Deli Salad Wrap

Serves 4

Ingredients:
+ 4 sheets of Mountain Bread Lite Wholemeal
+ 4 tbsp Wholegrain Mustard
+ 30g Baby Spinach Leaves
+ 1 medium Red Capsicum, sliced thinly (100g nett)
+ 1 medium Green Capsicum, sliced thinly (100g nett)
+ 1 medium Carrot, julienned (80g nett)
+ ½ small Red Onion, sliced thinly (50g nett)
+ 310g Sweet Canned Corn, drained [only use 150g nett]
+ 100g Fat Free Semi Dried Tomato
+ 100g Reduced Fat Feta Cheese

Directions:
1. Lie one of the Mountain bread flat on the counter horizontally (i.e. the wide side facing you).
2. Spread one table spoon of the mustard right in the middle of the bread. Top with baby spinach.
3. Pile on ¼ portion of each of the capsicums, carrot, semi dried tomato, corn and onion.
4. Top with crumbled feta cheese.
5. Start rolling the wrap in and set them aside (seam side down).
6. Repeat for the other 3 wraps.
7. Slice them in the middle diagonally.
8. Glad wrap them all!

Calories:
212 calories per serving

Costs:
$3.10 each wrap
[Analysis: As usual, this is calculated at the rate of actual amount used (excluding leftovers ingredients). The use of canned corn, deli feta cheese and deli semi dried tomato hiked up the price a little bit. But - they definitely make the flavour. Worth the money I say!]



References:
* Australian Healthy Food Guide - 5PM Panic Recipes: Page 2 (Deli Wrap)

Wrapper Notes:
I am STILL having problem with rolling the wrap! I keep tearing the bread - Grrrr!!! Either I'm very rough and really need to practice more or it is the bread.
I've been looking for a How-To video that shows how to wrap Mountain Bread to no avail! I recently read somewhere that the corn one is a bit thicker. I might try using that next time.

Post Consumption Notes:
I really really like this!!! It has lots of flavour! The freshness and the crunchiness of the salad was superb. The mountain bread was a little soggy by lunch time - I'll try to remember to wrap with foil before glad wrapping them next time.
I was tempted to put this in the toaster, but thought I better not seeing that the filling is all over the place in the glad wrap. Once I've mastered the art of rolling the wrap, I'll definitely try to make a wrap toast. I reckon that would be quite yummy! :) Looking forward to it!

Tasty Turkey Dijon Wrap

Serves 3

Ingredients:
+ 6 sheets of Mountain Bread Lite Wholemeal
+ 100g Turkey Breast pack
+ 60g Tasty Cheese, grated
+ 2 Baby Carrots, julienned
+ 1 small Lebanese Cucumber, sliced thinly
+ ¼ small Red Onion, sliced thinly and separated
+ 3 tbsp Dijon Mustard
+ ½ tsp Chilli Powder
+ ½ tsp Pepper
+ Salt (to taste)

Directions:
1. Cut 1 of the Mountain bread into halves (so that you have 3 whole pieces plus 3 halves).
2. Lie two of the Mountain bread flat on top of each other on the counter horizontally (i.e. the wide side facing you).
3. Spread grated cheese on top of the Mountain bread.
4. Top with cucumber slices, carrot and turkey breast.
5. Spread the mustard on top of the turkey breast.
6. Sprinkle with chilli powder and top with red onion, salt and pepper.
7. Start rolling from the end closest to you and roll to the very end. Set it aside, seam side down.
8. Repeat for the other 2 wraps.
9. Slice them in the middle diagonally.
10. Glad wrap them all!

Calories:
310 calories per serving

Costs:
Approx. $3.00 each wrap
[Analysis: This is a very rough approximate as it was a bit tricky to calculate as most of the ingredients are existing ones or leftovers.]

Apology - no photos this time!

