healthy | Alex at Liberty

I knew I was having my in-laws and my great in-laws for dinner on Sunday. My mother in law always makes these huge homemade meals for all the extended family so throwing a costco bought frozen lasagna in the oven would probably fail to impress. I gained about 5 pounds on my honeymoon (let me tell you – I went to town!) so now I am in the process of getting that off and fitting in my shorts again. I wanted to make something everyone would like but would still keep me on track. That brought me to lettuce wraps! I worked at Joeys for years and I think their lettuce wraps are hands down the best but they are terrible for you, so they were my inspiration to attempt a healthy spin. This recipe was made to feed six and I had some leftovers, so cut down or increase as needed.

Here are the basics to get you started.

Boneless, skinless chicken breast, iceburg lettuce heads, 1 onion, bell peppers in all the colours of the rainbow, mushrooms (I used crimini), brown rice, sprouts, a spicy szechuan sauce (use whatever brand you like, I look for the least amount of sodium and sugar contents), a hoisin sauce that put out for topping if anyone wanted, and honey which isn’t shown here.

Chop those babies up. I also cut up the chicken to pieces about 1/2 inch to an inch and I also started the rice at this time, but I won’t explain that because I think you can handle it.

I used 3 tablespoons of the spicy szechuan and 1/2 a tablespoon honey (for some sweetness) and heated it in a wok. I know that seems like a lot but you’ll find out why soon. Then I added the chicken which was 5 breasts worth. I kept it on medium high heat until the chicken was pretty browned and almost cooked, stirring randomly.

Throw in the peppers and onion and mix it all up, reuce the heat to medium low and cover. Uncover to stir every few minutes. Get your mushrooms ready in a non stick pan and start heating them on medium high heat.

Now you can take some of the extra sauce that the chicken and veggies are cooking in and add it to the mushrooms. It will make them really soft and moist and give them a kick.

This handsome devil working away while I cook it up.

Once the mushrooms were soft and done to my preference I left them in the oven with the rice that was sitting in there at 200 degrees.

The last quick step was putting about half a cup of hoisin sauce in a sauce pan and heating it up for about 5 minutes on medium low heat while constantly stirring. You don’t have to do this, I just did it as an optional additional sauce put out separately to put on top of the wrap. Now you’re ready to serve!

I served with bean sprouts as well as a topping, and the only thing I think was missing was peanuts which I just forgot to buy at Save-On. We did it buffet style because there was so much building and looooooots of wine!