Thai it, You'll Like It!

Tonight's dinner: Thai Lettuce Cups.  In a word: a-maz-ing!  These are totally going into the regular rotation.  Personally, I think they rivaled the PF Chang's lettuce wraps, and that's a high bar that's been set.  Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breasts (that's right, just two - this is a great meal for stretching your dollars!), cut into VERY thin strips
• salt
• 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1 red bell pepper cut into VERY thin strips
• 1/4 cup sweet thai chili sauce (in the asian foods aisle)
• 2 Tbsp. honey
• 1 head iceburg lettuce, cut into quarters and leaves separated
• juice of 1 lime
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh basil
• 1/2 cup honey roasted peanuts (I left this out because we didn't have any in the house and it was awesome anyway - I don't even think I would add them next time)

Here's what you do:
Season the chicken with salt.  In a large skillet, heat the vegetable oil.  Add the chicken and cook until 1/2 done. Then, add the pepper and season it with salt.  Continue cooking, stirring until tender, about 5 minutes. Drain about 1/2 the liquid that will accumulate in the pan.  Put the pan back on medium heat and stir in the honey and the chili sauce and cook until slightly reduced. Add the lime juice and the basil and stir just to combine.

You can lay them out on a platter, but we did ours kind of like tacos - with the lettuce "cups" on one platter and the chicken on another and we just assembled them at the table. Here's the final product:

I served ours with chicken dumplings on the side, and everything was gobbled up.  We learned that Will likes dumplings with gyoza sauce (he ate 3!).  We also learned that he can't be trusted with communal dip.  We're pretty sure that he triple dipped those dumplings. Listen, I'll take my gyoza sauce with Will's saliva in it if it means that he actually eats dinner, which he did.

While I was at the doctor's office over spring break I stole a bunch of recipes out of an issue of Food Network magazine. I can feel your judgment, but in my defense, I was waiting over 20 minutes past my appointment time and I would assert that I am OWED those recipes. This was one of them and I'm going to try another later this week for Buffalo Chicken Strips. 

One last thing: I just have to share that I stuck my head into Will's room this afternoon and witnessed the cutest moment between him and Emma.  With all the toys in the house, the two of them decided to play in the laundry basket. 

If this is all it takes to make them happy, next Christmas: Tide and dryer sheets! :)

See you soon!