30-minute vegetarian Thai lettuce wraps with a protein-packed tempeh and mushroom filling, lots of bright, crunchy toppings, and a simple peanut sauce that’s so delicious, you’ll want to lick the blender.

This week is not unlike the last, with lots of trip planning happening, the beginning stages of packing, and more playing with aquafaba because it continues to blow my mind. A couple of posts ago I shared the first leg of our one-year road trip itinerary, which took us from Boston through Chicago. I’ll share the full, albeit ever-evolving and expanding, list of stops sometime soon. For now, here’s the next round of places we’ll be visiting (some destinations, others passing through/places to crash):

Devil’s Lake State Park, WI → Cashton, WI → Sioux Falls, SD → Badlands, SD → Hot Springs, SD (Black Hills Forest/Ogala Grasslands/Custer State Park) → Thunder Basin, WY → Sheridan, WY (Bighorn Mountains) → Fort Smith, MT (Bighorn Canyon) → Pray, MT (Yellowstone) → Teton Village (Grand Teton) → Bear Lake, UT → Craters of the Moon, ID → Sawtooth Lake, ID

It’s overwhelmingly exciting, and yet those places should only take us through the first 2 months! We’re all booked through most, which we didn’t want to have to do so far in advance, but traveling with our two dogs requires some foresight to find pet-friendly places and also, anything even remotely near-ish to Yellowstone seems to get reserved the previous year?! We hope Yellowstone is worth the hype, but on the off chance it’s not, there is a ton of awesome stuff sandwiched on either side. After Sawtooth, the tentative plan will be to swing on up to Glacier National Park (so pumped!) and Washington, then make our way down along the Oregon coast to California, where we’d like to land sometime in August for prime wine country season and stay put for a while. I feel some anxiety about returning to the bay area because living in San Francisco was such a low point for us, but I have a special place in my heart for the towns north of the city and especially Healdsburg. That was our little, sunny getaway spot and I hope it’s as wonderful this time around. If you have any tips, recommendations, or must-sees for anywhere along our very lengthy route, we’d love to hear them! There is only so much Google maps tells you about the places you’ll be driving through.

When we’re not obsessing over the many, many places we hope to see, we’ve been all about these easy vegetarian Thai lettuce wraps with lots of peanut sauce and extra sriracha (always). They have so many good things going on, not the least of which is the super filling, protein-packed tempeh, mushroom, and water chestnut filling sautéed with onions in fragrant toasted sesame seed oil. Crunchy, meaty (without the meat!), and perfect for layering atop fresh, brilliantly green lettuce leaves and thin, chewy rice noodles. I think the sauce and toppings are what make this dish: shredded red cabbage and carrots, chopped peanuts, thinly sliced green onions, black sesame seeds, and a simple peanut sauce so good, you will want to lick the blender. I love meals that are more about assembly than cooking and these vegan Thai lettuce wraps are a new favorite for sure.