Homemade Tortillas

I LOVE tortillas. I have been known to eat a whole bag of flour tortillas, plain, by myself. When I started reading ingredients, looking for healthier foods for me and my family, my heart sank. One of my favorite foods was full of junk! Seriously, some brands can have an ingredient list a mile long. Are these tasty flaps so complicated? Worse yet, it was hard to find tortillas without the potential for having trans fats (except for expensive organic brands).

My love affair with flour tortillas ended right then and there.

But after weeks and months without them, and even shelling out big bucks for a small pack of organic tortillas, I said enough is enough. There has to be a better way. I started making my own tortillas, which was the push toward more whole, from-scratch cooking in my home.

I was blown away, and even felt a little betrayed, that tortillas could be so simple to make. Four ingredients: flour, salt, extra-virgin olive oil, and water. Why did those companies have to shove 30 other ingredients upon me?

It has been about a year now, and I haven't bought a single bag of tortillas. I always have those four ingredients on-hand and with a little prep work, we have some delicious, fresh, hot tortillas made right at home.

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups flour
2. 1/2 tsp. salt
3. 3/4 cup water
4. 3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO)

Directions: (makes 8 medium tortillas)

• Whisk together salt and flour
• Add water and EVOO and mix with a wooden spoon until you can't mix anymore.
• Knead dough until smooth and not sticking to your fingers anymore. You may need to add more flour to accomplish this.
• Let dough rest a few minutes; meanwhile, get out your rolling pin and get your skillet or griddle ready.
• With a sharp knife, cut off pieces of the dough, depending on the desired size of tortillas. Cutting off a piece about the size of a baseball will give you a large (10") tortilla. Cutting a piece slightly larger than a golf ball will give you a medium (6") tortilla.
• Roll the cut-off dough balls into smooth, round balls.
• With a rolling pin, roll dough balls as flat as you can get them.
• When skillet is hot, carefully lay tortilla flat and let cook 30-60 seconds. Flip tortilla and cook an additional 5-10 seconds.

Enjoy these hot, fresh, slightly chewy tortillas. They freeze well and are so good!

4 easy ingredients

Let that dough rest!

In this batch, I doubled the above recipe. I ended up with 17 tortillas.

I'm still working on making them perfect circles

The cast iron skillet is my favorite, but any pan or griddle would work too!

 

Mmmmmmm

Week 16 Meal Plan

Temperatures are feeling more winter-like here in Wisconsin! I'm getting so excited for Thanksgiving, Advent, and Christmas coming up.

But I need to focus! I can't get ahead of myself dreaming of the future--it's never guaranteed.

I'm averaging about $70 on grocery bills each week without couponing. That's not too bad, right? I had to re-stock on a few basics this week, like extra-virgin olive oil, canola oil, and a few key spices. I know that when I need to re-stock on basics, I need to watch my meal plans even closer so I don't overshoot that $70 goal. Here's my meal plan this week:

1. Bean and pepper nachos
2. Homemade Margherita pizza
3. Pork chops with sautéed apples and onions
4. Crockpot BBQ pork with roasted cauliflower
5. Big Batch pierogis with cucumber/tomato salad
6. Pork chop stir fry with carrots and zucchini
7. Chicken with lemon-leek linguine

Week 15.5 Meal Plan

My family was on the road visiting our parents in another state for a week, so I got a week off of cooking! There's nothing quite like your Mom's home-cooked meals, no matter how old you get. My fond memories and love for my Mom's cooking are memories I hope to create for my kids.

Typically when we've gotten back into town on a weekday evening, we just get a pizza for dinner. But to save $12 from our monthly budget, I planned ahead weeks ago and had a Double Dinner of corn chowder ready in the freezer when we got home! It was so easy to throw on the stove to re-heat; it was so good that it tasted like it had been simmering all day.

I'm glad to be getting back into the swing of things. Because we got home a few days earlier than my normal grocery shopping day, I had to plan and buy for a few extra days this "week" (hence the 15.5). Here's my meal plan this week (and a half):

1. Double Dinner Corn chowder
2. Chicken fajitas (with homemade tortillas)
3. Black bean burgers
4. Crab pasta (froze half for a Double Dinner)
5. Chili
6. Beef stew
7. Mexican baked chicken
8. Tamale pie
9. Lentil soup (froze half for a Double Dinner)