Asian Turkey Lettuce Wrap Salad

Everyone enjoyed this meal.  The four year old said "I'm not having lettuce wraps!" but I do want the meat and rice and lettuce and carrots.  Even the two year old took one bite and said, "Mmmmmmm!"  
Meat mixture:
1.5 lbs ground turkey, cooked
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
3 cloves garlic
6 green onions, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped into small pieces
1/4 c. soy sauce
1 T sucanat (brown sugar)
1 T rice wine vinegar

Dressing:
3 T soy sauce
2 T rice wine vinegar
1 T honey
1 T Stone ground mustard
dash up to 1 T hot sauce
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1/4 c. water

Add Ons:
Romaine Lettuce
Cooked rice
Shredded carrots
Chopped cilantro
Chopped Water Chestnuts (optional)

Combine ingredients for dressing.  Add as much hot sauce as you like (either tabasco or siracha hot sauce.)  Shred carrots, cook rice, chop cilantro and wash lettuce.

Cook ground turkey until no pink remains.  Add sesame oil and stir.  Press garlic cloves into mixture and add green onions and celery.  Stir and saute' for a minute or two.  Combine soy sauce, sucanat, and rice wine vinegar in a small bowl.  Add to turkey mixture and let cook for a couple more minutes.

You can serve as traditional lettuce wraps, or as a salad, which is much easier to eat.  Layer in this order:  salad, rice, meat, chestnuts, carrots, cilantro, and drizzle on the salad dressing.

adapted from:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/melissa-darabian/turkey-lettuce-wraps-recipe/index.html

Crockpot Pulled Pork

I almost never follow recipes exactly and I usually make up my own.  But this one I did follow exactly because it had such a different combination I wasn't sure what I would change!  This had a really good flavor.

Easy Slow Cooker Pulled Pork 

I served it with the soaked buttermilk cornbread, parmesan zucchini and cantalope grape salad (fancy name for cantalope chunks mixed with red grapes!)

Gluten Free Skillet Cornbread

This is a pretty good gluten free version of cornbread.  Much better if you cook it in a cast iron frying pan! 

1-1/2 c. cornmeal
3 TBS gluten free flour mix, any kind
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 T coconut oil or butter
1-1/2 c. milk
1 egg
2-3 T honey

Preheat oven to 425.  Put skillet on stovetop and add 2 TBS oil, heat on medium.  Mix dry ingredients in one bowl and wet in the other.  Pour wet into dry and mix just until moistened.  Pour batter into hot skillet and then place in oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, until center is set.

Soaked Buttermilk Cornbread

This is even better than the regular buttermilk cornbread recipe I posted earlier.  And it's more digestible because the grains are soaked first.  

Mix together and soak for at least 7 hours:
2 cups cornmeal
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (Soft white wheat)
2 cups buttermilk

When you're ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 and mix in:
4 eggs,
2/3 to 1 c honey (depending on how sweet you want it)
1/2 c. olive, coconut oil or butter

When mixed, add:
4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda

Spread in greased (or lined with parchment paper) 15x10x1 jelly roll pan or 9x13 glass pan. (You can also make 24 muffins, but who wants to wash muffin pans? Not me!)   Bake at 350 for 12-18 minutes in the jelly roll pan, or 22-28 minutes in the glass pan.  The center should be set and the top & edges should begin to be golden.

Serve with butter on top.  Can also drizzle honey over the top.