So, remember yesterday when I promised a delicious recipe involving mangoes? Well the aforementioned recipe just happened to involve ground turkey, which I just happened to leave out on the counter all day to defrost. I also happened to leave Jack out of his cage because he was “being a good boy” and “looked like he didn’t want to go in the cage.” Can you see where I am going with this? Stupid, stupid, stupid, Chelsea. About half way through the day yesterday I turned to my coworker with a horrified expression on my face and I think all I said was “turkey!” and “Jack!”

So it was not really a surprise when I got home and saw the bright green Jennie-O wrapper in the middle of the living room with the turkey nowhere to be found. This would have been fine if it meant a) I knew what to make for dinner or b) I didn’t have to spend the night picking up dog vomit and poo from the carpet because Jack can’t digest an entire pound of ground turkey. Ew.

In the end, I got creative with the recipe (it actually turned out great!) and lost a few hours of sleep cleaning up after Jack, but hopefully he I have learned my lesson.

Workout

Yesterday’s workout was another great one! I woke up bright and early for my run with Jack and another Insanity DVD. Since I will be in a bikini and about 24 hours (gahh!) I kicked up the intensity of my workout and added a few of my own moves into the circuit. For example, I know the jump rope move is really good for working my calves, but I wanted to focus more on my arms so I replaced them with some tricep dips. I also switched out floor hops for planks and pushups, which I felt was a really good idea (floor hops are just awkward anyway).

Now that I have done these DVDs a million times, I know which moves work really well for me and which ones were just ok. I loved the creative liberty today!

Recipe

Despite not having any ground turkey, this recipe still turned out amazingly, deliciously, well. The original recipe came from Kristin over at Iowa Girl Eats. Obviously I changed things around a bit to fit what I had on hand, but it still turned out awesome! The wraps feature crispy chicken flavored with an Asian peanut sauce and are topped with a spicy mango salsa. Yum! Here’s how I made it.

First I got the salsa ready by dicing mangoes, red onions, cilantro, and jalapeño peppers. I added all the diced goodies into a small bowl and seasoned them with salt, pepper, and lemon juice.  I let the flavors come together while I prepared everything else. Then it was time to get the peanut sauce together. For this I added rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, hot chili garlic sauce, honey, garlic, ginger, hot water, and peanut butter to the food processor and pulsed everything until it came together. It was a lot of ingredients to include, but these are flavors I use pretty frequently so I had them all on hand. Later I divided the sauce into two parts: half for cooking the chicken and half for spreading on the wrap. Once the sauce came together, it was time to cook the chicken. I chopped a boneless, skinless chicken breast into bite-size pieces and added them to a Ziploc bag with two tablespoons of cornstarch and some salt and pepper. Then I shook everything up so the chicken had a nice, thin coating. If you want your chicken to have a really thick, bready coating (like chicken tenders) you can add more cornstarch, but I just wanted to give my chicken a little texture so two tablespoons was plenty.

Then I heated a teeny bit of peanut oil (just enough to barely coat the pan) on a skillet and brought it to a medium-high heat. When the pan was hot I added the chicken and allowed the pieces to cook for about 3-4 minutes on each side, or until the edges started to brown and the chicken was cooked through.

Next I added in half of the peanut sauce and coated the chicken with it. It didn’t take much to get it coated, so be careful not to go overboard!

Then I spread more of the peanut sauce onto two whole wheat wraps and topped them with the chicken. Then I added on the spicy mango salsa and topped everything with fresh spinach for some crunch.

Then it was time to roll everything up! In true Chelsea form, I overstuffed the wraps and they were pretty difficult to roll up, so I used some skewers to hold it all together.

I served these delicious Asian wraps with some roasted Brussels sprouts on the side! I loved the crunch of the spinach, the sweet/spicy combo of the salsa, and of course, the peanut sauce takes the cake wrap. It is so good! I would have eaten it off a spoon. Yum!

Asian Chicken Wraps with Mango Salsa (Adapted from Iowa Girl Eats)

Serves two

Ingredients

For the Salsa:

• 1 mango, diced
• ¼ red onion, diced
• 1 small jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced (I have a jar of pickled jalapeños and chopped a few of those)
• 2 tbsp. cilantro
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice (or lime)
• Pinch of salt
• Pinch of pepper

For the Peanut Sauce

• 3 tbsp. smooth peanut butter
• 1 tbsp. rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 tbsp. hot water
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tsp. sesame oil
• 1 tsp. chili garlic sauce
• 1 tsp. honey
• 1/4 tsp. ground ginger

For the Chicken

• 1 large boneless, skinless, chicken breast
• 2 tbsp. Cornstarch
• ¼ tsp. salt
• ¼ tsp. pepper
• 1 tsp. peanut oil (or vegetable)
• 2 whole wheat wraps
• Fresh, baby spinach, for topping

Instructions

1. Combine all ingredients for mango salsa and allow flavors to come together while you prepare everything else.
2. Pour all ingredients for peanut sauce into food processor and pulse until everything is combined. Set aside.
3. Add cornstarch, salt, and pepper to a large Ziploc bag. Chop chicken breast into bite-size pieces and add to Ziploc bag. Shake until chicken is coated in cornstarch mixture.
4. Thinly coat a large skillet with peanut oil (don’t use too much!) and set to medium-high heat. When pan is hot, add chicken to pan and cook for 3-4 minutes on each side until coating turns brown and chicken is no longer pink.
5. Drain oil from pan and add half the peanut sauce. Toss chicken in the sauce until well-coated, and allow chicken to cook for 1-2 minutes more.
6. Meanwhile, spread a thin layer of the remaining peanut sauce on each wrap all the way to the edges (to help it stay closed). Place chicken, mango salsa, and spinach on wrap and fold over. Use skewers to secure, if needed.

Now I have to finish some things up for work and then I’ll be heading home to pack for this weekend! Yay!!

So, what’s your favorite type of wrap? These Asian-flavored ones were phenomenal, but I also really like buffalo chicken wraps and veggie wraps with hummus. Yum Yum Yum!!!