I think I get most creative in cooking when I have limited options inside my fridge and pantry. I had a lb of ground meat in the freezer, I know I wanted to make meatballs but I don’t want to make the sweet and sour kind nor the ones with gravy on it. The weather is getting warmer here in our neck of the woods and I wanted to make something light. My first thought was to make a wrap or tacos but I didn’t have tortillas and then I remembered I still have a head of green leaf lettuce and suddenly a an idea came to mind.

First make your meatballs, I used the recipe for the filling of lumpiang shanghai which I made awhile back. After mixing all your ingredients together, pre-heat your oven to 400F. As your oven is pre-heating, form your ground meat into balls and set it in a lightly oiled pan. Then bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

While your meatballs are baking, separate and wash your lettuce then dry with paper towels.

To assemble, get a piece of lettuce and place 2-3 pieces of meatballs. You can top it with diced tomatoes and cilantro which is what I did. You can experiment with the kind of toppings you may want to add like: mango salsa, pickled radish or atchara. My girls and I added some kimchi on it and then made kimchi rice to add to it too.

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