New Recipe

I don't have anything exciting to share. We've been spending most of our time around the house lately. I am planning Hannah's sleepover birthday celebration for next week, so I've been busy monogramming nightgowns, trying out cupcake recipes, and decorating my new cupcake stand. If you want a yummy cupcake, try these chocolate cupcakes stuffed with chocolate ganache and strawberries! I loved them and I knew I found a keeper when Joe (who has lost 30 pounds as of today, ate 2 or 3 of them at one time!) I'm making them for the adults for our family birthday celebration. I have some pictures from a park trip we took earlier this week, but I haven't had time to edit them. So instead, here is a yummy new recipe I tried last week and everyone loved it. It is definitely a keeper. I also made homemade egg rolls to go with them. I'll post that recipe soon. I chopped all of my vegetables with this chopper. I used the smallest blade and it diced them so small, the kids had no idea there were veggies in the dish. I love this chopper and highly recommend it.

I found this delightful recipe here. I copied it straight from her site.

ASIAN CHICKEN PEANUT LETTUCE WRAPS
(If you're feeding more than 4 adults, you might want to double the recipe)

4 frozen chicken breasts
1 large carrot
8 whole mushrooms
3 green onions
1 red bell pepper
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1 T. oil
1 -2 tsp. sesame seed oil (no substitutions!)
1 head butter lettuce, leaves washed and separated
cooked rice

For sauce: (I got all of this stuff at Wal-Mart, girls - not hard)
1/2 bottle Bangkok Padang Peanut Sauce
1/3 c. Asian Toasted Sesame dressing
3-4 dashes soy sauce
1 tsp. dried ginger (or 1/4 tsp. fresh minced ginger)
1 T. rice vinegar
handful of (shelled) sunflower seeds (optional)


Bring chicken breasts to a boil in water with a pinch of salt; cover. Boil for 10 minutes; remove from water and chop finely into pieces about the size of peas.

Meanwhile, finely dice the onion, mushroom, and bell pepper to the same size as the chicken pieces. (My kids DON'T eat mushrooms and they had NO idea this dish had any mushrooms at all!)

Finely grate the carrot; set aside in a separate bowl.

Heat the oil in a large pan. Add onions, mushrooms, pepper. Cook 2 minutes to soften. Add chicken and minced garlic. Saute for a couple more minutes. Then add all of the sauce ingredients. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 10-15 minutes until liquid is reduced and there is almost no liquid left in the pan and the chicken is cooked through. Stir in grated carrot and if you like nuts, I sprinkled sunflower seeds in mine and it was SO good!

Serve with a plate of lettuce leaves and your cooked rice - or get creative and cook up some Asian noodles.