 minutes. Add green onions, and cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute. Spoon mixture evenly onto lettuce leaves; roll up. Serve with hoisin sauce, if desired.

Susan Riley, Allen, Texas, Southern Living
JANUARY 2006

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Ink.Sack

Everyone has a favorite on the TV show “Top Chef,” my favorites are Michael Voltaggio, Fabio Viviani and Richard Blais.  I just love their cooking techniques and their personalities that reflected on the show even though each of them are so different and unique in their own way and style.  So, after hearing about Michael Voltaggio’s sandwich shop “Ink.Sack” that opened on Melrose in West Hollywood I just had to check this place out.   I was so impressed, we tried 4 different sandwich’s on the menu and after the first bite of each sandwich our automatic response was…”Oh..Wow.”  So your thinking how good can a sandwich be?  Well, if you haven’t seen Michael Voltaggio’s style of creativity on Top Chef you wouldn’t understand.  He really knows how to play with flavor in his food creations.   We tried 4 different sandwich’s The Ahi Tuna with sweet pickles that I just gobbled up, Bahn Mi- with pork belly in it, loved it, Jose Andres lots of meat and spice flavors and Maple Turkey which melted in your mouth it had a nice salty sweet finish.  Topped it off with some really tasty cookies.  Just amazing….we couldn’t stop eating to say the least.  We wanted to try a variety from the menu so we shared.  I loved that the sandwich’s were on the small size, the perfect size for me, though I got stuffed trying to get a taste of 4 sandwich’s.  It was a really pleasant surprise to meet Chef Michael Voltaggio himself as I was walking around the corner looking for Ink.Sak and I ran into him and couldn’t help but to grab a shot with him.   He has another restaurant just a door down from his sandwich shop opening up this week that I’m curious about.

We actually headed out to eat at one of our Mexican food stops in the Valley and after finding out there was a wait we decided to go and check out Michael Voltaggio’s place in West Hollywood, so naturally I don’t have my nice camera on me to grab some shots for this review, every shot was done from the Iphone 4 and I didn’t grab one shot of the sandwich’s we had.

Located on Melrose in West Hollywood

Spicy Tuna

San Andres

Inside Shot-  2 bar type tables inside to Stand and Eat at, as well as outside.

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Pumpkin Scones with Butterscotch Chips

I love Fall and I’m celebrating a week early….so bring on the Fall flavors!  I was in the mood for Pumpkin after seeing all these pumpkin recipes from all the food bloggers this week.  I came up with this recipe on my own.

1 1/4 Cup Flour (I used 1 cup Flour plus 1/4 cup of gluten Free Flour, add more if the scones seem too moist, should be a nice doughy consistency)

1 Tsp Baking Powder

Salt

1 Cup Pumpkin

1/3 Cup Heavy Cream

1 Cup Butterscotch Chips

Put all ingredients together in a bowl and mix with Rubber Spatula just until flour is combined than use your hand, add flour to keep it from being too sticky or moist, should have a nice doughy consistency.  Cut and shape them.  Brush Tops of scones with Milk and add a pinch of Cinnamon and Nutmeg mixture.  Bake at 350 degrees until slightly browned, I’d say about 20 mins.  Stick a knife through one to make sure you don’t pull back any batter.   Enjoy!  Keep in Air Tight Container- refrigerate

Yummy, these are soft and chewy in the middle~

Here are some other Pumpkin Recipes I’ve made if your looking for some Pumpkin recipe ideas…

Muffins, Pie, Loaf,  Cookies

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Ceviche using Red Snapper

Sometimes I just don’t want to fry or bake, I like the idea of raw food, it just sounds like it is as healthy as it can get.  Besides Sushi, I love good Ceviche and was excited when I came across this really tasty Ceviche recipe at Mexico In My Kitchen, fabulous website full of really good authentic Mexican food recipes.  It’s really easy to make, and I like the fact I can get away with not cooking it and just eating it raw after it has marinaded in lime juice.  This goes good on top of a Tostada Shell, in a taco or as I did  with some tasty chips.

I found these really good tasty chips at Costco that I had with this dish.  Sweet, Spicy Gourmet Brown Rice Chips…..

1 pound red snapper filets trimmed and cut in ½ in. cubes

¾ cup of lime juice, fresh preferable

salt to taste

1 medium size onion, finely chopped

3 chiles serranos or 1 large jalapeno, finely chopped

1 cup of cilantro, finely chopped

½ teaspoon or Mexican dried oregano crushed

2 large tomatoes , finely chopped

Now these are optional but they make a great ceviche

¾ cup pimento stuffed green olives, chopped

1 avocado cubed for garnish

4 Tablespoons of olive oil

Ketchup

Tabasco Sauce

Saltine crackers or fried tortillas chips to serve

Marinade the fish in a glass bowl with the lime juice and salt. Chop the rest of the vegetables. Drain the marinade from the fish bowl. Stir in the tomatoes, peppers, onion, cilantro and oregano. Taste and add salt if needed. Marinade for a couple of hours in the refrigerator.

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