When a movie scene is successfully filmed, the director calls out, “That’s a wrap!” Everything is completed to satisfaction.

Well, with these products, you can easily proclaim, “That’s a wrap!” because these wraps will satisfy you and your family, plus go a long way to making healthy eating a reality in your day-to-day life.

From pinwheel canapes to breakfast, lunch, and dinner hold-in-your-hand meals, turning to healthier wraps will satisfy even the most discriminating palates. The calorie and the carbohydrate counts will go down, but that hand-held satisfaction will remain high!

I’m always looking for a way to dress up my breakfast/lunch. About 4-5 hours after my breakfast cookie (or two – see post HERE), it’s time to fix a meal. But what if I want a bread-like component without the big carb hit?

It’s hard to eat a fried egg without something to sop up that yummy yolk.

For eggs, I turn to Mission brand gluten-free spinach herb wraps with 26 grams of carbohydrate, 6 grams of fiber (take the fiber grams away from the total carbs and you end up with only 20 net grams of carbs), and 120 calories.

Roll-up Ideas:

Bacon Egg and Cheese Roll-up

Heat wrap in toaster oven with cheese slice in center until cheese is bubbly.

Add cooked egg and bacon, if desired.

Roll up and enjoy.

Bacon Egg Cheese and Spinach

Heat wrap in toaster oven with cheese until warm – vary cheese choices: feta, Queso, Chevre/goat, or blue cheese.

Wilt a very large handful of spinach in a bit of olive oil or butter in pan and add to wrap.

Add cooked egg and bacon, if desired.

Roll up and enjoy

Salad with Meat

Make salad look and feel different by adding it to a warmed wrap.

Add leftover meat of choice, maybe cheese, and a few dots of dressing, if desired.

Let’s turn to a different kind of wrap. Thrive Market’s Coconut Wraps.  You can get these yummy and healthful wraps HERE. There are only 3 ingredients in these wraps vs 35 in the Mission brand I just showed you. My grandchildren ask for these coconut wraps every time they visit.

These wraps have just 6 grams of carbs and 2 grams of fiber for just 4 net grams of carbs! One gram of protein and just 70 calories. Wow!

Pinwheel Hors d’oeuvres

Assemble ingredients in mixing bowl:

8 ounce tub of whipped cream cheese

½ cup very finely chopped dried cranberries

½ – ¾ cup feta cheese, chopped

¼ – 1/3 cup finely chopped chives

2 – 3 Tbs. of finely grated or finely chopped walnuts

Mix very well using a hand mixer. Divide into thirds.

Spread 1/3 of mixture onto a tortilla or – BEST – a green spinach gluten-free wrap. Spread close to the edges of the wrap. Tightly roll up the filled wrap and place on some plastic wrap and roll up tightly, twisting edges of plastic wrap to secure. Repeat for the other two wraps. Refrigerate for a few hours.

Unwrap a rolled log and place on cutting board, seam-side down. Carefully slice, creating no more than ½ inch slices, and place on serving tray. Each log is individually wrapped so you can use what you need. The others may be saved a few days for later use.

The cranberry red specks along with the chives make this a colorful and festive hors d’oeuvre – especially if you have green wraps around.

Coconut Wrap ideas

I generally do not preheat these. Very kid-friendly for young chefs.

• PB and J a new way!
• PB and banana slices- an excellent snack or meal.
• PB and dill pickle! Yes – an old family favorite – try it, you’ll like it!

Of course, you can use nut butters if you want to ramp up the nut factor to get away from the legumes that peanuts really are.

Anything that can be wrapped is excellent for these as well. There is a mild coconut-y flavor so eggs might not be a great match. Certainly meats, fish, and seafood would be fantastic with these coconut wraps.

So, ahem! – that about wraps it up for now.

In health-

Deidre

My personal copy of Toolkit for Wellness automatically springs open to page 184. The pages are dripped on, crinkled, underlined, and generally represent the look of a well-loved recipe with notes in the margins.

Which recipe has become so beloved? Breakfast Cookies, of course!

Years ago, I had taken a recipe I loved and grew it up several nutritional notches by adding a few ingredients to boost protein, omega 3s, and fiber content.

With nine power-packed dry ingredients, I find keeping these little beauties around so much easier when I measure out extra batches for later use. The dry ingredients are easily stored in a zip lock bag in the refrigerator and all I have to do is add the wet ingredients, stir, and bake!

Easy peasy!

Over the last couple years, I have modified the ingredient list a bit and simplified assembly. I am pleased to share the latest version with you. I am also including a printable PDF version BELOW so you can keep it handy. I’m going to laminate mine!

