Lunch Wraps

A few weeks ago we had a Kids Health Day at work. Instead of having Take Your Child to Work Day back in the spring, my company held out until the beginning of August for a big Kids Work Day event. The kids could choose a bunch of different classes that they could take. We had Smoothies 101, Healthy Snacking, Kids Kickboxing, Fun Fitness Testing, Yoga, Scavenger Hunts, Chemistry experiments, etc. I taught Kids In The Kitchen. I talked about the basics of the 5 food groups and had the kids make veggie wraps and home made trail mix.

Well... we had a bunch of leftover veggie wrap ingredients and my coworker and I went to town on that food for the following week. They hit the spot so much so that I made sure to have the ingredients on hand for future wraps for lunch. They have been my go-to lunch for over two weeks now.

Here's what my wrap had:

Whole wheat tortilla (La Tortilla Factory would be awesome here)
1 Tbsp cream cheese or hummus
Protein: Black beans or turkey lunch meat
Veggies: carrots, peppers, cucumbers, spinach

Here are some other options to include:
salsa
shredded cheese
diced grilled chicken
sunflower seeds
tomatoes
broccoli
What would you put in your wrap?

Actually Delicious Turkey Burgers

I've been in search of the perfect turkey burger for quite some time. I found this turkey burger recipe a few months ago. Although it is tasty - it's not quite a replacement for a good old fashioned burger since it is more of a buffalo variation. When you get a turkey burger, it is important that the burger not be dry and that it be super flavorful as ground turkey can have a tendency to be bland and dry - yuck! So the search continued.....

A few weeks ago we had some friends over for dinner (Hey Amanda!!!) and I knew they would appreciate a tasty turkey burger. I searched high and low and found this recipe for turkey burgers on allrecipes.com. I scaled it down a bit to make 4 servings and altered the proportions of some of the ingredients. They were super tasty! I topped mine with lettuce, provolone cheese, onion and A-1 sauce. The rolls were homemade (although ended up not being blog-worthy) and I'll share the fresh green bean recipe tomorrow.

Keep in mind that turkey burgers, although not necessarily low calories, are a better option than a traditional beef burger. Turkey meat is lower in fat and saturated fat which helps make it a heart healthier option. Try them on the grill - your heart will thank you :)

Actually Delicious Turkey Burgers

1 pound ground turkey
1/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs
2 Tbsp finely diced onion
1 egg white
1 Tbsp dried parsley
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
fresh cracked pepper to taste

Combine thoroughly all ingredients. Shape into four equal patties. Refrigerate at least 15 minutes to help hold their shape.

Cook on grill, 4 minutes on each side until thoroughly cooked. Try to avoid flipping them a bunch of times as they are prone to break apart.

Makes 4 patties. Each patty provides:

230 calories
11.3 g fat
6.0 g carbohydrate
0.6 g fiber
4.8 g protein

Patties would be even lower in fat and calories if you use
ground turkey breast instead of just regular ground turkey.

Turkey Tacos

Sometimes I don't feel like finding new recipes for meals, instead I just want the old stand-by's. But when trying to eat healthfully, sometimes the old stand-by's don't fit into a healthy eating regimen. That's where substitutions come in to play.

Substituting healthier options for not as healthy originals is a great way to eat healthfully without uprooting your whole family.

Take tacos for example.

Many people would make up a batch of tacos without even thinking about it. But an average ground beef taco with 2 oz of meat, 8" flour tortilla, lettuce, onion, sour cream, salsa and 1/2 oz. cheddar has the following nutrition facts:

439 calories
25.9 g fat
32.7 g carbohydrate
2.7 g fiber
18.4 g protein

But with a few simple changes, you can make this single taco a whole lot healthier. For this taco I used ground turkey instead of ground beef, a 50 calorie La Tortilla Factory tortilla, spinach instead of lettuce, reduced fat sour cream and 2% cheddar. This taco has the following nutrition facts:

212.5 calories
10.3 g fat
15.6 g carbohydrate
8.1 g fiber
21 g protein

That's a difference of 227 calories, 14.6 g fat, 17.1 g carbohydrate, 2.6 g protein and 5.4 g MORE fiber per taco! I'd say that's worth the effort!!

What are some of your quick and easy substitutions that pack a mighty punch???

Super Sloppy Joes

Sloppy Joes was a staple in my mom's dinner rotation. As an adult I found I always craved them with tator tots (Super-healthy, I know). My mom always made them using Manwich in a can and so, in turn, did I.

