You’re on the road and you’re hungry. But you don’t want to fill up on unhealthy fast food. How do you replace the drive-through's typical meal of burger, fries and soda?

Instead of fatty burgers, think wraps. Use a lettuce leaf or a rice wrapper to hold a tasty filling. Or wrap a corn tortilla around peanut butter and banana. Hummus and pita bread is a great snack.

Or you can make pita sandwiches with mozzarella cheese, red peppers and tuna. Try our recipe for healthy Speedy Wraps that you can fix ahead. Likewise, our Quick Chix Nuggets can be ready to go in your refrigerator to serve with one of the dips below.

Skip the chips! Instead of salty, oily chips, use an air popper for homemade popcorn or try our Brown Bag Popcorn with lots of seasoning ideas to suit your mood.

Replacing the soda in the typical drive-through meal can be easy. Think flavored waters (sour flavors will quench your thirst better), or UHT packaged milk (which doesn’t have to be refrigerated, although it will be more refreshing if it is).

For a special treat, mix up a thermos of our homemade Lemonade. Enjoy!

Brown Bag Popcorn
¼ cup popcorn
1 teaspoon canola oil
Brown paper lunch bag
Stapler

In a small bowl combine popcorn and oil. Put popcorn in a brown bag, fold to close and staple the top twice. (Staples are OK in the microwave.)

Microwave on high for three minutes or until there is five seconds between pops.

Flavor with unsalted butter or non-hydrogenated margarine, parmesan cheese, garlic powder or a salt-free seasoning of your choice.

Speedy Tortilla Wraps
3 7-inch flour tortillas
4 oz. cream cheese
1 cup basil leaves
1 red bell pepper, sliced
4 oz. leftover chicken, beef or fish
1 Tablespoon mayonnaise or low-sodium ranch dressing

Spread cream cheese on tortilla. Lay on basil leaves, meat and pepper slices. Spread with mayonnaise or low sodium ranch dressing. Roll up each tortilla like a jelly roll. Cut in half and wrap in plastic wrap to hold together. Keeps chilled in cooler for six to eight hours.

Quick Chix – healthy chicken nuggets
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cubed
¼ cup Dijon mustard
1 cup panko bread crumbs

Pat chicken dry, cube into bite-size nugget pieces. Dredge in mustard, then roll in bread crumbs. Put on baking sheet, bake at 500 degrees for 15 minutes.

Lemonade
3 lemons
6-8 Tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
1 quart boiling water
Sprigs of mint or lemon balm (optional)

Grate rind from one lemon and squeeze the juice from all three. Put rind, juice, and confectioners’ sugar in a one-quart heatproof jug. Fill jug with boiling water and stir. Let stand until cooled. Serve over ice with a sprig of mint.

Katy G. Wilkens is a department head for Northwest Kidney Center and has a master of science degree and nutritional sciences from the University of Washington. Her columns will be appearing regularly here.