What's for Dinner?

Lettuce Wraps!!

This recipe was SO yummy and so EASY!! You can even use leftover chicken. Enjoy!

2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar

1/2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar

10 oz cooked chicken breast, chopped small

1 cup water chestnuts, chopped small

2/3 cup mushrooms (I'm not a big fan, so I left them out)

3 tablespoons chopped onions

1 teaspoon minced garlic

6-8 leaves lettuce, rinsed and dried (iceburg or romaine work best)

Combine soy sauce, brown sugar, and rice vinegar in a small bowl until sugar is dissolved. Set aside. Spray a large frying pan with cooking spray and heat to medium heat. Add chicken, water chestnuts, mushrooms, onions, and garlic until heated through. Pour soy sauce mixture over the chicken and heat a little more. Spoon chicken mixture into lettuce leaves, roll up, and enjoy!

This was so yummy you would never think you could eat it on a diet! I counted the whole recipe as 10 points, 9 for the chicken and 1 for the brown sugar. Jason and I split it for 5 points each! Splash a little teriyaki sauce on some 0 point stir-fried veggies and you've got dinner! It would be good with rice too.

The website I modified this recipe from also had a recipe for a "special sauce" to go with them. The people who rated the recipe just RAVED about the sauce. I made the sauce but we didn't eat it because I thought it just tasted like watery ketchup. I'll put the recipe here if you want to try it, but I would recommend making it without the ketchup and adding it to taste at the end.

Special Sauce

1/4 cup sugar (I replaced half of it with Splenda to cut calories)

1/2 cup water

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

2 tablespoons ketchup

1/8 teaspoon sesame oil (I didn't have any so I left it out)

1 tablespoon hot mustard, mixed into 2 teaspoons hot water

1-2 teaspoons garlic and red chile paste

Just mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Make sure to mix the hot mustard with the water first or you will have little mustard clumps.

Don't like lettuce wraps? Here's a different Asian-inspired recipe. We have this one about twice a month.

Noodles with Peanut Sauce

2 T soy sauce
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp garlic pwdr
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 C peanut butter (I used crunchy so there'd be little peanut chunks)

Sauce: whisk together soy sauce, lemon juice, cornstarch, garlic powder and red pepper flakes. In a small saucepan, whisk together peanut butter with 1/2 cup hot water. (Add more water before you pour it over the noodles or it will be too thick.) Add soy sauce mixture to peanut butter mixture; bring to simmer over medium heat until mixture thickens. Reserve.

I cut up a large, 9 oz chicken breast into bite-sized pieces and cook it in a frying pan with some Pam spray. Then I dump in about 1/3 of a bag of the Costco stir-fry frozen vegetable mix. We LOVE this mix. It's got broccoli, carrots, peppers, water chestnuts, mushrooms, edamame, etc. I do cut the broccoli florets in half because they are disproportionately large. Anyway, after that is cooked through you add about 1/2 box of cooked spaghetti noodles. I use the Ronzoni SmartTaste brand. It's white pasta but it's got fiber and calcium in it. I break the noodles into thirds before cooking. Pour the peanut sauce over everything and mix it up!

You end up with a yummy, peanutty noodle dish with lots of veggies and a little protein. The Ronzoni pasta is only 1 point an ounce so the whole recipe makes 4 LARGE servings for about 7 points each. We are always impressed at how much food you get for just 7 points!