Lettuce Cups

My best friend gave me a lovely present... a healthy cookbook titled, " Eat What You Love Everyday." There's over 200 great tasting recipes that are low sugar, fat, and calories. It's been really neat reading the information and flipping through the books to try to find some easy and tasty recipes to try out.

First one: Moo-Shu Lettuce Wraps (modified)

Sauce
2 tbsp reduced sodium Soy Sauce (or Liquid Aminos substitute), 1 tsp Sesame Oil, 1 tsp freshly minced Ginger (END HERE if you're not eating sugar) 2 tbsp Hoisin Sauce.

Moo-Shu
Cook 1lb Lean Ground Turkey in a large nonstick skillet, add Sauce to skillet, simmer 3 minutes, remove from heat. Cover & microwave 3-4 cups bagged Coleslaw Mix and 4 thinly sliced Green Onions on high for 3 minutes when Turkey is cooking, add to meat & sauce, add 1/2 cup chopped Water Chestnuts, add Pepper to taste.

Rip off the springy leaves of a head of Butter Lettuce, fill them up with delicious Moo-Shu, and there you are! I call them Lettuce Cups instead of wraps because it just seems more fitting. I brought this delicious meal to lunch at work today - my coworkers were very impressed. So fancy!

I reserved the Hoisin Sauce for my husband to enjoy with his little Lettuce Cups because the #1 ingredient of Hoisin Sauce is usually sugar, and modified food starch tends to make an appearance about 75% down the ingredient list as well. Unnecessary carbs and sugar have no place in The No Food Fun Life. I also increased the coleslaw mix amount from 3 to 4 cups to bring my veggie and fiber game up a notch.

This awesome and great-for-me lunch was relatively easy to make. But that doesn't mean I had it easy. Recently, the microwave in our work Bistro was moved to a new location. It used to be right next to the soda machines - which was perfect because that's also the water machine, and I'm not a soda drinker. It was very mundane and simple microwaving my food there. Now, it lives next to this wall of COOKIES! A line of freshly baked, ready and waiting, luring and enticing COOKIES! WTF.

For one minute and thirty seconds, I stood there fantasizing about eating one of each kind of cookie - except Oatmeal Raisin *ew*. Then the microwave went ding! and I grabbed my nutritious lunch and hightailed it out of there before I came to any regrettable decisions. Success.

I wasn't perfect though. My friend came back to work after a trip to Boston and she brought back these Mexican Roasted Almonds - coated with cocoa powder, cinnamon, and a slight sugar glaze. I ate a total of four. So, I wasn't perfect today - and I admit it to all of you and to myself - but I don't feel bad about it. I still feel that I triumphed over the wall of cookies... and enjoying 4 heavenly Mexican Roasted Almonds brought back home from a long journey by a much missed friend is OK in my books.