I took a few days off from blogging for a road trip to see some extended family, but I’m back and ready to dive back in to blogging!  2011 should be a great year here at The Picky Apple, and I’m looking forward to some upcoming posts on life with a spirited child, home projects, crafts, and new recipes….like this one!

Lettuce wraps are something that I don’t order at restaurants or make at home very often, but when I do, I always enjoy them!  The technique for these is a bit different than the Grilled Chicken Lettuce Wraps I’ve made previously.  These use ground chicken and have a more complex ingredient list (and a more complex flavor as a result!), but they are still easy enough to make.  Ground chicken isn’t something I normally buy unless it is on sale, but these will definitely be making an appearance on our menu from time to time.

Ground Chicken Lettuce Wraps

from The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook via goodLife {eats}

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. ground chicken
• 4 teaspoons soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 2 teaspoons canola oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons fresh ginger, grated on a microplane
• 1/2 cup chopped red onion
• 8 shiitake mushrooms, diced
• 4 peeled water chestnuts, diced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 4 teaspoons rice vinegar
• 3 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 1 head Butter lettuce
• 1 1/2 cups cooked jasmine rice
• 1 – 11 ounce can mandarin orange sections, drained

In a bowl, marinate the ground chicken with the soy sauce, wine, and cornstarch for 10 minutes at room temperature.

Heat a wok or large frying pan over high heat. When hot, add the oil, swirling to coat. Stir in the garlic, ginger, red onion. Fry for 30 seconds, until fragrant.

Add the ground chicken, cooking and stirring until lightly browned, about 2-4 minutes. Stir in the mushrooms, water chestnuts, rice vinegar, and oyster sauce. Simmer for 2 minutes, or until the meat is cooked through. Stir in the red bell pepper and simmer until it is tender-crisp, about 30 seconds to a minute. Season to taste with salt and pepper, if desired.

Assemble the lettuce wraps by spooning a heaping tablespoon of rice and filling onto each lettuce leaf. Top with 2-3 mandarin orange sections.

I’ve got the perfect book to start out this New Year!  The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin.  (Subtitle: Or, Why I spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean my Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun.)

After realizing that she wasn’t spending enough time on the things in her life that really mattered, author Gretchen Rubin dedicated a year to her Happiness Project.  Each month, she tackled a new area of her life (examples include Marriage, Leisure, Parenthood, Friendship, Books, Attitude).  Each month gets its own chapter in the book.  Within each month, she explores several resolutions/goals.  For instance, in the month of January, the focus is Boosting Energy.  To accomplish this, she resolves to: go to sleep earlier, exercise better, toss, restore, organize, tackle a nagging task, and act more energetic.  In the book, she discusses expert advice on each of the resolutions and how she applies it to her own life.  She admits what works and what doesn’t.  Because Rubin has culled together information from all kinds of “experts”, from Oprah to the Dalai Lama, this book is chock full of little nuggets of wisdom and strategies to help you reach your goals.

I’m hoping to read through this book AGAIN sometime this month, taking notes this time.  Many of the author’s goals and resolutions are similar to my own, though she states that each person will have their OWN Happiness Project.  In addition to reading the book, I’d suggest you check out The Happiness Project blog and The Happiness Project Toolbox.  So much great inspiration as we start 2011!

We never really do much for New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day.  I have grand plans to host a New Year’s Day brunch one of these days, but this year I enjoyed some quiet time with my family.  I did cook some brunch-like food for lunch on New Year’s Day- a frittata and sweet potatoes.  This is only my second time cooking frittata, and they are amazing!  SO much easier than a quiche because you don’t have to bake a crust, and in theory, a little healthier too (though I suppose that depends on what you put in your frittata).  And besides, it’s fun to say frittata.  Frittata, frittata, frittata!

I’ve been craving sweet potatoes lately, and they made an excellent and colorful side for the frittata.  This is my favorite way to prepare sweet potatoes!  I love the contrast of the sweet potatoes with the bold and slightly spicy flavors of the seasonings.  I’ve included my sweet potato hash technique below, but I never really measure the seasonings very precisely.

