Baked Crab and Mushroom Wontons Guest Post

Today, I'm pleased to welcome Kristin with an amazing recipe for baked wonton! How delicious does that look, guys? And, as Kristin points it; it's full of healthy, natural vitamins and nutrients! Excellent!

Hi, my name is Kristin and my blog is Dizzy Busy and Hungry! I am glad for the opportunity to do a guest post here at Anyonita Nibbles. Thanks, Anyonita, for having me!

First, let me share a little bit about myself. I am a busy mom of 2 teenage boys, and I also work full-time, volunteer in a few different capacities (at church, at the kids’ schools, and with the boys’ Scout troop), and I play keyboard and sing in a soft-rock band. In addition, I am a breast cancer survivor, so I also work with newly diagnosed women to help them get through those first few tough and scary months after diagnosis. Therefore, as you can imagine, I am pretty busy! With all that going on, as well as having two active boys to shuttle around to various activities, I need a plethora of quick and easy meals to make for my family. Quick and easy are not the only requirements, though, because I also want the dishes to be healthy and family-friendly, with ingredients that fit into my budget.

So, for this recipe, I started to think about some of the things my kids love to eat. Kids everywhere love finger food (part of the success of chicken nuggets, I think!), so I started with the notion of creating something that could be eaten without utensils. Then I tried to find an idea that would really appeal to my carb-crazy younger son. I thought about some kind of pie or pastry crust…but was hoping for something a little less carb-heavy….so I decided that all-natural wonton wrappers would work nicely! Then, I just needed to come up with the filling. I focused on finding some lean protein, plus something to provide an extra nutritional kick, and a good mix of flavors and textures. Based on all of that, and what I had on hand, my baked crab and mushroom wontons came to be!

The mushrooms actually provide the nutritional kick I wanted to incorporate. Most people are aware that colorful fruits and vegetables, especially those that are darker in color, provide many essential vitamins and minerals. However, mushrooms also provide many essential nutrients even though they are more of a neutral color! For example, did you know that mushrooms are the only produce that contains vitamin D? Vitamin D is critical for our health, and most people don’t get enough of it, so mushrooms are a great nutritional addition to any dish or salad. Also, mushrooms help promote the immune system, are a good source of antioxidants, and contain a lot of riboflavin and niacin, two of the B vitamins.

And, by the way, we shouldn’t overlook that the dill did not come to this party empty-handed! Fresh dill is a good source of iron, calcium, and manganese. And it adds such a great flavor to lots of dishes! My kids love it, so I use it often.

Once baked, the wontons had a light and crunchy texture, and the whole family thoroughly enjoyed them. And I felt good knowing that they were getting lots of great nutrition in each bite!

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Ingredients:

For the wontons
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp fresh dill, chopped
8 oz/250ml reduced fat cream cheese
8 oz/250g mushrooms, roughly chopped
8 oz/250g imitation crab pieces, finely chopped (or run through your food processor)
28-30 wonton wrapper
olive oil spray

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Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F degrees.
2. Lightly spray a skillet with olive oil spray and warm over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and cook until they become soft, about 5 minutes.
3. Combine the crab, dill, and lemon juice in a large bowl. Add the mushrooms and cream cheese and stir until well combined.
4. Lightly spray one side of a wonton wrapper with olive oil spray. Measure approximately one tablespoon of the crab-mushroom mixture and distribute on half of the wonton, on the side without the olive oil spray.
5. Moisten the edges of the wonton, fold in half, press to seal, and place on a baking sheet sprayed lightly with olive oil spray.
6. Repeat with the remaining wontons and crab mixture.
7. Bake for approximately 10 minutes until the edges begin to turn brown and the middle begins to turn a golden color.

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