Post Consumption Notes:
I like the flavour of this. It's very clean and crunchy! Definitely one that I'd like to make more. Still have to work on the wrapping method though, cause even though it wasn't soggy this time, bits and pieces were coming out as I unwrap the glad wrap for consumption. :)

Crab Salad Wraps

Serves 3

Ingredients:
+ 4.5 sheets of Mountain Bread Lite Wholemeal
+ 60g Mixed Lettuce, washed and dried (with paper towel) {Option: Iceberg Lettuce / Baby Spinach Leaves}
+ 170g Always Fresh Canned Crab Meat, drained
+ 220g tub Philadelphia Extra Light Creme Cheese, softened
+ 3 stalks of Celery, diced finely
+ ½ small Red Onion, sliced thinly
+ 3 tbsp Celery Leaves, chopped {Option: Coriander (Cilantro)}
+ 50g Frozen Corn, blanched {Option: 1 small Fuji Apple, cubed (keep skin on), smeared with Lemon Juice}
+ 3 tbsp Lemon juice
+ ½ tsp each of Ground Cumin, Oregano, Chili Powder and Pepper {Option: 2 tsp Wasabi paste}
+ Salt (to taste)

Directions:
1. Cut 1 of the Mountain bread into halves (so that you have 3 whole pieces plus 3 halves).
2. Mix the crab meat in a bowl with lemon juice, cumin, oregano, chilli, salt and pepper.
3. Add onion and celery leaves. Add corn and celery.
4. Fold in cream cheese.
5. Lie one of the Mountain bread flat on the counter horizontally (i.e. the wide side facing you). Put one of the halves right in the middle.
6. Spread the crab meat mixture on top of the half, top with lettuce leaves.
7. Start rolling from the end closest to you and roll to the very end. Set it aside, seam side down.
8. Repeat for the other 2 wraps.
9. Slice them in the middle diagonally.
10. Glad wrap them all!

Calories:
272 calories per serving

Costs:
$3.98 each wrap
[Analysis: This is calculated at the rate of actual amount used (excluding leftovers ingredients), and with spices averaged at 10 cents per tsp. Hmm... It's not that cheap after all. I have to admit that Cream Cheese and Crab Meat account for more than half the price.]



References:
* Crab Salad Tortilla Wraps * Subway Copycat Recipe | Recipezaar
* The LifeStyle Channel > Fact Sheets > Crab Salad Tortillas

Wrapper Notes:
- I learned that I should fold in the cream cheese last, so I don't mix it too much and make it too runny.
- Mountain bread is very thin and this means I need to be extra careful not tear the bread while rolling (hence the additional half piece of mountain bread in each wrap).
- Rolling it on the wide side result in a long and thin wrap. I'll try rolling it on the short side next time and see how I go. I plan to try a few different way of rolling the bread before I try another type of bread. :)
- I will also need to rethink this wet creamy filling. It's very difficult to keep them nice (and not soggy!) until consumption time.

Making wraps definitely isn't as simple as I thought it would be. An interesting and challenging task indeed! :)

Post Consumption Notes:
Yum! I like the flavour and am quite happy with the taste of the Mountain Bread. But, definitely have to work on both the rolling technique (make it nice and tight!) and the sogginess prevention method! :)

Introduction

I've been counting my calorie intake for a few months now. To make weekday lunches practical, I mainly consumed Country Ladle 97% Fat Free Butternut Pumpkin Soup [190 calories for a big can] or Ultra Slim milk shakes [210 calories when prepared according to instruction] accompanied with some green salads and Sunrice Flavoured Rice Cakes.

But lately - I find myself getting a bit bored of them and ended up going out to get takeaway lunches (which is not a very smart move in both account, health & financial).

Yesterday, I bought a Turkey, Spinach, Cheese and Cranberry wrap for lunch. It weighted 168g and amounted to 320 calories - which nicely fits my approximate lunch calorie intake. It was yummy. But, it costs $6.70 AUD! Geez!

Hmmm! If they can make that wrap for 320 calories, surely I can too! Plus, I'm pretty sure a home-made wrap won't cost me $6.70 daily! So I went and did a small research and found this Mountain Bread Lite Wholemeal wrap. One pack consists of 8 wraps which has 70 calories each. How much are they? A mere $4.20 at Coles; i.e. 53 cents each!

So, inspired by the "Easy Calorie Count" blog; I'm going to use this blog to record my experiments with packed lunches. For my reference purpose and to make it more useful for others, I'll include calories information. To know how I'm tracking against that pricey Turkey Wrap, I'll put in the approximate costs. To make it more fun (for you and for me - as I love taking them!), I'll include pictures. I'm hoping that this would help in motivating me to keep making the wraps as well as encourage me to be more creative with them!