Spinach and Bacon Frittata

recipe from $5 Dinners

Ingredients:

• 4 slices bacon, crumbled
• 8 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 tsp salt and pepper, each
• 1/2 onion, sliced into circles (I used frozen chopped onions)
• 2 tsp olive oil
• about 3 cups spinach
• 1/2 – 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

In a bowl, whisk bacon crumbles, eggs, milk, salt and pepper.  In skillet, saute onions in 2 tsp olive oil.  Once brown, add a few tsp of water and cook another 1-2 minutes.  Add spinach and cook over medium heat for 2 minutes, until it wilts.  Pour egg mixture over the spinach and onions.  Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, until the eggs have set around the edges.  Bake at 450 for 5 minutes. (Note: Stick your skillet in the oven, but be sure to remember that the handle will be HOT when you pull it out!) Add shredded cheese to the top and bake another 1-2 minutes until cheese melts.

Sweet Potato Hash

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large sweet potato, chopped into approx quarter inch cubes (the smaller they are, the faster they’ll cook!)
• garlic salt
• cumin
• paprika
• cayenne pepper
• seasoned salt
• thyme
• onion powder
• salt

Heat oil in a large skillet on medium high heat.  Add sweet potatoes to skillet.  Add a dash of each of the seasonings to the sweet potatoes, then stir to coat.  Spread the sweet potatoes into an even layer across the skillet, then cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes until cooked through and no longer crunchy in the middle.  Don’t stir too frequently!  It’s been my experience that sweet potatoes take a little longer to cook than regular potatoes.

Last year’s one little word came easily to me: CHANGE.

2010 was indeed a year of change…

The Littlest Apple got a feeding tube: first an NG tube (awful), then a g-button (better).

The Littlest Apple started a new preschool (awesome)

The Littlest Apple moved from his crib to a big kid bed.

The Picky Apple changed jobs and now works from home.  (awesome)

We experienced another pregnancy loss and decided we’re finished trying to have children…biologically.  (More on that later)

I started planning for my dream business (an art studio for kids), a major change from my previous career as an attorney.

I discovered that I’m allergic to everything and started getting weekly allergy shots.

I rediscovered my faith, joined a church, started attending regularly and joined a small group.

LOTS of CHANGE!

Change was most definitely an accurate word for 2010, but it wasn’t particularly goal-oriented.  It was a prediction about the kind of year I knew was barreling toward me.

It’s hard to find a word that encompasses all of my goals and resolutions for 2011, but this year’s word is….

CLEAN!!

A clean house (creating and maintaining a cleaning routine, decluttering, creating a toxin free, allergy friendly house).

Clean(er) eating.

Clean living.

Clean emotions (less worrying, less anger).

CLEAN!!

I do have several other goals and priorities this year related to parenting, marriage, and blogging, but trying to incorporate CLEAN into each of my goals didn’t quite work (I’ll admit that even “Clean emotions” is a bit of a stretch….).

What’s your word of the year for 2011?  What will you be focusing on this year?

Here’s what one of the walls in our kitchen looks like right now….

All of the paints except the bottom one are from Martha Stewart’s line that is available at The Home Depot.  Great color options and I love that the paint is low-odor.

I can’t wait to get rid of that yellow, but it’s a little scary selecting ONE color to use throughout the kitchen, living room, entry, dining room, powder room and stairwell.  We’ve narrowed it down to 2 of these….

Any guesses on which one of these colors we’ll be using?  Any favorites?

Looking back through the recipes I blogged in 2010 brought back memories of countless meals cooked with love and shared with family and friends.  My favorites from the year include a veggie with a bad rap, three delicious salads, and two desserts that got big raves from everyone who tried them.

Melissa’s Brussels Sprouts

Sweet Peanut Chicken Stir Fry

Chicken Poppy Seed Salad

Cafe Rio Sweet Pork Salad

Asian Noodle Salad

Pumpkin Doughnut Muffins

Sugar Cookie Bars

I’ve got SO many projects in the works for 2011, but let’s look back at a few of my favorites from 2010.

We finally got the master bedroom painted, and I made curtains out of drop cloths…..

The Picky Apple built an amazing new bed for The Littlest Apple...

I made several wreaths….

Flag Wreath

Halloween Ribbon Wreath

Ornament Ball Wreath

I also had lots of fun playing with Chalkboard Spray paint….

Chalkboard Calendar and Menu Boards

and the Count Your Blessings Chalkboards (wishing I had kept one for me!!)

