Chicken Caesar Wrap

My daughter ordered this Chicken Caesar Wrap at a restaurant near us. After she had it, she obsessed about it for days. She is her mothers daughter, you know. She kept whining, and begging can we go back to Big O's and get me another one of those Chicken Caesar Wraps? "Oh, sure fine daughter, I will just drop everything to go downtown to a restaurant that has no parking and get you your much wanted Chicken Caesar Wrap."

NOT!

Bratsky. She's is a lovely girl. Mostly well mannered. Unless you consider hormones, and the fact that the planets are orbiting around her cranium.

What was on that thing?, I asked. "Chicken, lettuce, Parmesan cheese, and Caesar dressing." she answered.

How hard could it be to make?

Not hard.

Now, I too am addicted and obsessing over eating a Chicken Caesar Wrap everyday. But, I bet these are better than anything you can buy in a restaurant with metered parking.

Here's what you will need:

1 Chicken Breast, grilled, boiled, roasted or however you like it cooked

4 leaves Romaine Lettuce

1-2 tablespoons grated Parmesan Cheese

1 tablespoon shredded Carrots optional

1-2 tablespoons bottled Caesar Salad Dressing

2 Flour Tortillas, or Flat-out Sun Dried Tomato Flat Breads

Yields: 2 sandwiches

Either one works fantastically. The flour tortilla rolls up better if you have warmed it first for about 15 seconds between damp paper towels in microwave.

Cook up your chicken what ever way you prefer. I have this handy dandy grill pan that I LUV! I season the chicken breasts with season salt and grill them for 5 minutes or so on each side.

I love the nutty crunch of shredded carrots on a sandwich. My daughter does not. So you can make the call on the carrots. To carrot or not to carrot? That's the question.

Caesar Salad Dressing...don't be caught without it! I love Brianna's brand of Salad Dressings. They are magnifico.

Slice or shred the chicken.

Bread

Lettuce

Shredded Carrots....for eagle vision.

Chicken

No sandwich is complete with out cheese.

Almost there...

You be the judge on how much dressing to use. I personally am a whacko for condiments.

So this is what I do: generously drizzle dressing on sandwich, then pour a puddle on the plate and dip sandwich in salad dressing before every bite.

Unlike my husband who's rabbit tendencies leave no room for condiments of any sort.

Thing of beauty.

Now for the wrap technique. Try to contain most of filling in the lettuce...

then fold one side of flat-bread over.

Keep the roll going, nice and tight.

Stick a toothpick in each side and cut on a diagonal down the middle. Giving the consumer the feel that they did indeed pay $7.95 plus parking for this sandwich. Which my lovely daughter thinks makes things taste better.

OOOmPapaMouMou! This is so very delicious.

Easy to make the night before and wrap up for lunches too!

Have you obsessed over a certain food lately?

Check out Quit Eating Out's Saturday Swap to find more yumm-a-licious food to obsess over!

Do tell!

other YUMMY stuff

How about making smoothies for your kids lunches? We make them all the time but I never have put them in my kids lunches. I figured why couldn't I put them in their drink containers. So today I am putting smoothies in their lunchboxes. Hopefully it goes over like a trip to Disney World. If not I will let you know tomorrow.

There are all different ways to make a smoothie. You really can't mess it up. We use yogurt and milk. You could use only frozen fruit with soy or cows milk and skip the yogurt. My kids call this a mooothie. Below is the recipe I came up with for lunch smoothies.

SMOOTHIES

1 banana
1cup of fresh or frozen strawberries (or whatever your favorite fruit is)
1 cup of Stoneyfield French Vanilla Yogurt
1 cup of milk (or soy milk)
1 tablespoon of honey
1 teaspoon lemon juice (this is optional)

Throw it all in your blender...whizzer up. SERVES 2

You can substitute any fruit. Blueberries, raspberries, banana only, pineapple. You really can't mess it up.

Note:the lemon juice is only to help with any browning that may occur as the smoothie sits in your child's lunch. I also give my kids apple slices a little squirt of lemon juice in their baggie to keep them from getting brown, because then my picky kiddos won't eat them. Because OH MY they are brown!

Heck you may just want to give these to your kids for breakfast and skip the lunch thing.

