Southwestern Veggie Wrap

This is one of my favorite summertime recipes. I made it up myself trying to get more greens into my diet and picnic cooler. It's got it all--your veggies, your protein, your whole grains, though most of the ingredients can be left out or added to as desired (or depending what's in your fridge). I often make these wraps to take to the pool and share with friends. Thanks for posing for me, Janae!

Southwestern Veggie Wrap

Chopped Romaine lettuce (about half a head or a whole heart)
1 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 or so cucumber, diced. Probably less.
1 can beans (black, kidney, etc) rinsed and not too wet
1 avocado, chopped and seasoned to taste (I like salt, pepper, and a little lemon juice)
1 cup or so frozen corn
Shredded cheese, as desired. I used colby/jack.
Kroger’s Lite Southwest Ranch
8 or so tortillas, fewer if they are large
plastic wrap

I like to let the beans dry a while in the strainer so they aren't too wet. Then mix everything (except the tortillas, of course) in a big bowl. I use frozen corn still frozen so that the salad is cooled from the inside--brilliant, I know! I told you this is perfect cooler food. If you are packing it, it will thaw before you can eat it, don't worry about that.

Lay out a generous piece of plastic wrap and put out some of the salad on it. Here I am using tortillas that are a bit smaller than I'd like. (The burrito size are good, but I can't find any whole grain tortillas that size that I like. Bigger would be even better, like wraps in restaurants, but they are way too expensive for me.) I deal with the smallish tortilla by making plastic wrap do the work of holding the stuff in. Which is one reason why I consider this a great cooler food--I don't want to wrap something I'm just going to put on a plate and eat.

To hold more salad, I only fold up the one side of the tortilla. For the other side, I twist the plastic wrap before folding it down to make it obvious which side to start eating on.

A cooler full of these little babies, and you and your friends don't have to eat what the kids are eating at the pool! Unless, of course, they want a bite.

Cool and refreshing, and you can feel good about it. This dressing tastes great, but can be hard to find, as I've only seen this one store brand. I'm sure regular Ranch would be good also, though you may want to add some taco seasoning or something for a little zip. If you have suggestions for other dressing, or better yet, a homemade healthier version, I'd love to hear about it.