I'm Mexican and these Whole Wheat Tortillas are AWESOME!

I was looking up how to make tortillas without shortening and DEFINITELY without lard. In my family saying that we're going to make tortillas healthy means using Crisco. mmm not really what I had in mind. Have you seen Crisco? It's super slimy, not appetizing. 

I did a search for someone who changed out shortening and lard with Olive Oil! Yay!

I tried it tonight! Holy moly! 

So please go to this mom's website and see her original recipe!

http://blog.superhealthykids.com/2008/10/tortillas/

Ingredients:

3 cups Whole Wheat Flour

1 cup Unbleached Regular Flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups warm water, plus about 2 TBS

3/4 tsp baking powder (I just realized I left that out so if you don't have any don't worry)

2 TBS Olive Oil

1. Put in all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir with a fork.

2. Microwave 1 1/2 cups water for about 40 seconds and pour in.

3. Mix with your hands. You might need a little more water so add tbs as needed to get all the flour together in one dough. 

4. Divide dough in half then in half again so you have 4 equal balls. 

5. Divide each of those balls in half and then half again. You should have 16 small balls. (This is important for smaller sized tortillas and if you want to follow my calorie information!)

6. Flour a rolling board and rolling pin and roll out each ball and or pull them so that they are very thin.

7. Throw them on a griddle or just a regular non stick pan (thats what I have). Or if you are my grandma throw them right on your stove if you have a flat surface stove. 

I used the high setting, but I was moving fast. You might want to put it on medium heat so that you don't  get behind while you are rolling and cooking. Brown on one side and flip. It doesn't take much time to cook all the way through if you've rolled it really thin. 

My stack of awesome HEALTHY tortillas!

Nutrition Facts

Calories 125

Carbs 22g

Fat 2g!

Protein 4g

Fiber 3g

The Before and Afters....

Before and After


190.4 lbs Oct 27, 2011

135.1 lbs Feb 22, 2012

55lbs in 4 months



I just had my first cup of Special K with Berries, 8 oz milk, and about get some Blackberries!!!!! Mmm

My Ridiculously Good for you Carrot Cake Muffins

So, a lot of you know I can't have sugar, flour, carbs, etc. 

A recipe came in my book from the doctor for "carrot cake muffins".

I changed the recipe to make these angel food like carrot cake treats.

2 egg whites

3 oz cooked carrots pureed 

1 packet Splenda or Stevia

1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or combo of nutmeg and ginger)

1. Peel a bag of carrots or use a whole bag of baby carrots. Put them in a microwavable safe bowl (preferably with a lid) and cover with water. Cook in the microwave for seven minutes. 

2. While that's cooking whisk together egg whites, sweetener, and vanilla. Whisk on high until it turns the consistency of fluff.

3. Add spices and whisk on high again until it is a light brown color.

4. Put the cooked carrots in the blender and set on puree. Get them as blended as possible. It's ok if your blender doesn't get it the consistency of baby food (mine never does), you'll just have carrot chunks in the muffin. YUM

5. Add in the measure out 3 oz of carrot or about 1/4 c. Blend on high until mixed well.

6. Spoon mixture into muffin pan, sprayed with a little bit of Pam. This amount of mixture should fill to over-flowing 3 of the muffin areas. Because it is whipped like merengue it will sit straight up like puffy clouds.

7. You can cook just three or repeat the recipe multiple times for as many as you want. I usually do the recipe four times so I fill a whole pan.
8. Put the pan in your preheated oven at 350. Cook for 25 minutes. At this point turn on your broiler and leave in there for 1-3 minutes. Check every minute because the broiler will completely char them if you let it. Brown to your liking, which will give them a slightly roasted marshmellow flavor on the top.

9. You can let them cool in the pan before you take them out. Gently use a fork to unstick and free from pan.

A serving is 3 whole muffins!!!!!! Top with a dollop of whip cream, Walden Farms Calorie Free Carmel Sauce, or maybe some cream cheese frosting. Eating them plain is also super delish!

Nutritional Info
*you should really just eat all three, that's one oz protein and one serving of vegetables!
Calories 50
Carbs 3
Fat 0
Protein 9

If you decide to share and only eat one... (dumb)
Calories 17
Carbs 1
Fat 0
Protein 3

Let me know if you try them and if you like them!

Salt and Coffee Shakers

Cut the top off your Morton Salt. 


Place it on top of your Mason Jar and then screw on the top.



Fill the Mason Jar with whatever you want, I did salt and coffee that way I can have them on the counter in a cute container and not in an ugly coffee can or Morton Salt. 


Ribbons and puffy paint make the day!

I've been eating a lot of Pickles

I had two jars empty. 


Washed, peeled and dried them. 


Ribbons tied around them made them so cute.


A regular candle looks ok, but it looks better if there is something in them. I saw on Pinterst someone putting coffee beans in a class with a tea light, saying the heating of the beans gives off a coffee smell when you burn the candles; so I put coffee in the bottom of the jars and through in a tea light and a bigger round. 

*Candles from Ikea. 

I broke a glass...

So I broke a glass the other day. Apparently this is perfect because Ryan had already broke one months ago. So we have 6 instead of 8, at least it's even. 


I put a candle in it and thought, this could be cool!


Some puffy paint, glue and glitter later I have this interesting candle holder. 

