Teriyaki Turkey Lettuce Wraps

Teriyaki Turkey Lettuce Wraps! Flavorful teriyaki sauce, shredded carrots and scallions give ground turkey a serious upgrade in these healthful wraps that make a perfect weeknight meal.

Last week was QUITE a week.

The kind of week that leaves you curled up in the fetal position wanting nothing but a sippy cup of wine and a never ending supply of chocolate. {Too bad I've been avoiding both things. Rough.}

Among other things, I thought I lost the blog for about 24 hours. Well, not the blog itself, but the domain.

If you have a blog or business with a website, then you understand what that means.

Losing your domain means that people can no longer reach your site by typing in the web address they are accustomed to visiting. {In my case, www.thekitchenprepblog.com}

Why is that bad?

Well... let's put it this way. Say you owned a sweet little business on 123 Main Street. Over the course of a year, people begin to notice you and stop by often. They tell their friends about you and their friends start to drop by, too. You get business cards made, the paper and local magazines write features about you, and everyone knows that 123 Main Street is your spot.

One morning, you wake up to go to work and discover that your business has been moved to another address. It's still in tact, but no one knows you're there. And when they go to your old location, they're greeted with a sign that says, "For Sale" with no indication that you're still open elsewhere.

That's kind of what happens when you lose your domain.

Normally, it isn't a big deal to renew a domain if it expires, which is what caused this issue to begin with. The problem is, I purchased my domain through Google over a year ago and had no idea how to sign in to the console that contains the renewal button. It was telling me that my username & password were wrong and, unfortunately, there is no direct customer support readily available from Google.

You can imagine how frustrating that is. It should have been a simple process, but there was no one to help me with my problem, leaving me in a bit of a lurch.

In the short span of 24 hours, I developed my own "Stages of Grief".

1. Panic. "What the $@*! is happening?!?!?!!"
2. Worry. "Oh my gosh, how in the world do I fix this quickly?"
3. Ambitiousness. "This isn't a problem. I will just call around until I find someone who can help."
4. Frustration. "What do you mean you can't help me. What do you mean there's no one I can talk to???"
5. Rage. "YOU BETTER FLIPPIN' FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET THIS RESOLVED!"
6. Hopelessness. "This is it. This is the death of my blog."
7. Pity. "Why is this happening to me? I've worked sooooo harrrrrrd." :::tears:::
8. Apathy. "Oh well. There went that."
9. Hope. "I have to go to sleep. Maybe tomorrow it will get fixed."
10. Elation. "You mean, Google DOES employ actual LIVE people that can help me?!?!!"

Somehow or another, by the grace of all that is good & holy, I wound up speaking to a man in a department that had nothing to do with my issue who sent me an email with a link to open a support ticket.  In the morning {about an hour before leaving for my first day at a NEW JOB}, I received an email from Google that was sent by a real, live person.

After a while of getting nowhere emailing back and forth, Garreth from Google {who, incidentally, sounded exactly like Officer Rhoades from the movie Bridesmaids} called me. By phone. Can you believe it?  He was able to point me in the right direction as far as resolving my issue but wasn't allowed to tell me what my username & passwords were, leading to the world's most frustrating "Hot/Cold" game.

But, we figured it out. I was able to renew my domain and nearly offered Garreth the rights to our firstborn child.

I wanted to sing. I wanted to dance. I wanted to beat the living &$#@ out of Google for putting me through this.

Meanwhile, we still had to eat.

Have you ever tried cooking when you're really upset about something? It's not fun. Those are the days when the temptation for a drive-thru start to lurk in the corners of your mind.

Don't do it.

Instead, do this. It's not terribly difficult, and you'll feel so much better after you get some sweet & savory goodness in your belly.

Ground turkey shows up a lot in our meal rotation when we're busy because it's so easy to make and the possibilities are endless. You can make turkey Sloppy Joes {which we often make in a variety of ethnicities using different spices & ingredients}, tacos, chilis... you name it.

This time, I made these easy and delightful Teriyaki Lettuce Wraps. Homemade Teriyaki sauce is simple to put together, and it forms the saucy base that gives these their satisfying flavor. You can serve these as lettuce wraps like I did, or over rice or quinoa for a quick meal on even the longest days.

It's so good to be back after my mini-catastrophe. I hope to be at this "address" for a LONG time to come!

Teriyaki Turkey Lettuce Wraps
Sauce adapted from Food Network

For Sauce:
½ cup reduced sodium tamari {gluten free soy sauce} or your preferred soy sauce
¼ cup water
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
¼ cup honey
2 garlic cloves, minced or grated
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon water

2 teaspoons olive oil
½ medium onion, diced
½ cup carrot, shredded
1 garlic clove, minced or grated
1 lb ground turkey {lean for reduced fat & calories}
5 scallions, thinly sliced {plus extra for garnish if desired}
1 can diced tomatoes, lightly drained {make sure there's no high fructose corn syrup in there!}
1 cup Teriyaki Sauce

1 head bibb, butter, or iceberg lettuce, leaves carefully separated, rinsed, & dried

For Sauce:

1. In a medium sauce pan, whisk together tamari, water, rice vinegar, honey, garlic, and ginger until well combined. Combine cornstarch and water in a small bowl, and whisk until completely smooth.

2. Add to sauce pan and whisk until well incorporated. Bring sauce up to a boil, whisking often, then reduce heat and simmer until thickened and bubbly. Set aside. {Makes 1 ¼ cups}

For Turkey:

1.  Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add onion and carrot, and cook until tender and fragrant, about 4-5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for about 1 minute more.

2. Add ground turkey meat and stir together with onion mixture, breaking up meat with a wooden spoon or a potato masher {my favorite method for ground meat}. Cook until no longer pink.

3. Add scallions and diced tomatoes and stir together well. Cook until most of the liquid has evaporated, then add in 1 cup of the Teriyaki Sauce. Bring to a bubble until thickened. {If the sauce remains too watery, combine 1 tablespoon of cornstarch & 1 tablespoon water until smooth, then stir in to ground turkey and simmer until thickened.}

4. Spoon into a serving dish and keep warm.

For Serving:

Serve with lettuce leaves to make "wraps", or over rice or quinoa. You can optionally garnish with extra scallions, shredded carrot, peanuts, crispy rice noodles... etc.