How to Make Healthy Burritos

Wraps and sandwiches are highly tempting and easy-to-make, easy-to-eat food items. Whether it is a hot dog or a BLT or a tuna melt, sandwiches make for a quick food grab that satisfies your stomach and your time crunch. Wraps are a little more messy but no less appealing in taste and convenience. A popular Mexican wrap is the burrito.

In a wheat flour tortilla, a filling of meat and beans is used, perhaps with some other veggies, topped with salsa and this makes up your average burrito. Burritos can be easily whipped at home, from a variety of ingredients or even from left-overs or enjoyed at fast food joints.

There's just one problem with a burrito, that is common with most easy-to-eat finger foods: they tend to be very unhealthy. If just filled with meat or beans, burritos are healthy.

But when you pile on the sour cream and the guacamole or fatty fillings like cheese and fried beans, then you pile on fat and calories too. And the calories in a burrito are sneakily harmful, as you tend to hog such foods. Learn how to make healthy burritos with the following recipes.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound flank steak
• 6 (8-inch) fat-free flour tortillas
• 2 medium tomatoes, diced
• 1 can (16 ounce size) refried beans, fat-free
• 3 cups romaine lettuce, shredded

• 2 Portobello mushrooms (only caps)
• ½ cup reduced or low fat cheddar cheese, grated
• Non-stick cooking spray
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• ¾ cup taco sauce

Directions:
Heat a pan at medium high on a gas grill. Spray the mushrooms with non-stick cooking spray. Sprinkle chili powder, salt and pepper on mushrooms and pat same mix on steak. Grill the mushrooms, covering the pan with a lid, for 5 minutes. Add steak and grill it covered for 2-3 minutes. Turn it on other side and grill for 2-3 minutes.

Remove pan from grill and leave it to cool for 3 minutes. Slice steak and mushrooms into strips. On a plate, lay a tortilla. Spoon ¼ cup of beans on its center. Place tortilla with beans in microwave for 30-40 seconds at high temperature.

Then add 1/3 of steak and mushrooms and ½ cup lettuce. Add 3 tablespoons of tomato, 2 tablespoons of taco sauce and 1 tablespoon of cheese. Roll the tortilla. Prepare remaining burritos likewise.

Ingredients:

• 15 ounces tomatoes and green chilies, diced
• 4 cups turkey or chicken, cooked and shredded
• 15 ounces pinto beans, rinsed
• 6 (10-inch) whole-wheat flour tortillas
• ¾ cup Monterey cheese, grated
• 1 medium-size onion, sliced

• 2 cups green cabbage, shredded
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon chili powder

Directions:
In a large pan, heat oil at medium heat. Fry the onion for 2 minutes, till it turns soft. Stir in chili and cumin powders, then add garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add the lime juice and tomatoes. Bring mixture to boiling. Reduce heat such that mixture simmers and cook for 16-20 minutes, till onions turn very soft.

Add the shredded turkey and beans and keep cooking. Cook for 3-5 minutes, the mixture should be hot throughout. Spread a tortilla on a plate and spoon some of the turkey-bean mixture on it. Then top with cabbage and cheese, roll and serve hot. Likewise prepare other tortillas.

Ingredients:

• 4 (12-inch) whole wheat tortillas
• 1 sweet potato, chopped into small cubes
• 1 can refried beans
• 50g feta cheese, crumbled

• 8 cherry tomatoes, chopped
• 1 tablespoon red onion, chopped
• 120g lettuce, shredded
• 4 coriander sprigs, only the leaves
• 1 lime

Directions:
Warm up the tortillas in a frying pan (without oil or butter). They should turn soft. Then spoon some beans on the tortilla and spread about 30g of lettuce on each. Roast the sweet potato in the pan for 25 minutes.

In a separate bowl, mix onion and tomatoes and squeeze some juice from the lime onto mixture. Spoon potato on to the tortilla on top of the lettuce. Then add the tomato mix. Garnish with cheese and coriander. Do likewise with other tortillas.

Burritos can be a quick and easy dish that is a crowd pleaser, whether it's a horde of hungry football fans or a crowd of hungry kids. But what you pack inside the tortilla makes the difference between a healthy snack or a calorie-ridden food.