I’m convinced that wraps are the ideal food. They’re the perfect ratio of vessel to fillings. If you’re willing to be open-minded, they can encompass a colossal range of foods from your stereotypical wrap to burritos and tacos.
Furthermore, they’re particularly well-suited for college students. They’re the compromise between health and deliciousness which can be so hard to find. They’re fast. They’re cheap.
Not convinced yet? Check out these ten recipes and see if you can maintain your skepticism at the end.
1. Peanut Butter Banana Wrap
This wonder of a wrap only needs peanut butter, a banana, and a tortilla. A butter knife is also recommended for spreading the peanut butter, but you do you. If you want to get sophisticated, you can add Nutella or jelly.
This was honestly my favorite meal to make and eat sophomore year because it combines some of the best flavors (banana and peanut butter) in one delicious, easy package.
2. Orange Chicken and Lime
Do you order Chinese takeout? Same. Do you have leftovers from said takeout? Okay, I usually don’t either, but if you order extra chicken (or have self control and don’t eat all the orange chicken in one late-night binge eat), you can repurpose the leftovers as a wrap. While technically dubbed as “tacos,” these creations can easily be made into a wrap form. It’s all semantics.
3. Classic Veggie Wrap
Can you chop vegetables? Then you can make this wrap. It’s stuffed with avocado, pepper, spinach, carrots, and hummus, but you can easily sub in other vegetables you have hanging around in the fridge. You’re basically eating a salad without the sadness of knowing you’re eating a salad.
4. Caprese-Inspired Wrap
This is slightly more challenging than #3, as it requires more specialized ingredients. However the small amount of hassle associated with procuring these ingredients is nothing compared to the added sophistication of your meal and pleasure of your taste buds.
5. Sriracha & Egg Avocado
This recipe diverges from the chop-and-assemble techniques used by the previous recipes. You have to cook eggs. However, you can cook the eggs in the microwave, a practice that I think is overlooked and underutilized. It requires four to six ingredients, depending on how fancy you want to be (i.e. do you want grated cheese, salsa, and cilantro on your burrito or nah).
6. Vegetarian Black Bean Burrito Wrap
This requires a pan, so it’s more complicated than #5, but you don’t need to worry about under-cooking any meat, earning this delicious wrap the #6 spot. It requires eight ingredients and takes ten minutes to cook. The beans and avocado in this wrap will keep you full throughout your classes until dinner and prevent embarrassing stomach growls during your Physics midterm.
7. Asian Lettuce Wraps
You have to cook the meat, which is a comparatively daunting task given how easy the first six recipes were. But all the ingredients are delivered to your door in a Chef’d mealkit (including the produce). YouTube how to cook meat and you have a nutritious and impressive-sounding lunch on your hands.
8. Veggie Breakfast Burrito Wrap
This is dubbed as a breakfast burrito-wrap concoction, but who doesn’t love eating breakfast foods for meals that aren’t breakfast? It’s loaded with veggies and only requires one pan to cook, minimizing clean-up time and making this a very viable lunch option.
9. Chicken Burrito Wrap
If you make the chicken and rice ahead of time, all you have to do is assemble this wrap during your limited lunchtime. It’s quicker, cheaper, and healthier than Chipotle. It travels well, isn’t messy, and doesn’t need to be heated, so it’s a particularly good wrap if you don’t have time to go back to your apartment in between classes.
10. Chicken Lettuce Wraps
While this wrap is the most difficult on this list due to the longer list of ingredients, as long as you can cook chicken, you can make this. It boasts 6 minutes of prep time and 6 minutes of cook time, and the result is an Asian-inspired, flavor-packed, plate of healthy happiness. Mic drop.
