Sweet Thai Chili Shrimp Lettuce Wraps

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Sweet Thai Chili Shrimp Lettuce Wraps

These Sweet Thai Chili Shrimp Lettuce Wraps are the fresh, healthy flavor explosion you've been waiting for. They are the perfect clean dinner idea!

Course Hand Food, Main Course

Cuisine Asian

Prep Time 1 hour

Cook Time 4 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 4 minutes

Servings 8 wraps

Author Brewing Happiness

Ingredients

Pickled Daikon Radish and Carrots:

• 2 carrots, julienned or cut into matchsticks
• 2 daikon radishes, julienned or cut into matchsticks
• 1 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1 cup water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup

Sweet Thai Chili Shrimp:

• 1/2 pound peeled uncooked shrimp, peeled
• 1/4 cup garlic chili sauce (sub Sriracha)
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon corn starch

Lettuce Wraps:

• 1 head butter lettuce
• 1 avocado, sliced thin
• 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
• 1/4 cup green onion, diced
• 1/4 cup salted cashews

Instructions

1. In a large bowl (or jar) whisk (or shake) together your rice wine vinegar, water, salt and maple syrup. Add in your chopped carrots and daikon radishes, cover, and refrigerate for at least one hour and up to eight hours. (The longer you let them sit the more flavorful they will be.)
2. In a medium bowl whisk together your garlic chili sauce, maple syrup, rice wine vinegar, and cornstarch. Add in shrimp, cover, and refrigerate for one to eight hours.
3. When one to eight hours has passed, heat a skillet over medium-low heat. Add in shrimp and half of your marinade and cook your shrimp on each side for 1-2 minutes. Remove the shrimp from the heat and set aside.
4. Drain your carrots and daikon radishes from the pickling liquid (you can save the liquid to pickle other things if you want!)
5. Carefully tear your butter lettuce leaves from the head and layer them with two leaves. Divide your pickled carrots and daikon radish evenly between all lettuce wraps, add 2-3 shrimp to each wrap, and top with avocado slices, cilantro, green onion and salted cashews.
6. EAT UP.

I’m in a barre class, doing ab exercises, and I find myself comparing the width of my arms to the girls around the room. Are my arms the same size as that girl’s? Are they bigger? I like that girl’s arms, do mine look like that? These voices, these questions are not new. They rise up in me often. I have learned to fight them, but they haven’t gotten the memo that I want them to die forever. Maybe one day, but for now I have to combat these questions of comparison with incredible self love. 

After sweating my butt off in this barre class I went into the dressing room to change back into normal people clothes. But instead of rushing through the process I decided to take a minute and try to really see myself. Not critically, but with fresh eyes. So I rubbed my hands on my stomach, and thought, “What if this was good enough?” I allowed myself to feel that. (Or I tried.) I took a deep breath and remembered that I am *trying.* Each and every day, I am attempting to love myself more, better. Some days I fail. But today, today, I won this battle. Today I saw some beauty in me and instead of comparing that beauty of others, I held it near and dared to believe it was true.

I’ve fallen into this same trap by comparing what I eat to other people. Am I eating a “normal amount”? Am I eating healthy enough? Did I eat too much? Are my sweet thai chili shrimp lettuce wraps less healthy than her salad? WHATEVER. We are all different, and therefore we should eat different and look different and talk different and act different. And I think it should be celebrated. 

Comparison is the thief of joy. Maybe it’s over quoted, but the reminder is pure – powerful. You gain nothing by comparing your arms to that other person’s, or even to your “old body.” You are you now. And hey, guess what? There are all kinds of beauty in the world. And this might sound like a “hippy dippy” idea, but I really think that true beauty emits an energy of it’s own. And you are allowed to admire and even share in that beauty when you see it in others, thus adding to your “beauty energy” and making you MORE beautiful. 

Maybe life doesn’t work exactly like that, or maybe that’s a little too “out there” for you. That’s fine. I get that. But I think it’s a good practice to come back to yourself and remind yourself of all that is beautiful within you. Not in comparison to others. Just value what you have. And I don’t just mean your body. I mean your work, your craft, your voice, your mind, your heart, your personality, your empathy, your compassion, your love. You are you and I think that’s pretty cool. You are you and that’s more than enough. Dare to believe it.