Kicking Off Wedding Season and Lettuce Wraps

Good evening and happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there, in particular my mom who I unfortunately cannot spend the day with .

We just returned from a night beach walk with the pups; it truly doesn’t get much better than that!

Remember yesterday when I mentioned that we planned on tackling the farmers market, the outlets, the beach, and the wedding all on our first day here?  Well, we almost did! Our day started at the outlets where Dustin was able to find a few pairs of nice pants (since we just realized that I left all of his jeans, his suits, and my workout pants in Statesboro…Did I mention that he has two interviews this week? Yikes.) at the Tommy Bahama store. I was also able to spend a little of my birthday money as well .

Following the outlets, we left in just enough time to make it over to the Old City Farmers Market. Unfortunately we didn’t give ourselves enough time to really get to walk around and visit every vendor because the market is HUGE, but we were able to grab lots of fresh organic veggies! I will grab pictures next time…just as I was going to snap a photo, I realized that I left my memory card in my computer.

After the market, since we only had a few hours to spare before it was time to start getting ready for the market, instead of hitting the beach we decided to grab some towels and lay out on the dock in the back of the house. While it wasn’t sand beneath us, we were still happy to be getting our Vitamin D close by the water.

We then headed in to prepare for the wedding and off to Fernandina Beach we went!

Rachel, the bride (one of my closest high school friends), was absolutely stunning and her groom, Jeremy, was looking pretty sharp himself! The day was absolutely perfect!

She got him!

I was so happy to see lots of old friends too!

This wedding kicks off one of eight that we have in the rest of 2012…lots of fun times to be had!

Tonight I want to leave you with a yummy Asian Lettuce Wrap recipe; one my mom often serves in our house.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp EVOO
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 zucchini, diced
• 1 c mushrooms, diced
• 3 tbsp Bragg’s Liquid Aminos or Low-Sodium Tamari or Low-Sodium Soy Sauce (the Liquid Aminos have much less sodium than both so I prefer it)
• juice from half a lime
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 dash (or more depending on preference) of cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds
• 1/2 c unsalted peanuts or raw cashews
• 6 Napa cabbage or romaine lettuce leaves

with tofu…

without…

Directions

Sautee veggies in oil.  Add lime, vinegar and liquid aminos/tamari/soy sauce. Next add seasonings and toss in nuts. Serve veggies in leaves. You can also add tofu (for me) or chicken (for Dustin) to this mixture as we did.  Ground turkey works well too.  My mom usually adds either brown rice or quinoa too it as well.  We wanted to stick to veggies tonight.

I hope you are all enjoying your Sunday!

Good health!