Thai Chicken Wraps

These wraps can be ready in about 15-20 minutes, excluding the time to marinate the chicken, and they are delicious! This recipe comes from Luci's Southern Living for Kids cookbook (a great cookbook, by the way!).


Thai Chicken Wraps

3 4-oz boneless skinless chicken breasts
7 T sesame ginger 30-minute marinade (Lawry's is recommended, but I used our local store brand)
2 t vegetable oil
1/4 c. creamy peanut butter
4 whole wheat flour tortillas
1/4 c. pineapple preserves
1 1/3 c. shredded iceberg lettuce

1. Place chicken in a zip-top bag and add 4 T of marinade. Seal and turn to coat chicken. Marinate for 30 minutes.

2. Remove chicken from bag, discard marinade. Cook chicken in hot oil in a nonstick skillet until done. Remove from skillet and let cool slightly. Cut each chicken breast diagonally into 1/4 inch slices.

3. Stir together peanut butter and remaining 3 T of marinade in a small bowl. 

4. Spread  peanut butter mixture on one side of tortilla, leaving a 1/2 inch border. Spread 1T pineapple preserves over peanut butter mixture. top with 1/4 of the chicken and 1/3 cup lettuce. Roll tortilla up tightly. Do the same with the remaining ingredients. Makes 4 wraps.

Note: we wrapped ours in parchment paper so they'd be easy to handle when eating. Just fold the paper as you go. You could use wax paper too.


These Thai Chicken Wraps have 355 calories each. My younger two ate just half of a wrap, while my 13 year old had a whole one. 


Kid Rating: 6 Thumbs Up!

Chicken Soup

Leftover chicken? This soup is a great way to use it up.

In a Dutch oven saute some chopped veggies (celery, carrots, onion & garlic) in a tablespoon of oil until tender. Add 2 32-oz containers of reduced sodium chicken broth, 2 cups of chopped cooked chicken, and a  dash of dried thyme.  Cook for about 15 minutes. Add a cup of pasta (I used Barilla whole wheat pasta) and cook an additional 8 minutes until the pasta is tender.

This one takes just a little more time, but doesn't require a lot of attention once you get it going. This was ready in about half an hour and has less than 120 calories per 1 cup serving. Serve with a grilled cheese sandwich or some crackers and cheese along with a piece of fruit. This makes enough soup that you'll have leftovers for tomorrow!

Kid Rating: 6 Thumbs Up! (Even my husband raved that this was wonderful Chicken Soup!)

Wrap up the Week With a Wrap

Friday's are often busy days and this one was no exception. Grocery shopping, homeschool bowling, karate test, and a meeting just out of town left me with little time for fixing lunch. But, that's still no excuse for not eating healthy.

I had some leftover roasted chicken breast and 4 whole wheat, fiber-rich, tortillas. Perfect for wraps. I spread each tortilla with some light ranch dressing, then topped it with chicken, barbecue sauce, shredded lettuce, shredded cheese, and a tiny amount of bacon bits.

Served aside some baby carrots and a clementine, this was a great lunch and came in under 350 calories.

(Sorry, I forgot to take a photo of this one.)

Kid Rating: 6 Thumbs Up!

Cold Day Warm Soup & Food Pyramid

Brrrrr, it's cold out! For lunch today I put together a big pot of soup for the family. This hearty soup is full of chicken, veggies, and pasta. It's really simple to make, even kids could tackle this one with a little supervision. And with less than 150 calories for a generous bowl of soup, it fits easily in a healthy diet.

To about 6 cups of boiling chicken broth I added the following:

• 1 cup of frozen lima beans
• 1 cup of frozen green beans
• 1 cup whole wheat pasta 
• 1T italian seasoning
• salt and pepper to taste
• dash onion power
• dash of garlic powder

Then I let it cook a few minutes until the pasta was cooked through and the veggies were cooked. Then I added:

• 2 chicken breasts, cooked and chopped
• can of tomato puree
• small can of sliced carrots (if you have frozen or raw carrots just put them in sooner)

It took about a half an hour to make this soup and the best part is you can use whatever veggies you have on hand. To round out this meal you could add cheese and crackers, a grilled cheese sandwich, or toast, along with a glass of milk.

Kid Rating: 5 Thumbs Up!

I'd also like to share a resource I found this morning to help in teaching my kids about healthy eating. The USDA website offers several printables that you can share with kids. Today we talked about the food pyramid (click here) and I gave them their own MyPyramid worksheet to complete throughout the day so they can see how they are fulfilling their daily dietary needs. I believe you can also have these items mailed to you, but I haven't tried that.

The Boy Can Cook

Have you seen the new show on Food Network, Worst Cooks in America? The premise of the show is based on bringing together 16 of the 'worst' cooks in America to be taught by two Food Network chefs. And they really did go out and find the worst cooks they possibly could. Watching their clumsy attempts in the kitchen is almost painful. From the recruit who couldn't tell the front of a chicken from the back (and called the breast the 'boobs') to the recruit who set a fire with her green beans, it would be comical if it weren't so sad!

I don't want my children, even my boys, to be nearly so incapable in the kitchen as these adults. I've been cooking with my kids fairly often since they were old enough to stir or sprinkle. Lately though, I've taken it a step further and am teaching them to plan a healthy meal. I guess you could call it our home economics course.

This evening was my oldest son's turn to cook. Gavin will be turning 13 years old next week (if you hear loud sniffling and snobbing next Monday, the 17th, that'll be me bemoaning the onset of the teenage years). Because he's older and has had plenty of experience in the kitchen, Gavin can pretty much tackle a meal on his own now. Tonight he chose to make Pan Chicken Parmesan which he served with whole wheat pasta and Italian Green Beans, both recipes from Sparkpeople.com.

Pan Chicken Parmesan was a pretty simple dish to prepare. Cook salted and peppered chicken in a lightly oiled skillet. 

Top it with spaghetti sauce, mozarella cheese, and a few herbs. Pop it under the broiler briefly to melt the cheese and it's done.

The Italian Green Beans were a cinch to make as well. Gavin cooked and drained the green beans (we started with a frozen bag) and then tossed them with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and a packet of Italian dressing mix.

The Chef

Kid Rating: 6 Thumbs Up!

Cornmeal Crusted Chicken Nuggets

Today's Lunch: Cornmeal Crusted Chicken Nuggets (adapted from a recipe by EatingWell.com) with fresh veggies and Ranch Dressing

We skipped the blackberry mustard suggested in the recipe and opted for some ranch dip instead. I had a little help from my 9 year old son in making this. He coated the chicken nuggets in the salted and peppered cornmeal and I cooked them up in a lightly oiled pan.

To round out the meal, and in keeping with the 'dipping' theme, we added some raw broccoli and carrots.

Best thing about this meal: the nuggets cooked up really quickly. I had this meal on the table in about 15 minutes. (I'd really like to have made my own ranch dressing instead of relying on the bottled stuff.)

Kid Rating: 6 Thumbs Up!