Wraps

Quick lunches can often lead to missteps in nutrition.  Bringing your lunch can save you from splurges and binge eating.

Tortilla wraps are an easy way to wrap up some veggies and protein into a healthy, portable lunch.

But.....Did you guess that was coming?  I feel like you were waiting for it.....

Have you ever tried a lettuce wrap?  Those big beautiful leafy green romaine leaves aren't just for salads.  They can make a wonderfully crunchy house for your lunch.  Add some tuna (packed in water), add some deli meat, use that leftover chicken from last night.  Use mustard, hummus, salsa, or hot sauce as a condiment and flavor booster.  You will save so many calories by switching to a lettuce wrap vs the tortilla wraps.

Check out some of the pictures:

Completely wrapped

More of a lettuce boat

Turkey Sausage

About 3 o'clock in the afternoon I begin to hit my wall.  I get so hungry! I blame it on my afterschool tendancies when I would eat a snack before volleyball or softball practice.  I mean, 3 hours after breakfast I'm not starving like I am at 3pm.

It is also back to school time!! Until Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution petition (read about it here) has had an effect, I will be packing my 1st grader's lunch.  I like to get things that we can both snack on and turkey sausage is something we fight over!  It is a good source of protien and paired with a small chunk of cheese puts it about 100 calories.  The sodium is a little high, yes, but have you tried the school's pizza?  Or spaghetti?  If we ate out more often I would worry, but because we don't use much salt at home so I am not concerned with that number. 

Kroger has a great price on these- you can find them in the little specialty cheese island they have usually near the bakery.

Prepare to be healthy

After a long day at work, going home to make a healthy dinner can honestly be the last thing on your mind.  Especially when you hear the $5 hot & ready pizza commercial about 5pm. 
I work in 2 chiropractic offices everyday and on my “lunch break” I run over to Club Fit to do some work there.  Time is one of the most valuable things we have and I make sure to use mine wisely.
Sundays are my meal prep days.  Sometimes I’ll also use Wednesdays as sort of a mid-week break to add something different.  The first thing I do is grab my cupcake pan, place an egg in each of the 12 slots and bake them at 350* for 25/30 minutes.  Yes- this absolutely takes longer than boiling them but  I don’t have a pot to watch boil and I can get more things done this way. 
Then I begin my meat preparation….

I have my steaks and chicken ready for trimming, tenderizing and seasoning.   After I trim the thawed chicken breasts, I cut them in half, trying to get 2 equal pieces about the size of deck of cards.  You can see my “aluminum bowls” I make to put the two 4(ish) ounces of chicken in to flavor it. 
Speaking of flavor, I always keep my spices lined up with their lids off so I can flavor away without having to go through drawers and cabinets. 

After I spice it up with some Mrs. Dash and other spices, I leave 2 servings out so I can bread them.  There are many different “crusty" mediums” you can use to bread your chicken but I opt for plain bread crumbs.  I add my salt & pepper myself, sometimes I’ll add a cajun spice, sometimes a chili pepper, it just varies but I like having that option. 
A serving of these bread crumbs is 1/4 cup.  I scoop that out add some ground flaxseed for fiber and put it in a dish/bowl/ziploc bag to coat one piece of chicken in it.  I remove it, add the coated piece to my aluminum bowl and then proceed to the next. 
I coated two pieces and still had 75% of my 1/4c serving left.  I coated a few more for my 6 year old then tossed the leftover crumbs.  I throw this bowl of chicken in the oven and send my husband out to the grill with the steaks and the 10 other pieces of chicken.
Now its time for sides…
My husband is awesome.  While I was taking care of the chicken he was peeling sweet potatoes and cutting them so we could have these:
These sweet potato fries are lightly drizzled in olive oil, have a few crumbles of brown sugar and are sprinkled in kosher salt to bring out that sweetness.  These cook for about 30-45 minutes at 400*.  I put my breaded chicken in with these for 30 minutes.  When the oven clicked off when the fries were done I just let the chicken stay in there for another 10 minutes to ensure it was done- plus I was busy with the other veggies.
Here is a yellow squash cut in half, then in quarters drizzled with olive oil, salt & pepper. 
Behind it you can see some ears of corn that have been salt & peppered and wrapped.  We put all this on the grill to cook; the corn cooks longer so it goes on when the chicken goes on.
You can also put some whole wheat rice on the stove… we have two kinds.  The 45 minute rice I can put on if I remember in time OR the 10 minute Uncle Ben’s rice.  Beware of flavored rice, it tends to pack the sodium.
I also rinsed & drained a can of black beans and put those on the stove on low and began steaming my vegetables.  I like broccoli,  cauliflower and mixes that include those. 