___________________________________________________________________________

BREAKFAST COOKIES- version 3.0

Assemble dry ingredients in a bowl and stir to combine well:

½ cup almond flour

½ coconut flour

¼ cup ground flax seed

¼ cup hemp seed hearts

¼ Great Lakes Collagen Hydrolysate

1 Tbs. Ceylon cinnamon

2 tsp. baking soda

½ cup dried fruit – I prefer golden raisins

1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes. Pulse flakes in a food processor to create smaller pieces of coconut flakes – about ¼ inch in length, THEN measure out 1 cup. A 7-ounce bag of coconut flakes should yield about 2 cups of smaller shreds.

In a food processor place the following:

Juice from ½ lemon

3 large, ripe bananas broken into chunks

7 medium-sized PITTED dates /or/ 5 large, PITTED, Medjool dates /or/ 7 dried figs with stems removed /or/ a combination of dates and figs – SOAKED in warm water for 15 minutes and drained

Pulse the lemon juice, bananas, and dates/figs until smooth with no big chunks remaining.

Then add:

2 Tbs. coconut oil

1 cup unsweetened applesauce (2 – small 4-ounce containers)

2 tsp. vanilla extract

Pulse all wet ingredients until well combined with no chunks.

Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir well to combine.

At this point, start pre-heating the oven to 325/convection or 350/standard.

Tap the dough. Your fingers should come away clean. If the dough seems too wet, (mine usually does – depending on the size of the bananas and lemon), add some coconut flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, and stir to incorporate. I often add up to ¼ cup extra.

Using a golf-ball sized cookie scoop, (2 inches in diameter), fill and pack scoop by pressing dough into the scoop at the side of the bowl. Place cookies onto parchment paper covered cookie sheets.

Using 2-3 damp fingers, gently press each cookie down a bit.

OPTIONAL – Measure out 1-2 tsp. of course sugar such as Turbinato or Demerara into a small dish. Sprinkle just a pinch of granules on top of each cookie. This is not intended to be a big sugar hit I just like the sparkly effect on the top.

Looks like a bakery confection!

Bake cookies for 20-25 minutes. Cookies will still be a bit soft but not mushy when done. Place cookies on a wire rack to cool and firm up.

One recipe yields 27 – 28 cookies.

____________________________________________________

A couple of cookies will make a totally satisfying breakfast. These freeze and refrigerate quite well. I package nine of them in a gallon zip lock bag, making a tube of cookies at the bottom of the bag. Expel the air, roll up the tube, and freeze for a later day.

I keep one package in the refrigerator at all times and simply reheat two in the toaster oven.

Perfect!

Today I made a double recipe which yielded 55 cookies – plenty for future use. I also set up dry ingredients for two more single batches. Now, all I will need will be three ripe bananas and a lemon; everything else is on hand. Easy!

In health-

Deidre

Are you still longing for another ladle-full of steaming soup? Some piping hot melty pizza fresh from the oven? Anything with pasta and savory tomato sauce?

Yet, we are being reminded that spring is just around the corner!

In Eastern North Carolina, there are daffodil, tulip tree, red bud, and Bradford Pear in bloom, but we are stuck in near freezing temps at night.

If a sunbeam shines, we throw a party!

Hard to crawl out of winter’s hibernation mode; and even harder to shake off those holiday pounds for swimming suit weather.

What to do?

I have a couple new ideas – along with a blast from the past – that could help our dilemma.

Comfort food without a big carb hit. Let’s see what this looks like.

The first recipe – Yogurt Barley and Herb Soup – comes from my dear friends in California, Betty and Jane. Way back when, we attended Sacramento State College, (now California State University at Sacramento).

If ‘barley’ makes you wonder where my gluten-free mind went, fear not. I will give you a gluten-free option – although it’s not quite as chewy.

Short of Egg Drop Soup, I never had a soup that featured a serious egg component. That’s one thing that caught my interest – this soup has staying power. You’ll not be roaming around the kitchen for a snack two hours later!

Yogurt, Barley or Quinoa, and Herb Soup

Ingredients

4 cups water if using barley – OR – 1 cup of water if using quinoa

3 cups water – OR – the equivalent – in salt free chicken broth

¼ cup barley – OR – ½ cup quinoa

4 eggs

2 Tbs. flour – OR – gluten free all-purpose flour

2 cups plain yogurt – NOT Greek yogurt

1 Tbs. onion flakes

1 tsp. garlic salt

½ tsp. thyme

2 cubes bullion – (*) if using water instead of broth

1 ½ tsp. seasoned salt

½ tsp. mint flakes

2 Tbs. butter

2 tsp. parsley

Method

For barley: Bring 4 cups of water to a boil and add barley. Simmer uncovered for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain and set aside.