Happy lunch making!

rocket scientist I AM NOT

Making lunches is just one more thing we have to do in the morning. And if you are a night owl like me, you take every last minute of sleep you can get and end up running around like a crazy woman in the morning. LITERALLY a crazeee woman, nutso, cuckoo-bird. I am not quick of body or mind in the AM hours. Then there are always the eight gagillion things my kids think need to be done before they go to school. Like clipping guinea pig claws, and scrubbing our muddy sneakes clean on the kitchen counter (that could not have been done the night before...no way Jose'), then there is the hair that needs to be straightened and subsequently thrown in a pony tail???????? Aaahhhh!

Sometimes I have my act together, I get up and take a shower like probably most of you do, wake up my kiddos, start making there lunches while I get them their breakfast...it's a glorious day when the stars align for such a day as this. Unfortunately the previous scene is the one happening around these parts.

I have to say I am sorry about about my very allergic cookies. I am so bummed for all of you that have to deal with food allergies. I frankly don't know how you do it. I would be a nervous wreck. I found one site that looked like it had some ideas and a list of other sites you could go to. I have to admit I did not read through it thoroughly so hopefully it is helpful.

Today I just want to suggest that you think OUT of the box for your kids lunches. What do they really like to eat when they are home for lunch? If it's something hot, then put it in a thermos. My kids went through a streak where they ate buttered noodles or rice for weeks in their lunch. You could even put cold stuff in a thermos. If they like tuna salad, then put some crackers in a baggy to eat the salad on, or chicken salad if you are a seafood free school.

Or like the above choices, neatly tucked into 1 3/4 cup Glad plastic containers. Salad, cereal(they can grab the white milk from school,so you don't have to worry about it staying cold), or the favorite of my boys beef jerky. If you have a good local butcher, I bet they make their own. Healthier and cheaper for you!

Well now I actually have to feed my kiddos dinner....

I am a feeding maniac!

Feed, Feed, Feed... "Are you hungry? Do you need a snack? Have you drank your milk today? Water? How about an apple, I made some salsa.".....I think my kids and husband half the time see my mouth moving but hear this. "Wa wa wawa, wat wa waawaawawal" Like the school secretary's voice that comes over the intercom on Peanuts.

"Wawa wawat wawa waaa wa wa waawaa". I said....

OK, I am off, and I wish you happy lunch packing!

sandwich ALTERNATIVE

As I said before I am not a dietitian or a nutritionist. So some of my choices might seem peculiar or maybe not the healthiest. But I have to believe that I can do 10 times better than the popcorn chicken, baked chicken fryze, or hot dog that my kids claim if dropped will bounce several feet in the air. I am just attempting to add a little zing in your daily grind of lunch packing.

Which by the way there are actually websites out there, SURPRISE, surprise full of great ideas and with all the nutritional values right there for you. One is lunchtaker.com or you can check out easylunchboxes.com , laptoplunches.com was another one that had recipes and lists of ideas to help mix it up a bit with our lunchboxes.

My kids would eat peanut butter on white bread 5 days a week for lunch, if I would let them. HELP me I can't bear to fix them another PB sammy!

While I was making one of my families favorite cookie recipes....I realized that they were really pretty healthy AND, hey why couldn't I just put cookies in their lunch instead of sandwiches. The first time they received cookies in their lunches instead of a sandwich....they crowned me Queen of ALL things wonderful and amazing, rolling out the red carpet for me as I walked to the van to drive them to school. Now it's old and THIS morning I was just baggy eyed ol' mom again...no big deal anymore. So here is our sandwich alternative. I adapted this recipe from one a friend gave me from recipezaar.com.

MONSTER COOKIES
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 sticks of butter
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cup all natural peanut butter (peanuts only!)
2 teaspoons baking soda
5 cups old fashioned oatmeal
1/4 cup wheat germ
1 cup M&M's

preheat oven to 350
1. cream sugars and butter together with mixer

2. add eggs one at a time mixing after each, add vanilla

3. add peanut butter blend well


4. in separate bowl measure out oatmeal, wheat germ, and baking soda mix together with a fork


5. add oatmeal mixture to butter/egg mixture. mix well

6. fold in M&M's


7. scoop onto parchment covered cookie sheets, with a ice cream scoop.


8. bake for 12-14 minutes, until just slightly browned around the edges.



I bought these water bottles that I fill every day with water and some ice cubes so it's cold for them at lunch. Saves money on buying bottled water.


I also try to make sure there is at least one piece of fresh fruit in my kids lunches. I try to avoid the fruit cups. There may be added sugars and preservatives and they also add to the garbage pile.


I have a good stash of different containers for all sorts of goodies my kids might want in there lunches. They bring them home and I wash them out and reuse, when they get grody then I recycle them.

Have a great day!