Cauliflower Pizza Crust

I was browsing Pinterest as I am want to do, and I found myself looking at Lauren Conrad's blog about making skinny jeans fit. Well that was a cool article but I got sidetracked by an article about pizza crust made out of cauliflower! Well, heck yes! I am addicted to cauliflower right now, and I looked into it. I could make it and actually be able to eat it with a couple of changes.

Here is the original recipe:  http://www.laurenconrad.com/post/recipe-box-doughless-pizza

Here's what I did.

Ingredients

• 1 cup cooked, riced cauliflower
• 2 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• ½ teaspoon crushed garlic
• ½ teaspoon garlic salt
• PAM olive oil flavor
• Ground Turkey cooked with italian spices 
• 1 Tomato
• Some homemade Pesto sauce I made by just pureeing basil and cilantro 

Instructions

To "rice" the Cauliflower: Take 1 large head of fresh cauliflower, remove stems and leaves, and chop the florets into chunks. Add to food processor and pulse until it looks like grain. Do not over-do pulse or you will puree it. I put it on pulse mode and then just touched the chop button until it was grainy. 

Place the riced cauliflower into a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 8 minutes. There is no need to add water, as the natural moisture in the cauliflower is enough to cook itself.

To Make the Pizza Crust:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with PAM.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup cauliflower and 2 egg whites (two egg whites = 1 oz protein). Add oregano, crushed garlic and garlic salt, stir. Drop onto the cookie sheet and spread out into a round shape.
3. Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes.
4. Remove from oven.
5. To the crust, add pesto, tomato slices and 2 oz ground turkey. 
6. Place back in the oven with the broiler turned on. Only leave it in for about 3 minutes. 

You can't pick this up like pizza crust, I think if you use the original recipe with a bunch of cheese it holds everything together and makes it more like crust. This is SUPER delicious though! You can use a fork and knife and it tastes like pizza! Mmm

*Note: Toppings need to be precooked since you are only broiling for a few minutes.

My Last First Day of School

Here I go, I'm about to embark on my last semester of college EVER! Master Liz is one semester away from being called a master, haha, and from entering the work force. ugh, more on that later, but first day of school is tomorrow and I'm excited.

But not

I've been having too much fun crafting (which I will post in the next few days) and cleaning and cooking.

Big things coming up which I'm a little scared for:

1.      My American Music History Class

• it's a doctoral class which means I'm going to have to work hard, oh no

     2.      Music Man Choreography

• I'm going to have to choreograph the biggest project I've ever worked on for ASU

      3.     Spring Awakening Audition

• Not really scared I just really want it, since when I graduate I'm going to need to be getting professional theatre jobs so I don't feel like a waste of a masters

      4.      Getting off my diet

• Thats exciting but also scary, since I will be able to eat carbs and ice cream again, but I feel really good about all that. I think the craziest part is going to be being 60 lbs lighter and looking in the mirror at someone I don't recognize. 

      5.     My schedule

•  my school schedule leaves no time for me. I have to be at the SRC by 7:30 everyday just to get one hour in a day plus shower. Then I have class and work filling up every free crack of space till 5. Thats 7:30 to 5:00 everyday. Add 15 minutes for bike ride, then straight back to school for Music Man Rehearsals which I have to lead, not just sit there for. I'm going to be so busy, but on the upside this is my last semester. And I guess, I'll have plenty of time to stay at home and clean when I graduate....

Bridesmaid Dresses

We went shopping today!

First, we all met at Jackie's House : Me, Jackie, Vanessa, Kayla, and Nicki

We were greeted by Vanessa's homemade crepes, filled with homemade whipped creme and fresh fruit (it looked delicious, I made a little omelet for myself and enjoyed coffee for like the 6th time this week, and it's only my 2nd week drinking coffee)

First we went to Nordstrom's at Scottsdale Fashion where Vanessa had made an appointment for us! The lady was super friendly and helpful and we had the whole bridal wing to ourselves! It was AWESOME!!!!! It was swanky and I loved it. I also, tried on a size 6 and it almost zipped up! EEEEEEEEEEEEE The rest of the day I was good with 8's, which was the same size as one of my favorite bridesmaids, who I have always thought looks so beautiful (love her body shape!)

Next we went to Azteca in Phoenix and we made it our subordinate... we whipped through the isles and picked out like 25 dresses. Then we just grabbed which ever one was closest and through them on, parading out in front of Jackie for the yea or nay. Needless to say we found two maybes but the colors they came in weren't particularly correct... we moved on.

Lastly we went to David's Bridal in Chandler and found two gorgeous dresses! The Vera Wang was Vanessa's favorite, I mean duh it's Vera. But it's gray with sheer see through on top and flowy bottom. The other one has a unique neckline and very good tailoring on the upper body. No pictures yet, cuz I don't want to influence the brides decision. The pic is one of the dresses I thought looked good on me and I felt awesome about that, so here it is.

Good day!

New Years Meal Pics

Roasted Squash over a bed of lettuce and spinach topped with the squashes roasted seeds

.Olive Oil Lemony Banana Bread

                (this is my actual pic of my cake)

Recipe:  http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/lemony-olive-oil-banana-bread-recipe.html 

BTW- this girls blog is AMAZING!!! I love everything she puts out and I want to be her awesome cooking mind someday! Everything looks delicious but is healthy!

Popcorn Cauliflower

I baked roasted them in butter flavored Pam with just a hint of Curry Powder and Salt. The ones in the mini muffin pan turned out more crispy than the ones I put on a straight cookie sheet.