I hope everyone had a great holiday season. I spent an whole week home in NY and it was a ton of fun. If I could place a theme on the 2012 holiday season, it would be generosity. I'm so lucky to have great family and friends!
Yesterday marked my first day back to work in quite a few days (and my first day in 2013!)...and if i may. Someone needs to warn us young professionals just how hard it is to get back in a routine after being away for a week-plus. Alarm clocks. E-mails. Public Transportation?! Yikes!
I hope to get back on a regular blogging schedule too, once my body re-adjusts to the 9 to 5 grind.
For now, I wanted to share this simple and light recipe I made for dinner last night. It is packed full of flavor, with crunchy veggies and tangy feta to bring it all together.
DISCLAIMER: My pictures here are very sporadic. I was experimenting with my new camera (thanks Mom!!!) and, well, just go with it. Now that I have an idea of what setting works the best, I can be more focused on logically photographing the food.
Ok, back to dinner.
Do you like lamb? I thought I hated it, but after trying it out a few times while out to dinner, I realized I was so wrong. It is actually DELICIOUS. I am still a little timid when it comes to big pieces of the meat, but at Whole Foods I was able to find ground lamb. What a perfect transition - not too intimidating, yet very versatile.
Last night, I made Ground Lamb Lettuce Wraps, inspired by a recipe I saw in Cooking Light magazine this past summer. Lamb begs for meditteranean flavors, and I oblidged.
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| This setting is way too yellow! |
Let's start with toppings -- chopped cucumber and tomato are mixed with fresh parsley, mint, and feta cheese. Nothing wrong there.
Next, since every good wrap should have a condiment, I mixed together equal amounts of plain non-fat greek yogurt and hummus. I had a spinach and artichoke hummus, and boy was it good.
Now all we have to do is cook the meat and build our own wraps. Super simple, but the whole dish feels very sophisticated.
1 medium onion, diced and sauteed with a little bit of EVOO, salt, and brown sugar. We want to get a slight caramelization on these bad boys.
Toss in the lamb, break it up, and cook until browned.
Wilt in 2 cups of chopped fresh spinach. Then the kicker -- 2 whole tablespoons of ground cinnamon mixed in.
For lettuce wraps, I highly recommend a head of boston lettuce. These leafs have a great bowl shape and have a nice, fresh flavor. (P.S. for the carb lovers in your life, like my boyfriend, you can get pita bread, warm it up, and serve everything on top of that). To make your wraps, start by spreading the yogurt hummus on the lettuce. Top with a generous amount of the ground lamb. Sprinkle the tomato cucumber salad on top of that!
Oh, and how could I forget...the crunchy element. Toasted pine nuts! Totally!
This is a great low-carb meal and is actually super fun if you are entertaining. I made a similar dish for some friends a few months ago, and it's totally worth it to let everyone get involved and make their own meal the way they like.
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| Meghan, Ryan, and Cory enjoying lettuce wraps and grilled vegetables |
