(#68/365) Offerings

"The better we understand the nature of mind, the more deeply we will be able to see the endless chain of cause and effect that is karma. This understanding not only allows us to avoide or reduce the negative actions which harm others or ourselves and the suffering caused by these, but also allows lets us cultivate and increase positive actions which create well-being and happiness"
- Kalu Rinpoche


Title: Yosemite Valley View #1
Flickr User Patrick Smith

snack wrapping

So - Dave is a big fan of the crispy chicken ranch snack wrap from McDonalds... and brings them home after work a fare amount.
But then he also has the metabolism of a small child and can eat and eat and eat and eat. In short. I hate him.

The McDonalds Ranch Crispy Wrap is 340 calories - 17g fat. or 8 Weight Watcher points for a Snack. The non-crispy "grilled" version is slightly better at 270 calories - 10g fat or 6 grams of fat. I had to be able to beat that.

So I picked up some Tomato Basil at the store - The wrapper served as not much of an ingredients guide - so I opened one up and surveyed what I had. When revisiting it in the kitchen tonight - I used mixed green salad, a boneless chicken breast that had been poached in white wine (no butter) - a chopped red bell pepper and red onion. and that wrap? you can have two wraps - and its only 200 calories and 4g of fat - coming at 4 points. Meaning - to serve the same portion size as the McWrap - I could come in at 100 calories, 2g of fat - and come in at 2 points. Granted my wrap doesn't have mayonnaise or "ranch sauce" - and my chicken isn't breaded and fried. But it felt good to find a way to have dinner for 200 calories and 4 points - when my daily "allowance" is 26. and I find when I eat something overwhelmed with mayonnaise I can't finish it.

I modeled my wrap after one I bought at Whole Foods the other day: The UrbanLeafCo "Gaucho Chicken Wrap". (urbanleafco doesn't have a website up - but the nutritional information for their wrap was quickly found on various bay area diet sites)

I love this kind of hands on challenge - how can I make something at home that is healthy - that I like to eat. (I love tortilla wrap style sandwiches!)

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no chicken tortilla wraps were harmed in this post - the photo is clip art and is not the actual sandwich mentioned. It as delicious yummy tomatoes - which will definitely end up in Chicken Tortilla Wrap II: Electric Boogaloo