Asian Lettuce Wraps

I came across a Tasty post the other day on Facebook of cheap dinners that use one pound of hamburger and thought it would be great for Whitney. Next year she's moving into an apartment off campus and will be cooking, something that she's super excited about doing. We both looked through the recipes Tasty shared and many look really good. I had some butterhead lettuce in the fridge that I wanted to use up and the Asian lettuce wraps were a good use for them. This dish was really tasty, has a few options for serving, and only took about 30 minutes to make. I think we'll be checking out some of the other recipes over the summer so she has a few easy, cheap meals for the fall.

Asian Lettuce Wraps
makes roughly 10 wraps depending on how big the lettuce leaves are

1 1/4 lb lean ground beef
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1-inch piece ginger, chopped or a good squeeze of ginger in a tube
1 8oz can chopped water chestnuts
5 Tbsp hoisin sauce
1 Tbsp soy sauce
Bibb lettuce (or iceberg)
Optional toppings:
shredded carrots
roughly chopped peanuts
toasted sesame seeds
sliced green onion

Heat olive oil in a large skillet then add ground beef. If you're using fattier meat omit the oil. Break up the meat with a spoon, season with salt and pepper, and cook until no longer pink. Set aside on a separate plate. Wipe the hamburger grease out of the skillet and heat a bit more oil then add onion, garlic, and ginger. Cook for 3-4 minutes then add the hamburger and water chestnuts. Stir in the hoisin sauce and soy sauce and cook everything together for a few minutes. To serve, place some meat in the lettuce, top with carrots, peanuts, sesame seeds, green onion, and some extra hoisin sauce.

slightly modified from Apple of My Eye