Mom’s Best Recipe - Ultimate Lettuce Wraps

One of our family’s favorite recipes, Lettuce Wraps easily bring the fantastic flavors of Chinese takeout to your kitchen table.

Contributed by:
Brooke McLay
www.cheekykitchen.com

Growing up in Mom's kitchen was a pleasant treat. She was always testing new foods, trying different flavors, asking friends for secret recipes and compiling a little wooden box of her best eats.

A few years ago, that little wooden box ended up at my sister’s house. The two of us spent hours flipping through Mom’s handwritten recipe cards, remembering the flavors of childhood and squealing with excitement each time we came across one of our favorite foods.

One of those was a simple lettuce wrap that is full of fresh flavor thanks to crunchy carrots and bean sprouts. The recipe was inspired by one of my mom’s first jobs as hostess at a Chinese restaurant. Mom would bring home treats from the restaurant every now and then, but they couldn't compare to what she made with her own hands in our family kitchen. Now that I have that little recipe card in my possession, it’s hard for me to think that a box full of takeout food could possibly taste better than anything Mom could conjure up.

That mom of mine says she’s not a good cook anymore, but here’s the truth: the flavors of home are always more memorable than anything you can buy from takeout. My own kiddos wholeheartedly agree. They happen to think Grandma’s Lettuce Wraps are the “most amazing things ever.” And that’s a quote that will go down in history.

I love you, Mom.