BBQ Chicken Lettuce Wraps – From “Whole30 Fast and Easy”

After having our third son in March, we had so many sweet people bring us tasty meals to help us out and it was SO appreciated. People were so thoughtful and sweet that first month, and then reality set in that I was going to have to start figuring out how to balance new born life with preparing our meals…eek!!!

Jacob and I embarked on our first round of Whole30 in January of 2016 when my second son was 8 months old, because I was desperate to help my body feel better, and since then we have completed two more rounds. I say that because it has changed the way we see food. It has completely changed the way we eat and feel. My last pregnancy threw off a lot of the good habits we started, but after reading “Food Freedom Forever” by Melissa Hartwig, I knew we could jump right back into it and fall back in those habits we had previously.

That’s the cool thing about Whole30… some people see it as restricting their lives, but we see it as a way to reset our bodies every now and then to help ourselves make better food choices. To clean out our systems and see what foods are making us feel bad, so we can still enjoy yummy foods but just be more selective about them. It allows you to enjoy that piece of birthday cake (not the whole cake hah) or indulge in a few scoops of ice cream (maybe not the whole gallon!) and then fall back on what you learned to get back on track the next day.

For us, my goals during the week generally are to eat as many whole 30 meals during the day as I can and then maybe paleo snacks…and then save eating out for the weekend. Or aim for breakfast and dinner to be whole30 but go out for lunch. It’s all about balance and creating habits you can carry with you that are easily maintained and not overwhelming. To just be healthy, and to eat real foods because you want to take care of your body, because it’s the only one you have, right? 🙂

So after I had Jenson, my goal was one meal a day to be Whole30. And then after a few weeks it was two meals. Now I am back to where we were previously, just to be able to enjoy indulging food when it comes and then hop back over to our usual food habits.

My point in saying all of this though was that I needed EASY meals to get myself started and motivated. Let’s be real, Im exhausted at this point in time and can barely remember to brush my teeth most days, so I needed recipes that required little brain power to create! So I turned to one of the newer Whole30 cookbooks “Whole30 Fast and Easy” and have been trying out things from there when I can. This book is a great starter book for anyone interested in creating some healthier meals but overwhelmed by making drastic changes to their diet.

The first recipe I wanted to highlight from there is the BBQ chicken lettuce wraps. Y’all this meal is SO easy. It is very straightforward and basic, so if course it fits my requirements to blog about it!!

Ingredients:

• Chicken breasts
• Chicken stock
• Romaine lettuce
• Carrot strips
• Cilantro
• Lime Juice
• BBQ sauce (when we aren’t doing a strict Whole30, I just grab an organic BBQ with decent ingredients from the store!)
• Ingredients for Whole30 BBQ sauce if you are wanting to make your own…
  • This recipe turned out pretty well from her site!
    • 3/4 cup basalmic vinegar
    • 1/2 cup water
    • (1) 6-ounce can tomato paste
    • 8 pitted medjool dates
    • 2 tablespoons dijon mustard
    • 2 tablespoons coconut aminos
    • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
    • 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
    • 1/2 teaspoon salt
    • 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• How to make it from her site! (and P.S. she has a ton of other recipes here!) Also you can easily make this ahead of time at any point during the day or freeze it as she suggests!
  1. Heat a sauce pan over medium low heat. Add all ingredients, stir to combine, and bring to a low simmer for 5 minutes. You don’t want it to boil, just get warmed through. Heating will allow the flavors to marry and soften the dates.
  2. Transfer the BBQ sauce to a blender, and blend on high speed for 2 minutes. (Careful blending warm liquids in blenders!)
  3. I like my bbq sauce thick so it really sticks to the meat I grill. If you like yours thinner, add water and blend until desired consistency is reached.
  4. Transfer to an airtight container. Will keep in the fridge for at least 4 weeks.
  5. You can transfer the sauce to wide mouth pint size mason jars, cool to room temperature, and then freeze for at least a year.

What to do:

1. I always cook my chicken in my crockpot when I need shredded chicken for a meal. I just rinse the chicken breasts and place them in the crockpot, then covering them with chicken stock. They always come out tender and flavorful.
2. Set crockpot to cook on high for four hours.
3. Shred your chicken and place in a frying pan.
4. Coat your chicken in the BBQ sauce and and stir until heated through.
5. Scoop the chicken into romaine lettuce cups and top with shredded carrots, lime juice and cilantro. (The book has you mix these three toppings in a bowl and then place on top but I skipped that and just added each the wraps!

And you’re done!!! See, easy!!

This is great leftover too, and a lot of times I will bake sweet potatoes the next day to serve the BBQ chicken on top of the open potatoes. So yummy! So now you have TWO back to back easy meals!! Hope you enjoy!!