Chicken Parmesan Wraps (Official Meal #6)

Within the past few weeks, I have noticed that I tend to gravitate towards dishes that contain chicken, cheese, tomato sauce, or some sort of yeast/flour wrap.  First the Chicken Pitas, then the Chicken Linguine, then the Chinese Chicken, then the Mini Lasagnas, then the Enchiladas (which contain cheese), and now the Chicken Parmesan Wraps.  In other words, this dish was a combination of the ingredients that I have seemingly favored.

Ingredients:

makes 6

- 8 oz raw chicken breast

- 1 cup marinara sauce, plus more for serving

- 6 egg roll wrappers (each 7 inches squared)

- 1 cup baby spinach leaves

- 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese 

- 1/4 cup parmesan cheese

Place the chicken breast in a small pot and fill with enough water just to cover. Bring to a boil on your stovetop, reduce the heat slightly, then simmer for about 12 minutes, or until cooked through. 

Drain and let cool before shredding with two forks, pulling against the grain of the meat. 

Mix the meat with the marinara sauce in a small bowl.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lay the egg roll wrappers on a clean work surface. Layer each with a few leaves of spinach, then chicken, followed by mozzarella and parmesan.

Lightly brush two adjacent sides of the wrapper with water and fold the upper left corner downward, covering the filling, and press to seal on the bottom right corner. Press to seal each of the sides. Repeat with remaining wraps.

Place all 6 filled wraps on a greased wire rack set over a cookie sheet, coat each in cooking spray or a light brushing of olive oil, and bake for about 12 minutes, or until the edges begin to turn a golden brown.

Serve with warmed marinara sauce for dipping. 

Nutrition information for 1 wrap: Calories: 178 | Fat: 4.4g | Cholesterol: 32.8mg | Carb: 17.7g | Fiber: 1.1g | Protein: 15.7g

Overall, this was more of a lunch meal than a dinner meal.  It was a bit humorous to see my parents and I awkwardly dipping our Chicken Parmesan Wraps into a clear bowl of marinara sauce during dinner time.  Usually, we would have a variety of plates containing different foods laid out in the center of the table, but tonight, we were all contained to our own plates while we made small talk over the recipe I had tried.
To be honest, I seem like I am being a bit too harsh on these Chicken Parmesan Wraps, considering they actually have potential (as a lunch dish).  It felt as if the flavors of the chicken, marinara sauce, cheese, lettuce, and the crunchy spring roll wraps meshed into one, which started to bore me after the fifth bite.  My parents and I found ourselves continuously dipping our wraps into our marinara bowls, hoping to add a bit of flavor to our dinner, which surprisingly, it did.

A few suggestion for this dish would be...
1) Add flavorful, independent ingredients - This way, the ingredients of the dish wouldn't somehow "mesh" together

2) Be sure to use only one egg roll/spring roll wrapper for each wrap.  I accidentally used two for one of the wraps.  This caused the resulting wrap to still have a lot of flour on top.

By making this dish, I have learned that I should try to have a little more diversity.  My lack of variety and variation among ingredients have ultimately done me wrong.  From not taking any chances, I have ended up with an overall boring and flavorless dish whose taste is very forgettable.  In the future, I will try to "spice it up" a little and venture out  and explore the world of new and never-before-used ingredients.