Foodiscoveries and Turkey Lettuce Wraps {recipe)

Lately we've been happier in the kitchen around here for several reasons.

FOODISCOVERY #1
The "food on the table" app/website.
It has really taken the hesitation and guesswork out of dinner planning.  Besides the fact that it's free, I love that it takes your local grocery store sales and crosses them with rated recipes for you to choose from.  After you select the recipes it creates a grocery list for you!

I can't tell you the number of times I've written the ingredients down on my list only to find out when I'm cooking I forgot to put things on the list!  UGH!

Another thing I love is that most of the recipes are simple, so if I have extra peppers, zucchini, frozen veggies or chipotle peppers that need to be used, I am able to incorporate that into the majority of the recipes, adding flavor and vitamins with the added bonus of cleaning out my refrigerator--mommy likes.

Some of the meals we've tried and loved are (make sure you use recipes with high ratings):
Farmer's Market Quesadillas
Chicken Tortilla Soup (we added zucchini and some leftover canned chipotle peppers that we had previously frozen)
Crock Pot Italian Sausage and Green beans (we used hot turkey sausage and served this over brown rice)
Italian Sausage and Tortellini Soup (we used hot turkey sausage, added onions, garlic and celery because we needed to use them)
Pierogies with Italian Sausage and Peppers


I forgot to mention that the girls have eaten all of the meals with us, another score for mommy!

FOODISCOVERY #2
Eating Well's 500 Calorie Meals in 30 minutes or less.
There are several recipes in this article that we've tried and the turkey lettuce wraps is our favorite.  I've included our version of this recipe below, this is a great recipe to tag-team, otherwise it's a laborious 30 minutes!

• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup instant brown rice
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil, (in the Asian section)
• 1 pound 93%-lean ground turkey
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
• 1 large red bell pepper, finely diced
• 1 8-ounce can water chestnuts, rinsed and chopped
• 1/2 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce, (in the Asian section)
• 1 teaspoon five-spice powder, (in the Asian section)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 heads Romaine lettuce, leaves separated
• 1/2 cup chopped chives/green onion
• pre-shredded carrot, for garnish

PREPARATION

1. Bring water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add rice; reduce heat to low, cover and cook for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat.
2. Meanwhile, heat oil in a large nonstick pan over medium-high heat. Add turkey and ginger; cook, crumbling with a wooden spoon, until the turkey is cooked through, about 6 minutes. Stir in the cooked rice, bell pepper, water chestnuts, broth, hoisin sauce, five-spice powder and salt; cook until heated through, about 1 minute.
3. To serve, divide lettuce leaves among plates, spoon some of the turkey mixture into each leaf, top with herbs and carrot and roll into wraps.

This recipe makes enough for 4, and best of all the kids ate it with us!

FOODISCOVERY #3
foodgawker.com 
It's like Pinterest for foodies.

Lots of great food ideas, beautiful pictures, what's not to love???