Tacos have been on my mind since I saw a recent rerun of Diners, Drive-ins, & Dives and Guy was chowing down on some killer tacos at some amazing little hole in the wall. I figured a Taco Tuesday was in order! We usually eat on the later side because my husband works till about 6:30 every night and then family time with the kids follow for an hour until their bed time. So dinner is usually after all of that madness. I didn’t want to feel bust-at-the-seams full, so I thought about switching up the usual flour & corn tortillas for romaine lettuce and make some turkey lettuce tacos. Best.Decision.Ever.
We went to town on those Turkey Lettuce Tacos like we were going to the electric chair. There was literally nothing left over and I caught my husband licking the plates (I blame the 2 Old Fashion’s he consumed for that).
I made some fun toppings like Mini Pepper Salsa & Spicy Roasted Corn to top our Turkey Lettuce Tacos and they drove us over to flavor town! (don’t hate on the Guy-ism!) These would be a great light lunch or late night dinner like we had. We were full but didn’t feel bloated like we’d normally feel after a taco dinner.
Turkey Lettuce Tacos
- 1 lb. Ground Turkey Meat
- 10-12 Romaine Leaves, cleaned and dried
- 1/4 cup Taco Seasoning
- 2/3 cup Water
- Shredded Cheese
- Mini Pepper Salsa
- Reduced Fat Sour Cream
- Spicy Roasted Corn
- Cilantro, chopped
In a large pan, brown turkey meat over medium high heat. Drain excess water and add taco seasoning and water. Stir and lower heat to a simmer until the liquid in the pan begins to thicken.
While the turkey is cooking, clean and dry the romaine leaves. Arrange on plate so everyone can just pick and fill their Turkey Lettuce Tacos with toppings.
Spicy Roasted Corn
- 1 can Corn, drained
- 1 TBS Diced Onion
- 1 TBS Cilantro, roughly chopped
- Pinch of Cayenne Pepper
- Hot Sauce
- Olive Oil spray
In a small pan, spray with olive oil spray (or just heat regular olive oil) and over medium high heat, sauté corn and onion. Add cayenne, salt, pepper and dash of hot sauce and continue to sauté until corn begins to brown. Add Cilantro and cook for a couple more minutes then take off the heat to cool.
Mini Pepper Salsa
- 1 Tomato, diced
- 6-8 Mini Peppers, diced
- 2 TBS Cilantro, chopped
- 1/2 Lime, juiced
- Hot Sauce
- Salt & Pepper
In a bowl, add diced tomato, mini peppers, cilantro, lime juice, a couple dashes of hot sauce, salt & pepper and mix well. Allow salsa to sit for about an hour or longer so all the flavors marry. Serve room temperature or chilled.
This may look tedious, but I promise it took me max, 15 minutes to prepare both salsa and corn and cooking time for the turkey meat was very short as well. Definitely a 30 minute meal. The only thing we were missing with this were 2 giant margaritas. Mmmmm, margaritas. (That was in a Homer Simpson voice if you were wondering)
Do you do Taco Tuesdays or other food themed days for dinner?
– Amanda
