Steak & Cucumber Lettuce Wraps

Next Friday we’re skipping town and heading to the motherland. I cannot wait. Every inch of my body is dying for a break. I feel like the past few months have been nonstop. Nonstop work, yes, but also nonstop everything else. Summer is a busy season for us between water ballet and other social engagements and the result is two very drained Hoerrs. More than just feeling like we haven’t had any time to ourselves I’ve just felt so… burdened. The littlest things, like writing a blog post or sending in my article for Menuism (sorry Nikki!) have felt like too big a task. I just want to sit. Sleep in. Sip bloody marys and read silly books. Thankfully, that’s exactly what we’re headed for.

My biggest challenge the past few months has been coming up with things to eat every day for dinner. Dan and I tend to dive headfirst in love with a dish, eat it once a week for a month or two, and then say goodbye forever. Or at least until we can reinvent it a few years later. This summer we got sick of our old favorites quickly and it has been mentally exhausting coming up with new things to eat every day, new recipes to add to our rotation. I know, what a silly problem to have.

I decided to try my hand at homemade lettuce wraps after a few of my favorite bloggers wrote about going paleo. Now, I have no desire to go that route (biscuits being an integral part of what we do here at biscuits and such) but we have been reducing the amount of certain foods in our diets these past few months, so the concept appealed to me. For a while Dan and I have been opting for a vegetables & dip based lunch, and I thought it would be fun to extend the style of cooking into our dinner plans. At the very least, I figured it would mix things up a bit, perhaps even give us a new go-to recipe.

Based on what we had going on in the garden and what I was craving (grilled steak) we whipped up these quick and incredibly easy lettuce wraps. They were delicious, so good I believe they’ll be on the rotation for the rest of the summer. They were light, refreshing, and so packed with fresh vegetables that it was hard not to feel good about what we were eating. In a summer where cooking has felt like a chore, I needed the win. Lettuce wraps, you might be the new taco in this house.

Steak & Cucumber Lettuce Wraps

1 medium skirt steak

1 cucumber

1 tomato or a handful of cherry tomatoes

1/2 red onion

1 jalapeño

1/4 cup crumbled gorgonzola cheese

Head of lettuce

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1/2 cup chopped green onions

3 limes

Chop cucumber, tomato, onion, jalapeño, cilantro, and green onion. Toss together with lime juice and cheese. Set a side.

Sprinkle steak with salt and pepper. Over medium heat on a grill or in a pan, cook the steak for 5-7 minutes per side, depending on its thickness. Let rest five minutes, then slice.

Peel leaves of lettuce off the head. Fill each leaf with a few pieces of steak and some of the salad. Serve.