As an adult I had made Manwich Sloppy Joes several times for the husband when I finally figured out that he's not that big of a fan of Sloppy Joes. Oops. Guess you should have spoke up sooner?!?! So when I had an upcoming week that I knew he was going to be out for a bunch of dinners in a row for work, I figured why not make something that he doesn't like? So I figured this was as good of a time as any to try out homemade Sloppy Joes.

Real Mom Kitchen provides a TON of fail-proof family friendly recipes so I knew she would have a tasty Sloppy Joe recipe. Little did I know she actually has several sloppy joe recipes on her site. I decided to go with Super Sloppy Joes.

As originally posted, each Sloppy Joe provides:

355 calories
17.3 g fat (6.7 g saturated fat)
35.1 g carbohydrate
2.4 g fiber
14.7 g protein

I made a couple changes. First, I used ground turkey instead of ground beef. This saved me 5.2 grams of saturated fat and numerous grams of regular fat per serving. Plus I had them on whole wheat rolls but served open faced so I only used half of a roll per serving. I prefer to eat my Sloppy Joes with a fork anyway so this just lightened the load a bit. I also decreased the salt to 1/2 a teaspoon and only add 1 Tbsp of sugar out of personal preference.

These were great! I had one for dinner, Finley's great aunt and I both had some for lunch the next day. I even tried it heated up in a La Tortilla Factory Tortilla. I posted the pic of mine with cheese on top but I didn't include that in the nutrition facts as that is just my personal preference.

Super Sloppy Joes - BETTER

1 pound ground turkey
1 1/2 cups finely minced celery
1 1/2 cups finely minced onion
1 can (10 3/4 oz) condensed tomato soup
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp chili powder
1 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp barbecue sauce
4 whole wheat hamburger buns

In a large skillet, brown turkey along with the onion and celery over medium heat.

Add the soup, salt, chili powder, sugar and barbecue sauce and simmer for 5 minutes. Serve open faced on half of a bun. Top with cheese as desired.

Makes 8 servings. Per serving (without cheese):

229 calories
6.8 g fat (1.5 g saturated)
27.1 g carbohydrate
2.0 g fiber
15.0 g protein

Southwest Turkey Burgers

I've been trying to utilize ground turkey much more often than ground beef in our diet. I usually substitute ground turkey in tacos or pasta dishes without any problem. BUT I've been hesitant to make actual turkey burgers because I feel that ground turkey really can lack the flavor that ground beef has in a burger. SO I went in search of a recipe that added plenty of extra flavor.

When I search for recipes I have a handful of food blogs that I often check first (they're listed in my blog roll). But I also try to find new and smaller food blogs by searching for the recipe type and the word blog in google. (Really creative, I know). So after looking through a bunch of options after searching "turkey burger blogspot" in google, I found Becoming Rooks. We already had a bunch in common, she likes to cook, run and is from the Cleveland, OH area (where I grew up!). So I thought I must like her turkey burger recipe!

I did make a few changes because I was using a pound of ground turkey and had a couple different spices on hand. But I knew her recipe would be good inspiration. My husband had two burgers and I was able to cut up the fourth patty on my salad for lunch the next day. I'll be honest - I wasn't the biggest fan of having buffalo sauce on my burger but when I substituted that with BBQ sauce, it was quite tasty! I'll let you decide your preference :)

A traditional quarter pound cheeseburger from McDonald's provides the following:

510 calories 26 g fat 19 g saturated fat 155 mg cholesterol 40 g carbohydrate 3 g fiber 48 g protein

In contrast to McDonalds, this burger uses ground turkey instead of beef saving over 16 g of saturated fat and saves over 70 mg cholesterol.

Southwest Turkey Burgers

1 pound ground turkey
2 Tbsp paprika
2 tsp chipotle chili powder
1/4 cup chopped green onion
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 egg whites
4 oz. 2% colby jack cheese
1/4 cup buffalo wing sauce (I preferred BBQ sauce)
4 whole wheat buns (I used Aunt Millie's)

Combine paprika, chili powder, garlic powder and green onion. Add ground turkey and egg whites. Mix until thoroughly combined. Form into 4 equal sized patties. Put in refrigerator for 15 minutes to chill and set up.

Preheat grill to medium heat. Grill patties on each side for 3-4 minutes until cooked through. Top with cheese and allow to melt slightly. Toast buns and place patty on each bun. Spread with wing sauce (or BBQ) and enjoy!!!

