Our Favorite Summer Dinner - Asian Lettuce Wraps

This summer our favorite dinner has become Asian Lettuce Wraps. For the last month and half or so, we have eaten them about once a week. In fact, my 13 year old son often requests it. I don't follow a recipe, I just wing it.

I start with some chicken breast. Trim & cut into bite sized pieces. Then I cook them with a little bit of olive oil.



I follow the same procedure for Hannah's soy chicken.

After the chicken is cooked, I drain it or blot up the excess liquid with paper towels.

Then I add some Thai Peanut sauce - I've used the 365 brand from Whole Foods and this time I had Target's Archer Farms brand. I usually get about 3 or 4 meals out of a jar - but I don't measure. I just add enough to cover all the chicken. I add a spoon full or two of peanut butter. I usually buy natural peanut butter now, but it still has sugar. One time, I had some that didn't have sugar and I didn't like that batch as well. I prefer it a sweet & spicy. I also sprinkle some crushed red pepper, but not in Hannah's though. She thinks it's spicy enough without.


I add a can of drained water chestnuts. I have the kids cut them into halves for me. It's so nice that they are old enough to help out with some of the "real" cooking tasks, not just "bring mommy a can of black beans, please". Though I still ask them do that, too.



Clean the lettuce leaves. This time I used Romaine lettuce. It really depends on what I can find at the store.


We top ours with shredded carrots. I put out all the individual components and let everyone assemble their own wrap.

Yum!

What's for dinner?

One of my least favorite things is to plan dinners. Several years ago I started going to Dinner Afare to prepare my meals. I LOVED it! I got to choose from a bunch of yummy entrees. We ate a nice variety of meals and it made my life simple. Each morning I would grab an entree from my freezer and place it in my refrigerator to defrost. All I had to do was come up with some side dishes and heat up our entree.


Well a few years ago, the Dinner Afare that I went to over in the Avenues of West Cobb closed. I had gone back to work around the same time, so dinners became a problem. Fortunately, there were still Dinner Afares in the area and they started delivering. So I still got to select my 12 entrees and fill my freezer with a nice variety of dinners. Life was good.

Then last May, I was let go from my work. I had been a part-time teacher in Cobb County and with the poor economy, the county let go all part-time teachers. With this change in our finances and my time, I no longer felt that ordering our dinners was feasible.

For the first few weeks of my unemployment, dinners weren't too bad. It was grilling season, so we got a lot of use from our new grill. But it didn't take long before we were in a dinner rut. We were having a lot of repeat meals and carry-out dinners, the latter which wasn't really financially helpful.



Around the time the new school year started in August, I purchased a small magnetic white board with the days of the week on it. I made a list of the 20 or so meals that my family liked the most. On Mondays, I select the meals for the week. I often ask the kids for their input. I try not to have the same meal repeated the next week. Then after I've planned the meals for the week, I make my shopping list. When selecting the meals for the week, I make sure to note any evening activities that may affect our dinners. For example, Mondays are usually Boy Scout nights. On those nights, we don't eat as a family. We will either have leftovers or "on your own". On Wednesdays, my daughter has dance. We carpool with another family, but I usually do the bring home drive, so we get home right at dinner time. I usually plan a crock pot meal for those days.


My white board is nothing fancy, but it has made a difference. The kids have stopped asking me "What's for dinner?" because I now tell them to go check the board. We also go out to dinner or have carry-out a lot less. There was one month recently when we hadn't gone out to dinner at all, so the next week I decided to put a "go out to dinner" on our meal board.

My 9 year old is a vegetarian, so I try to plan at least 1 completely vegetarian meal each week. Sometimes I will list her veggie entree separately on the list or sometimes (like the week I have pictured above), I don't get around to it.


I'm also trying to try 1 new recipe each week. If it's successful, then that recipe gets added to our list of meals that we choose from. I am proud to say that we eat dinner together as a family most nights at our house.