After all the heavy, rich foods of the Christmas season I am totally ready for simple eats with fresh ingredients and lots of flavor.  I found this recipe for Asian meatball lettuce wraps on Pinterest (it’s a South Beach diet stage one recipe) and decided to make a few health conscious changes like lowering the sodium immensely by leaving out the fish sauce and using lower sodium soy sauce as well swapping the sesame oil for olive oil.

The result?

An absolutely delicious supper without even a hint of leftovers!

And if my kiddos thought it was that good, it was totally worth sharing with you!

 Ingredients:

Unseasoned rice vinegar

Olive Oil

1 pinch red pepper flakes

1 pound ground turkey breast

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon ground ginger

3 teaspoons low sodium-soy sauce

cooking spray

Boston lettuce

Small English cucumber, julienned

Chopped fresh mint

INSTRUCTIONS:

1.  In a small bowl, whisk together  1/4 cup rice vinegar, 1 1/2 Tablespoons olive oil, 1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce and red pepper flakes to make the dressing.  Set aside at room temperature.

2.  In a large bowl, stir together turkey, garlic, ginger, 3 teaspoons olive oil, 3 tablespoons rice vinegar and 3 teaspoons soy sauce.  Form mixture into 24 1-inch meatballs.

3.  Lightly coat a broiler pan with cooking spray and arrange the meatballs.  Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes, until cooked through.

4.  While the meatballs are baking, prepare your fresh veggies, by separating the lettuce leaves for the wraps, chopping the mint and slicing the cucumbers.

5.  Lay three lettuce leaves on each plate, placing two meatballs on each leaf.  Top with cucumber and mint leaves, drizzle with dressing, and serve.

This makes dinner for 4, but you can always double it for a larger group.

 

I love the presentation of these little wraps.  Not only do they make for a family friendly supper, but they would make a pretty addition to a finger food buffet for a National Championship/ Super Bowl game party.

The meatballs can be assembled a head of time so that they only have to cook before serving.  There are so many possibilities for this recipe.

 

I hope the first week of this year has been everything you had hoped for!