Spinach wraps

Now, if you've read the previous post, you might have surmised that I had a batch of baby spinach to use up. You'd be right. Hey, we (I) here at The Veggie Guy don't believe in waste, or in having stuff turn into bags of runny brown goo at the back of the fridge.

So... I made spinach wraps tonight. Pretty easy stuff, and you can substitute pretty much whatever you don't like.

So here goes:

2 large whole wheat or sprouted grain tortillas
1 handful fresh baby spinach
1/2 cup red onion, chopped
1 cup roma tomatos, diced
1 avocado, mashed
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp chopped fresh basil or 1/4 tsp dried basil
4 oz white button mushrooms
1 tsp olive oil
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 clove garlic, finely diced
2 oz canned artichoke hearts (packed in water, not oil)

Heat oil in a medium pan. Add garlic, cook for 1 minute on medium heat. Add mushrooms and balsamic vinegar, cook for 3 minutes while stirring. Remove from heat.

Mix cayenne pepper and basil into mashed avocado.

Spread 1/2 avocado mixture on each tortilla. Add spinach, onion, tomatos, and artichoke hearts in layers on each tortilla. Place 1/2 mushroom/galrlic mixture on top. Roll tortillas into wraps.

Serve with fresh veggies or pita chips and hummus.

Mediterranean Veggie Wraps

It's been a crazy couple of days. One of my books, How to Sell Your Art, Handmade Crafts, Photographs, and Music Online went to final layout, so it's been a flurry of activity around here... tweaking my bio, trying to get a good headshot for the book, answering emails from the publisher, and so on. Anyway, my eating habits haven't been as..., well, thoughtful as I would have liked. A take out felafel here, a veggie burger there... kind of the vegetarian's version of living on junk food.

Anyway, tonight, I finally had a little bit of time to unwind and be a person again, so I decided to treat my body to something a bit lighter than the questionable fare I've been asking it to live off of lately. I made these delicious Mediterranean veggie wraps with some roasted red pepper hummus. It feels good to be human again.

2 large tortillas
1 medium eggplant, sliced into 1/2 inch thick rounds
sea salt (or table salt)
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 large cucumber, diced
1 Roma tomato, diced
Sun dried tomato pesto
Balsamic vinegar
Olive oil

Salt the eggplant slices on both sides and let sit for 5 minutes. Pat dry on both sides (the salting takes out the excess moisture and bitterness). Brush with olive oil on one side. Place directly on oven rack, oiled side down, and bake at 400 degrees for 8 minutes. Oil tops of eggplant slices, turn over, let bake for an additional 8 minutes.

Between oiling and turning the eggplant slices, start assembling the wraps. Spread 1 tsp of the pesto on each tortilla; add diced tomato, cucumber, and red pepper.

When the eggplant slices are done, place them on a cutting board and cut into 1/2 inch squares. Place eggplant squares on top of the veggies. Sprinkle balsamic vinegar on top and roll the tortillas into wraps.

I imagine there are quite a few variations of this you could make - these just happened to be items I already had on hand.

These wraps are pretty easy to make - I think if I had planned it a little better (and if my five-year-old daughter wasn't trying to help me with the dicing), I could have probably done these in 20 minutes. As it were, I probably put closer to a half hour into them.

Enjoy!