Crispy Southwest Wraps are one of our go-to, easy meals. They take less than 30-minutes and my family loves them!
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American, Mexican
Keyword: chicken wrap, healthy wrap
Unit: cup, large, ounce can, pound, Tablespoon, teaspoon
Servings: 8
Calories: 419 kcal
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 Tablespoons water
- 15 ounce can black beans , drained and rinsed
- 1 cup frozen corn , thawed
- 1/2 red bell pepper , chopped
- 1 green onion , chopped
- 1 cup cooked rice (leftover rice works great!), white, brown, rice pilaf, wild rice
- 1 1/2 cups freshly shredded cheddar cheese (or Monterey or pepperjack)
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 6-8 large flour tortillas
Instructions
- Add the ground beef to a large skillet over medium heat. Cook and crumble until browned. Drain grease.
- Season with a little salt and pepper and add chili powder, cumin, garlic powder and water. Stir to combine.
- Add black beans, corn, bell pepper, and onions and toss to combine. Saute for a 2-3 minutes.
- Heat a large skillet over medium high heat.
- Warm the rice. Layer tortilla with a handful of cheese evenly spread across the tortilla.
- Add a small scoop of rice, placing it in a line along one end of the tortilla.
- On top of the rice add a few small dollops of sour cream, and a spoonful of the beef filling. Starting at that end, roll the tortilla up, folding in the sides like a burrito.
- Spray the skillet generously with cooking spray and place the wraps seam side down on the greased skillet.
- Gently brush the tops of the wraps lightly with oil, or spray them with cooking spray. Turn the wraps every minute or two until they are golden and crispy on all sides.
- Serve warm, with salsa and/or a creamy cilantro dipping sauce.
On the beginnings of her cooking journey: After college, I was waitressing at a pizza place and living with my boyfriend, Spencer. Every day, I'd eat one piece of pizza with ranch on it--it was so bad--until I gave it up for Lent, best decision I ever made. I think having a lot of time on my hands in that year after college made me cook more. At first I was making so much unhealthy food, like homemade soft pretzels, or baked potato soup with condensed milk. Spencer loved it.
On cooking and romancing: When I left Seattle, Spencer asked me to leave my recipe card box behind so that he could make everything that I made him. Now, whenever he likes a dish I make, he asks that I write the recipe down for the box. In our two years apart, he definitely got better at cooking, and now he's even better than me at things like salmon, curry, and pot roast. He takes 3 times longer than me to cook a dish, though, because he cares about the details and he likes to be creative. Even with my recipes. He'll cook my beef stew recipe, and adds 2-3 times more tomato paste and seasoning that probably doesn't make a difference and I just have to not watch while he cooks. My mom is a baker and she always makes caramel candies during the holidays. It's my favorite tradition, and Spencer actually proposed to me during caramel candy-making last year.
On growing up in a no-onions-peppers-ranch household: Growing up, my dad was super fit but he just didn't eat green peppers, onions, mayonnaise, ranch, nothing with flavor. He would basically just eat meat, potatoes, ketchup, broccoli and green beans. Also he would eat Caesar salads, so we ate a lot of Caesar salad growing up. Mostly though, we were meat eaters, and I remember eating a lot of flank steak. Mom worked late, so Dad cooked a lot during the week and he took us out a lot too. Mostly to the casino where my sister and I would get cheeseburgers! When Mom would cook, she made really good meatloaf, lasagna, and flank steak, but I think maybe she missed eating other food because on vacation, she would order stuff with mushrooms and peppers in it. I honestly didn't start eating onions and avocado and everything else until senior year of high school when I started dating Spencer and he would have me try all these new foods! Thai food was honestly my first experience with flavor.
On how her food habits have changed over the years: I went from eating at home, to having a chef in our sorority, to cooking and eating pretty unhealthy during the two years that Spencer and I were living together after college. I was eating lots of cheese, lots of carbs, very white and yellow foods. I gained weight and honestly didn't even realize it, which was scary. When I lived by myself during medical school, I wanted to get healthier, and I could eat whatever I wanted: I wouldn't eat a full rack of ribs, so I didn't cook it for myself, whereas when I lived with Spencer, I would do it. When Spencer and I moved back in together, we started eating healthier, less red meat.