Per burger (makes 4): 416 calories 16.3 g fat 2.8 g saturated fat 83.6 mg cholesterol 43.8 g carbohydrate 4.7 g fiber 35.8 g protein

Tortellini with Zucchini Meatsauce

As I've said before, I'm not pretending that my recipes the most 100% healthy thing you've ever seen. But they're real. Its what I make for my real life husband and me. We're busy, we're hungry and we don't want food to rule our lives.

I say this because not every recipe I am going to post is the most awesome thing for you ever BUT I hope they are examples how small changes in your diet can make a big difference in your total health picture.

In this recipe, I simply made tortellini and meat sauce but made a few changes to health-i-fy it. I used ground turkey instead of ground beef. This saved me almost 160 calories and 19 grams of fat per serving. I also added in zucchini into the sauce. Every little extra serving helps!

Here is a pretty good list of substitutions you can try. You don't need to revamp every meal you've ever made but maybe one or two small changes can make a big difference in your family's eating habits!

Tortellini with Zucchini Meat Sauce

3 cups cheese filled frozen tortellini
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 pound ground turkey
2 small zucchini, sliced

Start a pot of water boiling for tortellini.

Brown ground turkey in a pan. Once cooked, push to side of pan and add zucchini. Cook zucchini until lightly sauted in turkey juices but still with a bite to it. Add spaghetti sauce and allow to simmer for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, add tortellini to boiling water. Cook according to package directions (traditionally 2-3 minutes). Drain tortellini and plate. Top with prepared meat sauce.

Makes 4 servings, per serving:
522 calories
19.3 g fat
50.4 g carbohydrate
4.2 g fiber
35.4 g protein

Turkey Noodle Soup

I'm not a big fan of ham. Holidays like Christmas often have ham served as the main meat. I try to convince my mom that this isn't that big of a deal to me because I'm really just happy eating side dishes. But each year she wracks her brain trying to come up with an alternative to ham. Last year we had a beef roast, this year we had turkey. And by turkey, I mean my mom had made a TON of turkey. So needless to say, I was sent home with a large container of prepared turkey.

I wasn't quite sure what to make out of the turkey. In fact, it sat in my freezer for a week before I decided it's fate. Turkey Noodle Soup.

What would you have made out of leftover cooked turkey?

I looked for a recipe that had homemade noodles and found this delicious looking recipe for Chicken Noodle Soup on For the Love of Cooking. I figured I could easily just swap out the chicken for turkey. As prepared in the original recipe, each serving provides:

278 calories
3.8 g fat
39.2 g carbohydrate
2.5 g fiber
21.2 g protein

Other than swapping out the chicken for turkey, I made a few other changes. I increased the amounts of onion, celery and carrots, as well as added an extra cup of frozen stir fry veggies. I also made the full recipe for the noodles (with half the flour being whole wheat) but only put half in the recipe. After allowing the other half of the noodles to dry out for an hour or two on the counter, I put them in a ziplock bag in the freezer for soup for another day. It ended up being delicious! It was perfect for a cold, snowy Michigan weekend and even better reheated for lunch the next day.
Turkey Noodle Soup - BETTER

8 cups chicken stock
1 tsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely diced
2 cups diced carrots
4 stalks of celery diced
2 tsp good chicken bouillon
1 bay leaf
sea salt and fresh black pepper, to taste
1/ tsp dried thyme or basil
1 1/2 cup cooked turkey, diced
1 cup frozen stir fry veggies
Fresh parsley, chopped

Saute onions in olive oil until soft, about 3-4 minutes. Add garlic & cook for 30 seconds. Add broth and the remainder of the ingredients. Cook over medium low heat for 1-2 hours. Meanwhile, prepare noodles.

Noodles:
1 cup flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1/4 to 1/3 cup skim milk

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, salt, egg and milk. Mix until you produce a slightly sticky ball of dough. Flour the counter and roll out dough to 1/8 inch thickness. They plump when cooked so make sure you roll them out thin. Cut noodles using a pizza cutter. Cut them smaller than you imagine because they will grow in the broth! Let the noodles dry out on the counter for at least 1 hour before adding them to the soup. After 1 hour, take half of the noodles and put in a ziplock bag in the freezer for another time.

About 30 minutes before serving soup, drop noodles in and cook. Add some fresh chopped parsley right before serving.

Makes 6 servings. Each serving provides:
192 calories
3.7 g fat
24.5 g carbohydrate
3.4 g fiber
16.2 g protein