For quinoa: Add the quinoa to one cup boiling water. Simmer covered, until all moisture is absorbed – about 20 minutes. Set aside.

In saucepan using a wire whip, blend the eggs with your choice of flour, beating well.

Add yogurt and blend.

Add remaining 3 cups of either water or broth. I recommend the salt-free broth so the salty bouillon cubes can be avoided.

Add remaining ingredients (except barley or quinoa) and whisk together until blended.

Heat almost to a boil, stirring constantly. Do not boil. Reduce heat and simmer until slightly thickened – about 2 minutes.

Stir in barley or quinoa and heat another minute.

Serve. The original recipe card says to invite a hungry Russian peasant! This is a hearty soup and is best served fresh and will serve 3-4 with no leftovers.

There’s just something about pizza… yet it often is a source of some really bad ingredients for healthy eating and always presents with a serious carb hit. Even if you switch to gluten-free flour versions, there is a large carbohydrate factor.

I had heard about cauliflower crust recipes, but I just wasn’t motivated to tackle that from scratch. Fortunately, I stumbled upon this Caulipower frozen crust the other day. One third of a crust has just 26 grams of carbohydrate, so if you eat a half like I do, it’s still in an acceptable range.

These crusts are individually wrapped so it’s easy to use just one while keeping the other one protected and frozen. I definitely plan on referring to these again in the future. Let me know what you think.

Pizza sauce is actually good for us! The concentrated tomato concoction imparts lots of antioxidant lycopene – great for heart health and reduced cancer risk – as well as a great source of vitamin C, potassium, folate, and vitamin K.

Look for a brand of pizza sauce low in sugar, no high fructose corn syrup or alphabet soup preservatives. I prefer Classico brand. I’ll use almost ½ of their small jar on one of these pizzas.

Caulipower Pizza

Ingredients

1 Caulipower frozen crust

Lots of pizza sauce 

Better meat choices: Cooked ground turkey or grass fed ground beef – maybe a bit of ground Italian sausage

Add some heat and/or flavor to the meat while sautéing the crushed red pepper flakes, anise, and Italian herbs

Sliced olives – a source of good fats and flavor

Knock yourself out for colorful veggies: Red/orange bell peppers, purple onion, and spinach

Grated cheese

Method

You know the drill.

Preheat oven per package instructions.

Unwrap the Caulipower crust and place it along with the cardboard underneath onto a cookie sheet.

Decorate! Sauce. Meat. Goodies. Cheese.

Bake according to package directions.

Enjoy!

Okay. That leaves us with a blast from the past. After sharing this with my California friend, Betty, she has received nothing but raves about this appetizer. It’s so easy to serve at home and to take to a party. With March Madness ramping up, this will become your go-to recipe for – dare I say – healthy snacking!

Zucchini Dipping “Bread/Crust” gets dipped in …you guessed it – Pizza Sauce! We already know how good that is for us. You’ll like this easy recipe I originally saw on Delish but has many iterations on the internet.

I treat this as a concept recipe. Rarely have I used three zucchini. Also zucchini vary in size. Usually it’s one good sized zucchini, one egg, a dash of this and that. Here’s the original recipe.

Zucchini Dipping Bread from Delish

INGREDIENTS

3 medium zucchini, or about 4 cups grated zucchini

2 large eggs

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp. dried oregano

3 c. shredded mozzarella, divided

1/2 c. freshly grated Parmesan

1/4 c. cornstarch – I use arrowroot or tapioca flour

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

2 tsp. freshly chopped parsley

Marinara, for dipping

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 425º and line a baking sheet with parchment. On a box grater or in a food processor, grate zucchini. Using cheesecloth or a dish towel, wring excess moisture out of zucchini.
2. Transfer zucchini to a large bowl with eggs, garlic, oregano, 1 cup mozzarella, Parmesan, and cornstarch and season with salt and pepper. Stir until completely combined.
3. Transfer dough to prepared baking sheet and pat into a crust. Bake until golden and dried out – 25 minutes.
4. Sprinkle with remaining 2 cups mozzarella, crushed red pepper flakes, and parsley and bake until cheese is melted – 8 to 10 minutes more.
5. Slice and serve with marinara.

Whew! Three recipes in one post! I’m trying to make up for lost time.

Don’t forget to use our Blabbermouth Chocolates discount code just for our readers! Some Costa Rican Coffee/Chocolate is melting in my mouth right now! Mmmmmm! The Blabbermouth folks are giving our readers 10% off their first order. See the previous post for details in case you missed it!

In health, soup, pizza sauce, and chocolate-

Deidre