Egg Rolls

Tonight on the menu for dinner we have homemade egg rolls. This super easy snack is really worth the time it takes to put together.

To make egg rolls you'll need:
1/2 a standard package of shredded cole slaw mix
2 boiled boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or approx. 6 tenderloinds of the same)
1 package of egg roll wrappers (I use Nasoya because that's what brand Kroger carries)
Vegetable oil for frying

Hardware:
a glass of tap water
a large mixing bowl
a sauce pan of some sort suitable for holding oil and frying egg rolls
paper towels or wire cooling rack

Chop up boiled chicken into small pieces about the size of your thumb nail. I also include a can of sliced water chestnuts in mine, but that is totally optional. I like the crunch. In a large mixing bowl combine the chicken and cole slaw mix (also the optional chestnuts).

Set yourself up a little work station, frying pan with oil on medium to get hot, a plate, your wrappers, glass of water, bowl of egg roll mix. Lay down one egg roll wrapper and put a small handful of mix on it, in the middle. Each egg roll will use about a 1/4-1/3 cup of mix, but just eyeball it. Wet the tip of your finger in the glass of water and then use it to wet one corner of the wrapper. Folf over, almost in half, over top the filling. Use your finger to wet 2 more corners and fold them in. Then wet along the edge of the rest of the wrapper and roll toward the final corner.

Set aside on the plate (BTW those adorable cherry plates of mine are not paper plates, they are Corelle. LOL!) and continue making egg rolls until your oil is hot enough, then start cooking them. I can fit about 6 at a time in my 12" pan but you may have to work in smaller batches. Don't over crowd! If you do, they'll take longer to cook and be greasier!! Flip over when the down side is a nice golden brown. Once the 2nd size is cooked drain on either towels or your wire rack.

Properly drained these about about 120 calories a piece--less than store bough and better for you because *no* preservatives and no sodium at this point. The addition of soy sauce or sweet & sour (duck) sauce will of course throw off your calorie count just a little, so adjust as needed.

These can be made with chicken like I did, or baby shrimp or no meat at all if you want to go vegetarian. Substitute mushroom, green onion or bell peper for the meat. Sorry there isn't a vegan version of this, even if you leave the egg out of the fried rice the egg roll wrappers themselves have egg in the ingredients. Unless of course you know of a vegan wrapper and then, game on.

I'm serving them along side a boxed chicken fried rice, which I will leave the oil and chicken out of and only use 1 egg and also a huge pile of fresh steamed/boiled broccoli crowns. All together, 2 egg rolls, rice and broccoli will give me a dinner of about 500 calories. Not bad for very tasty!!

It took about 40 minutes to make all 20 egg rolls, but I am made them this afternoon. They will keep at room temp on the counter for a couple hours until I need to make a quick dinner and then all I have to wait on is the broccoli and rice!

To reheat, wrap in a paper towel and microwave or bake in the oven for a few minutes.