Mirror Friendly Lettuce Wrap

Calling out all food-wrap lovers… chicken wraps, beef wraps, tuna wraps, salmon wraps, you name it.

There’s no denying that like all of you, we simply love it when our favourite ingredients are conveniently presented in a mouth-watering foody cradle which we commonly refer to as ‘wraps’. The nasty thing about these wraps is that most often they are made from unhealthy processed flours. But as you probably already know, we at Mirror Friendly drool when we can come up with a pimped version of your favourite naughty meals. So here’s to another one…

Enter the Mirror Friendly Lettuce Wrap…

This is an awesome low carb wrap that is full of nutritious goodness including fruit from the apple I included, protein from the chicken, healthy fats from the hummus I made, and vegetables in the form of leafy greens and carrots. On top of this we replaced the traditional unhealthy wrap mentioned above (most commonly made from wheat flour) with a super low carb and high fibre alternative – a wrap in the form of a lettuce.

If you consider lettuce a “rabbit food”, think twice. Firstly, lettuce is very low in calories. In fact it contains just 11 calories (kcal) per cup compared to the whopping 200 kcal found in your traditional wrap. If that is not enough reason to make the switch, you should know that lettuce greens are a great source of iron, potassium, vitamin C and B vitamins. Furthermore, one of the “not-so-well” known benefits of iceberg lettuce is that it facilitates the digestion of consumed proteins and carbohydrates thanks to special enzymes it contains and also helps with proper bowel movement.

Having said so, if you’re still not convinced by lettuce you can have it replaced with other leafy greens such as kale, collard greens or cabbage leaves. These types of greens are commonly added to dishes lightly steamed but you can also enjoy them raw as a wrap. These types of leaves are pretty sturdy so they do make a good substitute for grain-based wraps.

I really enjoy this recipe and I thought you might to. So give it a go and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for changing it up.

The following ingredients were used to make 1 lettuce wrap:

– 30g carrot (7 slices)

– 20g apple (5 slices)

– 30g hummus (2 tablespoons)

– 100g grilled chicken breast

– 40g mixed leafy greens (1 handful)

– 40g lettuce (1 lettuce leaf)

Step by step instructions in preparing the lettuce wrap:

1) Peal off one leaf from the lettuce and lay it down flat on a plate.

2) Spread hummus on the leaf.

3) Slice up the apple in thin wedges and lay them on the leaf.

4) Add your chicken breast to the wrap.

5) Take a carrot peeler and peel the carrot. Press your peeler hard against the carrot so that you get long thicker slices of carrot.  Add carrot to the wrap (you may have to cut the carrot slices in half if your carrot is long).

6) Lastly add your leafy greens.

7) Carefully roll the lettuce leaf to make a wrap.

8) Enjoy the healthy goodness with this tasty and filling wrap 🙂

The nutritional values for 1 lettuce wrap based on the above ingredients are as follows:

Calories: 234 kcal

Protein: 34g

Carbohydrates: 11g

 of which fibre: 3g

 of which sugar: 3g

Fats: 6g (Note: no trans fats in here)

These nutritional values suggest that the Mirror Friendly lettuce wrap can be easily enjoyed as a snack or doubled if taken for lunch or dinner.

Bon appetit!

To fitness with love,

Tanya