Happy #TurkeyTuesday everyone! I didn’t grow up eating a lot of foods from other cultures, but when I went off to college, I started exploring many different types of food. Thai food was love at first bite. I loved the spices and flavors and how beautiful and bright most of the dishes were. But when I set out on my healthy lifestyle change, I realized Thai food could be not so healthy, bummer!

Then I discovered a dish called Larb Gai, a lighter Thai dish that is so delicious you don’t miss the noodles or coconut milk curries! When I meal prep each week it’s so important I make food that I look forward to eating and is healthy and will align with my eating and weight loss goals. I set out to recreate this classic Thai dish for my lunches this week with smarter ingredients to keep up with my 2017 healthy eating goals and it came out almost exactly like how I remember it! I’m so excited to share this with you!

Larb Gai is traditionally made with ground chicken or beef but I wanted to use a lean ground turkey to make mine. Foster Farms Organic Ground Turkey is 93% lean and is California-grown and organic and the perfect star ingredient in these Thai lettuce wraps. Foster Farms Organic Ground Turkey skips the antibiotics, hormones and you won’t find any added steroids here! The turkeys are fed an organic vegetarian diet as well – all of which are super important to me when choosing my ingredients for healthy recipes!

I love cooking with lean ground turkey because I find it way more flavorful than ground chicken and because of it’s amazing health benefits. Organic ground turkey can help reduce blood cholesterol levels and promote heart health. It is also low in calories and fat, which makes it a perfect alternative to ground beef when trying to lose a few pounds!

Next time you’re getting ready to meal prep or are trying to figure out what to eat for a super healthy and ready in under 30 minutes dinner, give this healthy Thai recipe a try! You will be looking forward to your meal prep all week long! I know I did!

serves: 4  |  prep time: 15 minutes  |  cook time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1 tbsp chili sesame oil or peanut oil
1 tbsp freshly grated ginger
3 cloves garlic, crushed or finely chopped
2 tsp lemongrass paste
2 large red Fresno chili peppers, finely chopped
1 pound Foster Farms Organic Ground Turkey
juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp organic brown sugar
1/2 red onion, quartered and sliced thin
1/3 cup Thai basil, roughly chopped
1/3 cup cilantro, roughly chopped
1/3 cup mint, roughly chopped
1 head of Boston Bibb lettuce leaves, to serve

Directions:

Heat chili sesame oil in a large wok or frypan over medium-high heat. Add ginger, garlic, lemongrass and chopped chiles to the pan and cook for 1 minute or until fragrant. Add in the ground turkey and cook, making sure to use a wooden spoon or spatula to break down the turkey into very small bits. Stir constantly until ground turkey is cooked through, about 5-6 minutes.

Remove mixture from the heat. Combine lime juice, brown sugar, and fish sauce in a small bowl. Pour mixture over turkey and stir to combine.

Add sliced onion, Thai basil, cilantro, and mint (reserving some for the garnish) and gently toss to combine. Serve immediately with Boston bibb lettuce leaves and eat like a taco!

Notes:

This dish warms up extremely well and is PERFECT for meal prepping. I leave the extra lettuce leaves rinsed and in a ziplock bag for easy access and leave the leftover turkey mixture in a container and warm the meat mixture up before placing into lettuce cups! Keep an extra lime on hand for a fresh squeeze after each warm up!