Product Review | Living Lettuce Experience

Apparently I love chicken lettuce wraps, so much that we're having it again! I'm now thinking about taco lettuce wraps, sloppy joe lettuce wraps, salmon lettuce wraps, etc.  My new love for lettuce wraps will be address in another post, back to the subject at hand! I may be slow on this discovery, but I was in the grocery store a few nights ago looking for butter lettuce, aka Boston Bibb, aka Butterhead for our Chicken Lettuce Wraps.  I couldn't find that, but instead I found living lettuce! I thought, "Hmm, it looks similar to butter lettuce."...so I picked it up. I figured, why not try it.

I Googled living lettuce and found out that it supposed to last for 10 days, which is super long for lettuce! That's a good thing.  

It taste pretty good. It's a very mild flavored lettuce.  It's easy to peal off the leaves with minimal breakage.

But, it should be noted that this lettuce doesn't work well for lettuce wraps unless you double up the leaves. The meat mixture makes the leaves soggy super fast. I didn't like the texture of the leaves for my purpose. It was VERY soft almost velvety to the touch. It may be good for a salad, but not for wraps.

Have you tried living lettuce? Tell me what you thought of it. What types of dishes do you use it for?

Product Review | Ling Ling Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps

I don't use meal kits very often, but my husband and I were wondering around the Costco freezer section last weekend and saw this meal kit, by Ling-Ling. I was a bit leery but since it only cost about $9, I said, "Okay, lets try it"!  It actually was pretty good. 

Did I feel it was a good purchase? Yes, sort of. Would I purchase it again? No, I'll make it myself. 

I liked that it was super quick to throw together when you're short on time. I liked that it's pretty low carb if you leave off the fried noodles they included.  This is perfect if you don't have time to do your own food prep, ie. tons of dicing. Cook this on the stove top in for about 10 minutes on a high heat, add fresh iceberg lettuce and you're ready to go!

I cooked up the entire box. It said the whole box would serve 8 people. It was split into two sets of packages meant for 4 people each.  But I think that's an appetizer serving size. If you're eating this as a meal, I'd say the entire box serves 4 people. Which is still a very good deal for $9!

My main issue was that there were WAY to many onions! Over kill seriously.  It was good, but with proper planning, I can make it from scratch with less sodium! And it will probably taste better because it's all fresh ingredients.

Rating: 3 forks

Easy Low Carb Meatloaf Muffins

My plate is 1 meatball short... I ate one before I got the shot!

Ever since my husband heard his co-worker say "meatloaf muffins" he's been wanting me to make them. They taste exactly the same as my regular meatloaf, except it's now easier to transport for lunches and such. Anyways, here is my version of Meatloaf Muffins.  Of course, since we are still low carbing it, I made this slightly differently than I normally would have by replacing the bread crumbs with ground pork rinds. 

The only thing missing this time, which I normally add is the green bell peppers. We didn't have any and I didn't feel like going to the store. So, these are sans the peppers.  I made some cheesy cauliflower mash to go along with it. 

Source: Me!, Original Recipe
Rating - 5 forks

Ingredients:

2 lbs Extra Lean Ground Beef

3/4 cup of BBQ Pork Rinds, ground to a fine powder (measure after the pork rinds have been ground)

1/2 cup of small diced green peppers

1 envelope of Onion Soup Mix

1 extra large egg

3 Tbsp of Ketchup

2 tsp of Worcester Sauce

Pepper to taste

Instructions:  Preheat oven at 350.  Mix everything in a bowl. Careful, don't over mix! Use a ice cream scoop to make the same size "muffin" for each cup.  Bake for 25-30 minutes depending on your oven.

Makes 12.

Breadless Mozzarella Sticks

Ready to eat!

I've been seriously back on low carb for a few weeks now and I'd been seriously craving some cheese sticks! So I started Googling and found this awesome recipe.  It  was great inspiration and easily modifiable.  I quartered this recipe quantities so that I could try it out.  I used 1 egg and changed up the dry ingredients. I added dried parsley, used garlic powder instead of salt and added a dash of Kosher salt.  I also used Jalapeno Mozzarella sticks! It really added some extra flavor. It didn't even need a marinara sauce to dip them in.

The original recipe didn't really give me timing so I was nervous about burning it. Basically from start to finish this took like a minute and a half.  With the heat on medium high, 45 about seconds on each side. You could go a bit longer if you want it darker, but you will notice the longer it's in the grease the cheese will start to seep out and lose it's stick form. So DON'T walk away from this. Stand there until it's done. :-)

Rating: 4 forks

Source: Breadless Mozzarella Sticks 

Shirataki Noodles: Miracle Noodles?!

I've been getting more serious about living a low carb lifestyle.  It's pretty hard,  as I am addicted to carbs,  but I keep trying everyday.  I'd love to eventually be eating Paleo style 90% of the time... We'll see how long it takes me to get there!  :-)

I've seen many blogs and videos taking about these "miracle noodles".  Back in the day I tries the tofu version and they were disgusting.  A few days ago I tried a different kind. They tasted MUCH better! Following the instructions is so important.  Not doing so will result in a less than impressive experience. Note: I am not sure if these are Paleo friendly. They seem like it, but I'm not 100% sure.

I liked them, I guess I would consider them miracle noodles.  I ate mines with a homemade spaghetti sauce.  They are perfect for once in a while when you really want some pasta.  I probably won't be eating them more than twice a month,  if that.  These noodles take on the flavor of what ever sauce you're cooking. The only thing that is blatantly different is the texture.  It's a tad rubbery, but if you really want to have pasta and consume 1 net carb per serving versus say 41...you'll get over it.

They come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, so you can make all your pasta favorites. Fettuccine Alfredo, Spaghetti, even Macaroni & Cheese, they're all back on the menu!

They can be found in most Asian markets or Whole Foods.  There are many different brands of these noodles so you may have to try a few to find the one you like.  Also, read the ingredients, you could easily pick up the tofu ones if you're not paying attention.

Tip: These don't do well sitting in sauce overnight. They swell up and become very mushy.  You will need to prepare the whole package of noodles at once.  But if you don't eat whole package and have leftovers, keep them separate from any sauce until you're ready to serve.

Have you tried them? What do you think?