A friend and I are alternating food prep in an effort to eat healthier. I was hoping to get away with a bulk stew for the same lunch all week long, but she went first and upped the ante, making 12 unique meals during the first week. I was feeling like a celebrity with a personal chef.

Imagine my dread when I had to take over on week two.

As it turned out, one of the easiest meals I made became a favorite. I almost saw it as a throwaway, since I was purposely using leftovers. Cilantro, for example, almost always goes bad in my fridge. I’ll need it for one or two dishes, and then the rest will turn to brown sludge. I turned it into pesto. Cilantro haters will cringe but I swear it was good enough to eat with a spoon. Leftover chicken gets old quick. I love a roasted chicken… once. Next-day plain roasted chicken never conjures up the same excitement. Once I mixed up my pesto chicken salad I could see this was a solid sandwich filling.

Since tortillas and croissants were out of our healthy-eating plan, I had to think about what would wrap that delicious pesto chicken. A vegan friend told me about layering burrito fillings in a piece of kale, but all I could do was roll my eyes. C’mon now. Kale and tortillas are not even on the same level of the food hierarchy. Still, I went in search of some kind of leaves for wrapping.

I ended up with choi sum for my first attempt. Now I feel like I’ve changed the game forever. I’ve only ever had these kinds of greens cooked and heavily sauced. The Chinese green is flexible but also tough enough to handle rolling without splitting into pieces. When I went back to the store to pick up more, all the choi sum leaves were on the small side. I switched up to baby bok choy, which is more tender than the grown-up version and has thinner stalks.

I got the same result. The flavor is subtle and the texture isn’t distracting. After rolling up my chicken in a neat burrito packet, they held up in the fridge for a few days. That’s a big improvement on lettuce, which usually breaks down after touching other foods, especially if they have any oil.

I cooked all day to come up with my week’s worth of meals, but this is one I could throw together in the least amount time, including making the cilantro pesto from scratch. I’ll be keeping this wrap in the lunch rotation, and I wouldn’t mind if my personal chef adopted it as well.

GREEN PESTO CHICKEN WRAPS

By Mariko Jackson

• 1 cup cilantro, lightly packed, with bottom third of stems removed
• 1/4 cup raw cashews or pecans
• 1/3 cup avocado oil or olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 cups shredded cooked chicken
• 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 4 leaves choi sum or baby bok choy (whichever has wider leaves)

Blend cilantro, nuts, oil, salt and garlic briefly — the mixture should have some texture. The pesto should taste salty, as it is meant to flavor the chicken.

In bowl, combine chicken, pesto and mayonnaise; coat chicken evenly.

Place a few tablespoons of filling in a leaf and wrap like a burrito, folding ends in and rolling. Serve immediately, or store in fridge. This wrap will stay intact in fridge for a few days. Serves 2.

Approximate nutritional information, per serving: 650 calories, 55 g fat, 8 g saturated fat, 100 mg cholesterol, 1,500 mg sodium, 12 g carbohydrate, 2 g fiber, 4 g sugar, 29 g protein.

Mariko Jackson blogs about family and food at thelittlefoodie.com. Her column runs on the last Wednesday of the month. Nutritional analysis by Joannie Dobbs, Ph.D., C.N.S.