Happy Mardi Gras! The past two weeks have been party central here in Southern Louisiana. Starting in the morning, party buses blasting loud music and the cheers of beaded revellers blare past our house until well into the night. Everyone is excited for Carnival! We’ve eaten our first King Cake (delicious!), caught beads thrown from parade floats, and driven around town to the end of the parade to see it again. This is definitely one Louisiana tradition I can get behind!
It is also the season for party food! This means food you can eat with your hands, hovering above paper plates while you laugh and chat with good friends. For people with food allergies, attending parties can be tough when faced with dinner. No fear! These hearty, healthy wraps exploding with flavour are something delicious you can quickly cook and bring with you, and devour while everyone around you is shoving tacos in their faces! You will not miss them! Because you’ll be eating these:
First, you want to set your rice to cook according to the package. We use jasmine rice most of the time, because it’s cheap, quick and easy. As my husband says, it’s like minute rice but REAL! Brown rice is also delicious with its nutty flavour and higher fibre content, but it will drastically increase your cooking time.
Cube your chicken and put it in a pan with the lemon juice (Realemon has a permanent spot in my fridge door). Sprinkle your pepper over top, and let cook. I like to cut up the chicken for this recipe to make all the sides brown and crispy, to help give the chicken a little more crunch!
Let that cook until all the lemon juice is evaporated and the chicken has been browned.
Rinse the black beans, and set them to heat as well. I will very often just cook them in the same pot as the rice, adding the beans after the rice is done. Saves on dishes, and the heat from the freshly cooked rice will cook your beans.
For these lettuce wraps, you can actually use most of the head of lettuce. Yes, some of the wraps will be larger than others, but as long as it’s large enough and strong enough to support the delicious chicken, beans and rice, you’re golden.
The larger, more floppy leaves can be wrapped like a fajita, while the smaller, crisper ones can be eaten like a taco. Yummm. Usually whatever is left of the head, I wash and put in a Tupperware container to eat with leftovers … if there are any! They make a delicious salad!
Finally, add your toppings! We generally will eat them with my Nightshade Free Guacamole and some freshly grated white cheddar cheese. Orange cheddar cheese very often has paprika as colour. You could probably put some hummus on it too!
I love these wraps. They’re a healthier option, and are so crisp and fresh, and keep you full for a long time. Plus they’re SO DELICIOUS!!!
- 1 head of lettuce , washed
- 2 servings of rice (jasmine, white or brown)
- 2 chicken breasts , cubed
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- ½ tbsp pepper
- 1 can black beans , rinsed
- Optional toppings:
- 1 cup Nightshade Free Guacamole (http://halifaxbloggers.ca/isaynomato/2014/12/08/homemade-guacamole/)
- Grated white cheddar cheese
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Cook rice according to directions on package.
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Wash lettuce carefully, and set aside smaller pieces for leftovers. You will be using the larger pieces, up to 3 inches in diameter. Anything you can fit a reasonable amount of toppings on.
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Add lemon juice, cubed chicken and pepper to frying pan. Set to medium heat and allow to come to a boil.
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Cook until lemon juice is evaporated and chicken is cooked through.
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Rinse black beans and cook.
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Spread out lettuce leaves, and top with rice, beans, and chicken.
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OPTIONAL: top with Nightshade Free Guacamole and grated white cheddar
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