My breakfast is in the small bowls at the top, a peeled hard boiled egg wrapped in a cheap sandwich bag so it doesn’t make my No-Bake Naturals taste like egg.  I have 2 lunches and 4 dinners prepared (you can see 3 dinners, we ate the 4th!).  We go to Subway once a week and get a $5 footlong each and eat a 6” over the course of 2 days.  Its loaded with veggies, has some protein and mustard… obviously! That averages to be $2.50/lunch and gives us a little change up.  In the lunches I also added some fresh carrots and cucumbers so I can use my greek yogurt ranch dressing with it.  Some nights I’ll cook the 10 minute rice I mentioned for some slow digesting carbs.  I just love coming home to dinner that I only need to reheat.  If you’re one of those who doesn’t like “left overs” and reaheating you will have a very hard time preparing so you will have to dedicate more time each day to meals. 
I’ll have a two three great recipes for you coming up in the next few posts. These are tested and have passed my chocolate test, my husband’s protein test and my 6 year old’s complete taste “bugs” test.  Stay tuned and stay prepared!

Preparing for success

The #1 excuse I hear from people who veer off their initial nutritious path is I don't have time to eat healthy.

I agree with you that it takes about 3 minutes from the time you place your order, pay and pick up your food from you local burger hut and you have a meal ready to devour and you put forth little effort.

So very tempting!  I won't get in to all the disgusting ingredients found in most of those places but I will tell you how to save money and time.

Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest, it is the day most of us enjoy a big meal and relax.  I view Sunday just like it is on the calendar- the beginning of the week.  I thaw my bag of frozen chicken breasts ($6.99 on average).  Mid afternoon I begin to grab my aluminum foil sheets from SAM'S (often seen at the salon... they're the perfect size!).  I trim my chicken breasts of fat, and cut them a little bigger than the size of a cassette tape- or a deck of cards for you young ones!

I grab a sandwich size tupperware, flip it over and fold my aluminum foil sheet over it to mold your "baking basket".  You can drizzle the aluminum foil with some Extra Virgin Olive Oil for some added omegas or you can bake it dry.

As far as flavor- I have a whole drawer of Mrs. Dash spices.  They're salt-free and there is a wide selection. I grab my 13x9 baking dish, I place two 4oz servings of chicken into the aluminum foil basket and sprinkle both sides of the chicken with 1 flavor seasoning.  I do this and usually end up with about 6-8 baskets, which is sometimes a tight squeeze in my dish.  I love the fiesta lime seasoning so sometimes I do 2 baskets in that.  Bake at 350* for 40 minutes.

Each 4 oz serving costs you about 58 cents, packs approx 130 usable calories and 22g of protein. For this meal, I would add 1/3c of drained black beans for 100 calories, 6g protein and 5g of fiber and a small green salad with a vinaigrette dressing like Newman's Own light balsamic (45 calories/2 tablespoons) and you have a healthy light lunch your body will convert to fuel instead of fat and you prepared it all in one day!

I have 8  sandwich size toss 'n go containers that I just store my meal in but if you're like my sister who is in her 40's and still gets refuses to eat food if it touches other food, there are also some with compartments.  You can also get some cheap storage solutions like this at the dollar store, just be aware of any BPA coating.  (Both Johnson & Johnson and Glad are PVC/BPA free products.)