In 2011, I’ll be working on some of the items from my Upstairs To-Do List, repainting our entire downstairs, and converting our dining room into an office/art studio/mom cave for me!

What projects are you most proud of from 2010?  What projects are on your To Do list for 2011?

I’m sharing this post with….

We didn’t take quite as many pictures this Christmas as we did last year.  I’m hoping some of the grandparents have some additional photos of the celebrations at their houses.  We had a truly wonderful Christmas!  This was The Littlest Apple’s first year to really understand Santa (and the story of baby Jesus’ birth!) so it was especially magical (if you can call a Christmas full of chainsaws, jackhammers and other boy toys magical).

From Santa, The Littlest Apple received a toy jackhammer and a toy chainsaw, which were at the top of his wish list.  He wore the accompanying safety goggles for most of Christmas morning….

He couldn’t even let go of his chainsaw long enough to check out his stocking….

One of his favorite gifts from mommy and daddy was a University of Texas football helmet.  It’s way too big, even though I ordered the smallest one I could find.

The Littlest Apple’s favorite gifts from his grandparents included a claw machine (who knew that you could have your own personal claw machine?!  how cool is that?!)…

a shaving kit….

and a Plasma Car.  We stopped taking pictures by this time but this is such a FUN toy!!  All of the adult children had fun trying out the Plasma Car too (and I’m sure there are some pictures somewhere to document that.  Mom, if you have photos of The Littlest Apple (or maybe even his Uncle John) riding the Plasma Car, could you send them my way?  I’d love to add them to this post!)

And in case you were wondering, I got a Kindle and a Lisa Leonard Necklace from The Picky Apple, and lots of great stuff from the rest of the family too.  A very Merry Christmas indeed!

We took down our Christmas decorations yesterday, and I’m cleaning house, planning new projects (including choosing a paint color for the entire downstairs!), and reflecting and resolution making for the upcoming year.  In the next few days, I’ll be sharing some Best of 2010 posts as we get ready for 2011!

Ingredients:

In a medium bowl, cream sugars with butter until smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time and add vanilla. Add baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder. Next add flour, one cup at a time, beat in well. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Roll tablespoons of dough into rounds and bake in 350 degree oven for 8 to 10 minutes. Do not over bake! Cool on wire rack for 2 minutes. Decorate with crushed peppermint and white chocolate drizzles.  Hint:  Press the crushed peppermint on cookie right after it gets out of the oven so that it can stick on the cookie.

I hadn’t tried peppermint bark until this year.  I’m not sure why.  It’s delicious!  And based on the number of recipes I’ve seen for peppermint bark in magazines and blogs this holiday season, it seemed pretty easy to make.  No baking necessary.  Just melt the chocolate, spread it out, sprinkle with crushed mint candies.  I saw a particularly cute idea on Tidy Mom recently using cookie cutters to shape peppermint bark into trees.  I took that idea and ran with it, using my entire bucket of cookie cutters.  I LOVE how cute these are, and I’m looking forward to including them in this year’s Cookie Boxes.

Cookie Cutter Peppermint Bark

Adapted from Tidy Mom

Ingredients:

• 2 bars semi sweet chocolate
• 2 bars white chocolate
• 1 tsp. peppermint extract, divided
• crushed peppermint candies

Chill your cookie cutters until ready to use.  Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper, then arrange cookie cutters on the baking sheet.

Break up bars of semi sweet chocolate and place the pieces in an icing decorator bag.  Twist the end of the bag, and microwave for 30 seconds.  Knead chocolate, then microwave for another 30 seconds.  Repeat until chocolate is melted.  Add 1/2 teaspoon of peppermint extract, and knead chocolate again.  Cut the tip of the decorator bag.  Pipe into the cookie cutters (holding the cookie cutters in place).  Be sure to get chocolate in all the corners!  Place the cookie sheet into the freezer for 10 minutes to allow the chocolate to harden.

Now repeat the process with the white chocolate.  Don’t forget to add the peppermint extract!

Sprinkle with crushed peppermint candies, and lightly press down.  Freeze for 10 minutes until top layer has hardened.  Carefully pop the peppermint bark out of the cookie cutters, and keep wrapped in wax paper in the fridge until ready to serve or gift.