It's a Wrap!

Due to a recent major health scare, I am more determined than ever to rid my family's diet of any and all junk food. By junk, I mean processed stuff that is quick to fix and loaded with unpronounceable ingredients.

I also need to be on a heart healthy diet now, and can think of no reason why my family can't eat the same meals as I do. With that in mind I decided to experiment today for lunch. Here is what I came up with, a tuna, brown rice, chick pea, veggie wrap that I will dub...

"The Chiritu"

Ok, I'll be the first to admit the name isn't that great, but I have to call it something right?

This mixes up pretty fast and you can always make a bigger batch and keep it in the fridge for lunches or snacks. I used canned tuna and chick peas, but you can make this even healthier by cooking everything yourself. 

If you opt for the canned versions, READ THE LABELS! You want to buy canned or frozen foods that have ingredients as close to the real foods as possible. For instance, the tuna I used only contained tuna, water, vegetable broth and salt.

Ingredients:

• 1- 5 oz can tuna in water
• 1/2 cup cooked chick peas (garbanzos)
• 1/2 cup cooked brown rice
• 2 tbsp mayonnaise
• spices to taste, I used Turmeric, Cumin, Ginger and Red Pepper Flakes
• Vegetables of choice, I used scallions, carrots and baby spinach
• 6" Tortillas

How To:

• In a food processor, blender or by hand (burn some calories and do it by hand!) mash the chick peas, and mix together with the tuna and brown rice.
• Add spices of choice to taste and the mayonnaise and mix well...you may like it creamier so adjust mayo as desired.
• Warm tortilla or not ( I didn't) add 1/2 cup of tuna mixture to center, top with veggies of choice, I used one grated baby carrot, 2 scallions and about 10 baby spinach leaves and then roll it up.

I had enough to make a couple Chiritus, I didn't want to make too much in case it was really awful!! 

You can also play around with this basic recipe quite a bit. 

Want cheese? Add it.

Have kids that don't like Tuna? Add more beans, rice and seasonings to hide the taste. 

Black or green olives might be nice also. 

Hate chick peas? Use another kind.
Switch up the type of bread you use. Have it on crackers or stuff celery. It's a pretty adaptable filling.

I used what I had on hand and really liked the taste and texture of this. I didn't fully mash the peas so there was a little *crunch* to the wrap and it also wasn't a soggy mess to eat and I believe it would carry well in a lunch sack.

I also added some apple wedges with a slight sprinkling of cinnamon on them to go along with this instead of a bag of chips. So much better for me and they went together great!

So there you have my quick and easy wrap experiment of today. If you try it and like it, drop me a comment. 

What's for Supper Tonight?

If there is any one food I could eat every day and not get tired of, it's soup. I make it at least a few times a month, and even more in the winter.

I make soup from whatever is available and am one of the "pinch of this, sprinkle of that"  type of cooks, which means that no 2 pots of soup ever taste the same at our house. But for this blog, I am going to make an effort to measure what I throw into the pot . If it turns out delicious- which means it gets at least 3 thumbs up here- then I will share it with you. As a bonus, I'll be able to make it again myself!

I will post a recipe for the soup shown this weekend, but I am just going to leave you  a small tease tonight with this photo.

"Chicken Soup #1"

It's what's for supper tonight at our house! What are you having?

"When Life Hands You Rotten Bananas"

I went to the small neighborhood market today to pick up some milk and eggs and after I had paid, the owner told me that he was going to give me these bananas. Give me, as in FREE!

No, they aren't really rotten, just over-ripe, and I like to keep snack size bags of these in the freezer to use in smoothies so I said thank you and gladly took them.

During the bike ride home, I thought, "Hmmm, time to try out the new mini muffin pans!" So decided to use a few of the better bananas to make a batch of mini muffins.

First thing I had to do was look online to see how to adapt the cooking time for the minis. I always make regular muffins, but now that I am trying (again"sigh" ) to lose weight, thought it might be good to downsize things for a bit. I also thought it eould be the perfect time to create the very first post on this blog. So here it is, I hope you enjoy it!

 Double Chocolate Banana Nut Mini Muffins.

Preheat oven to 350*, spray or grease muffin pans, makes 48 mini muffins

DRY INGREDIENTS, plus chopped walnuts and chocolate chips

• 2 cups flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 cup semisweet mini chocolate chips (I didn't have the mini ones, so I chopped up some regular sized ones)    

WET INGREDIENTS

• 1-1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 3 medium ones)
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

MIX DRY INGREDIENTS (NOT the nuts and chocolate chips!)

ADD WET INGREDIENTS AND MIX UNTIL BLENDED

MIX IN THE NUTS AND CHOCOLATE CHIPS

SPOON BATTER INTO PREPARED PANS, AS YOU CAN SEE I FILLED THEM ALMOST ALL THE WAY.

BAKE UNTIL TOOTHPICK COMES OUT CLEAN, BETWEEN 10-15 MINS (but check often after 10 mins) MINE TOOK 12 MINS.

THE END RESULT...48 DELICIOUS BITE SIZE MUFFINS!  (minus a few samples for the cook..lol)

These tiny muffins are packed full of chocolatey banana flavor and bursting with nuts and chocolate chips. If you try the recipe, please leave me a comment and let me know if you love them as much as my family does!