Lettuce Wraps Or, How to Eat a Big Salad like a Burrito...

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I love these things... Especially, this time of year, when everything is in season and we can get so many home grown veggies...

And, yeah, it's like a big salad. With this particular one, of course there's three nice big leaves of Romaine, a couple of slices of Applegate Naturals smoked turkey, a thinly sliced avacado, about a third of a cucumber – diced, a cut up slice of red onion, some sharp cheddar cheeze, half of an awesome tomato out of my brother's garden, 1-1/2 free range hard boiled eggs ( couldn't stop myself from eating the other half ) and some zesty sprouts. A little salt and cayenne pepper, and it's ready to roll...

Talk about simplicity... It doesn't get much easier than that. I like keeping everything simple... We humans have this tendency to overcomplicate just about everything in our lives, it seems. But, I've found that keeping it simple is the way to go... It doesn't matter what comes up – what triggers any kind of reaction - we can Stop, and really Look at it, and Decide how to address it, instead of getting all caught up in energetic reactions filled with emotions and/or feelings... Those energetically charged reactions are due to us allowing our mind to control our behavior - without us even understanding Why we're reacting the way we are... Oh, but more on that topic in future posts...

The cool thing about these lettuce wraps is that you can put anything in one that you might put in a salad... Sometimes, I add ham, sometimes only veggies... They're truly awesome with 2 or 3 or 4 slices of crispy bacon... Lay some parchment paper down, then overlap the leaves of romaine, then get creative For me, having it laid out flat makes it easier to spread out all the ingredients ensuring that I get to taste every ingredient in every bite.

To roll it up, pull up the sides of the parchment paper and bring both sides together, tuck one of the outside edges of the outer romaine leaves behind the other, then tuck one side of the parchment paper around the romaine. At this point, I compress the whole thing, kinda tucking the top and pulling the bottom paper as tight as I can around it. Poke the stuff back in that got squeezed out of both ends, then fold the paper over the bottom and finish rolling it up.

I usually still have to pack some of the stuff in at the top as I pull the paper down around it. Then, it's ready to eat like a burrito... A really Big burrito... No dressing needed... The tight wrapping/compressing process squeezes the tomatoes and, if the avacados are just right, squishes a good portion of the avacado, making it like a creamy dressing... Umm-umm... They're simply wonderful.

Let me know if you found this technique useful. Or, share yours...