Homemade Spelt Tortillas

   My family has a few new toys that we love!!! We bought a tortilla press and a tortilla warmer. They are very inexpensive but they have made a huge difference for our family!

   Let me go back to the beginning. My son Josiah who is now 5 has had major allergies his whole life. Five years may not sound like a long life but when it is filled with pain, itching, puking, sores, and emotions from not being able to eat much variety, 5 years can feel like an eternity. This little guy of mine has been through a lot and on the way our whole family has experienced a shift in the way we eat. We went from a Top Ramen, Macaroni and Cheese, Milk ,candy , processed foods and antibiotics family to Whole Foods, Essential Oils and Herbs.

   One of the things we have had to change is our reliance on wheat, which is where the tortillas come in. One of Josiah's allergies is to wheat, which makes him have itchy bleeding rashes and sometimes it leads to days of puking until we can get him cleansed. Needless to say, we avoid wheat as much as possible. We have found that spelt flour cooks almost like wheat and is not genetically modified. It makes bread possible for our family.

   I love making tortillas instead of bread for several reasons.
1. fast and easy
2. cheap
3. no yeast
4. quality control
5. quick cooking so it retains nutrition ( I am toying with the idea of sprouting my spelt berries, drying them, then grinding them for sprouted grain tortillas. I used to do that for bread but got discouraged with the temperatures I was having to cook the bread at and the length of time it had to be in those high temperatures. It seemed redundant to me to take all of the time to sprout, dry, and grind the grain if it was going to be cooked to death! - not so with tortillas!)


Here is the recipe we have been using lately. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

2 cups Spelt flour
1/2 cup oil
1 t. salt
3/4 cup water

I mix everything together and let it sit for a few minutes to absorb the water. I do not knead the dough much - just mix until everything is incorporated in.  I realize that those reading this may be living in a different climate than my Cheyenne, WY so I would suggest playing with it until you get it right.

    After the mixture is the right consistency - not sticky but firm - I make balls that fit in the palm of my hand and place them in a large baggie so they hold their moisture and don't get dried out on the counter waiting their turn to be cooked. When they are all made into balls I heat the skillets on the stove top to a high heat. I then press one of the balls between plastic sheets in the tortilla press, put it onto a dry skillet, and cook it about 30 seconds on each side. I put it in the tortilla holder that will keep it warm until we eat, and DONE! I use a few skillets at a time so there is no waiting time between tortillas.

These tortillas have been wonderful for our family. There is no longer the push to buy rice bread for Josiah when we want to have sandwiches. We have a quick bread within minutes of deciding we want it, and it is so good for us! We love our new tortilla press and warmer!

Happy Healthy,
Elisa










   
  

 

Define Whole Foods

Whole Foods. In my mind this term means any food that is in the condition that God made it. Take an apple for instance and picture it in a pie, baked, or fried (I'm not really sure if people fry apples, but it wouldn't surprise me!). All of these things may seem harmless, especially if there have been no sugars added or other things. That's a whole other subject than the simplicity I am trying to portray right now, but they are not exactly harmless. When a food is cooked at a temperature higher than 118 degrees or so, it loses a lot of it's nutrition. The vitamins are cooked to death and you are left with a dead food! I have seen actual pictures of energy around a live apple slice and a cooked apple slice and the difference is staggering. You can see it for yourself on the documentary The Gerson Miracle - it's on Netflix.

If you want to live, eat live food. Your body is craving the vitamins and minerals in whole foods that you can't get from processed food that is void of life. Obesity can in a large way be attributed to these dead foods because people are not getting full! The dead foods fill their stomachs but leave them craving more because their bodies are crying out for nutrients! This is not to mention the additives in most processed foods that make them highly addictive.

I love the way whole foods have made a difference in my life. They, along with herbs and essential oils, have kept my weight stable, give me energy, and believe it or not they are easy on my budget. Because I can grow many of our foods and can buy my grains, beans, nuts, and seeds in bulk, I save on my grocery bill and we haven't been to the doctor for a cold or flu for years.

I realize that there are things that need cooked like potatoes and beans. I sprout my beans and grains as often as possible to get the most nutrition out of them and then low heat cook them so I don't boil away the vitamins. Here is a breakdown on how I get the most whole foods in my diet that I can without being a total raw foodist. Breakfast = freshly juiced fruit: Lunch = a big salad with whatever veggies I want and beans, quinoa, rice, or nuts; Dinner = a main meal made primarily of veggies, a cooked veggie for a side dish, and another big salad.

Just as a disclaimer I will say that my family does not eat the pristine diet that I would like us to. We have junk food Fridays so we have anything we might have wanted during the week. Usually we get sick Friday night and are more than ready for another healthy week. We are toning it down lately since we have noticed this cycle and now just enjoy homemade pizza, a salad, and 1 special dessert. My kids are all super athletic and are always winning this prize or that so I know we are on the right track. Right this minute my oldest boy is making a smoothie packed with greens because he wants major energy for a scout activity tonight.  :)

I would love to hear what you think of when you hear 'Whole Foods'. Is it similar to what I have described or different?

In a nut shell - whole foods to me means 'in it's whole and unaltered state'. I love whole foods!

Elisa Wadsworth