Iron Rations: Chicken Lettuce Wraps

I’ve been getting requests for more healthy recipes, so in today’s installment of Iron Rations we are going to look at an exceptionally tasty (and simple) recipe that works great as an appetizer or light lunch.

As I continue to say, eating clean and healthy is the most important aspect of any fitness regimen!

No matter how hard you are working out, if you are eating crap then you are probably never going to see the results you want! So many people think eating clean and healthy means nothing but grilled chicken and steamed broccoli though, and while that is a solid meal it gets downright boring after awhile.

You can’t outrun your fork!

So what can we add to your clean and healthy menu to spice things up a little?

Healthy Chicken Lettuce Wraps

This light (paleo friendly) meal tastes great, takes minimal ingredients, it clocks in at about 460 calories, provides approx 40 grams of protein/7 grams of fiber/18 grams of carbs and only takes a half an hour to prepare.

Not to mention if presented right can make you look like you are a better cook than you actually might be… score!

Prep Time = 20 Mins Cook Time = 10 Mins Total Time = 30 Mins

Ingredients (Serves 2):

• 1 1/2 cup of diced, grilled chicken
• 1/4 cup of toasted slivered almonds
• 1 apple, diced (I like Fuji apples personally)
• 1 green onion, thinly sliced
• 3 Tbs. natural almond butter
• 2 Tbs. Dijon mustard
• Lettuce (I prefer Butter or Romaine lettuce)

Step 1:

If you pre-cook chicken like I do (check out these other quick chicken dishes too!) then this step is easy. Just dice it up and toss it in a mixing bowl.

If you’re a sucker, and start from scratch every time you cook (Who has time for that?!? Learn to be efficient!), then you are going to have to grill up a couple of chicken breasts though.

Toss two (1.5 cups of diced meat is roughly 1.5 medium sized chicken breasts) in a skillet on your stovetop and lightly season them with ground pepper or something and cook until done. Should take no more than 5-6 minutes.

Step 2:

Take the green onion and trim the tip and the upper leafy part off before slicing thinly, then core the apple and dice it up into tiny cubes. Add this to the bowl with the chicken and toss it all together.

Step 3:

Now you are ready for the most irritating part of the recipe. Stirring the damned natural almond butter. If you have never opened a jar of natural almond/peanut butter before then you are in for a [sarcasm]treat[/sarcasm], and if you have you know you are about to get a serious forearm workout for a minute or three.

Step 4:

Curse at the jar of almond butter and keep stirring.

Step 5:

Spoon the now smooth and creamy almond butter into the bowl with the other ingredients along with the mustard.

Stir until it’s well mixed together and spoon evenly onto leafs of lettuce.

Dig in and OmNomNomNom!

While this serves two, it is easy to just increase the ingredients as necessary.

You can also adjust to taste. Like a tangier dish? Add an additional spoonful of mustard or use a stone-ground dijon instead of plain. Like a sweeter taste? Maybe take a half cup of quartered red grapes and add them into the mix.

Whether you are brown-bagging it to work, pounding it down as a post-workout meal or using it as a pre-happy hour meal to impress that cute guy/girl in the apartment down the hall, I hope you enjoy this versatile meal!

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