2 for 1 Recipe: Korean Beef w/Vegetables & Thai Lettuce Wraps

It's impossible for me to follow a recipe as written. I blame my mom. She had stacks of cookbooks and a box full of hand written recipes yet we rarely (if ever) ate the exact same thing twice. Mom was a big fan of improvising with food. She rarely used measuring cups and taught me to use a recipe as a base to add on to or take away from as the fancy struck me. With that in mind, it's really not a surprise that while I started off with this recipe for Korean Beef I ended up with Korean Beef w/ Vegetables and Thai Lettuce Wraps. That's right, I somehow ended up with two different dishes. One for dinner, one for lunch the next day - both cost effective, quick and delicious!

Korean Beef w/Vegetables

1 lb organic ground beef (option: Sub ground chicken or turkey)
1/4c packed brown sugar
1/3c soy sauce
1-2 tbs sesame oil
3 cloves garlic, minced (I'll be honest, I just squeezed a blob out from my bottle of pre-minced garlic.)
1/2 tsp fresh finely grated ginger
1/2 head of broccoli, cut into florets
1/2c chopped mushrooms
1-2 carrots, grated
1/2-1 tsp crushed red pepper (optional)
salt and pepper to taste (I didn't feel the need to use either one)
1 bunch green onions, diced to use as garnish

Brown ground beef in a large skillet. Drain the fat. Return skillet to the stove and on medium heat add sesame oil, garlic, chopped mushrooms and broccoli florets. Saute for 2-3 minutes. Add browned ground beef and grated carrot. Cook an additional 2-3 minutes, stirring often. Reduce heat to low before adding brown sugar, soy sauce, and grated ginger. Add crushed red pepper, salt and pepper to taste. Let simmer on low for a few minutes so they flavors can meld. Reserve half of the mixture for the Thai Lettuce Wraps recipe below. Serve the remaining beef and vegetable mixture over rice and topped with diced green onions. Recipe serves 2-4 depending on your portion size.

*Note: I totally left out the mushrooms because they do not make my mouth happy. Feel free to adjust the recipe to your specific tastes.*

Thai Lettuce Wraps
1/2 meat mixture from the Korean Beef w/Vegetables recipe
1/2 -1 tbs natural peanut butter
Iceberg or romaine lettuce to use as "cups"

Remove several leafs from the lettuce of your choice. Combine the leftover meat and veggies with the peanut butter and heat until warm. Spoon into the lettuce "cups" or "wraps." Immediately devour while still standing at the counter. Oh, that's just me? I guess you could sit down at the table if you really want to. ;)