Level 1, Levels 2 And Above, Recipe

Chortillas! (Cheese Tortillas)


I adapted this from the Fat Head pizza crust recipe here: https://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/2013/06/30/weekend-bonus-the-older-brothers-oldest-sons-faux-carb-pizza/.


Here we have two types of Chortillas:

  • one with mozzarella and yellow corn meal and
  • the second is cheddar cheese, Monterey jack cheese, and almond flour.

I had a lot of fun making these. The only special equipment you will need is parchment paper. Almond flour is available almost anywhere, which is truly amazing. When I started this website, it was so rare (and if you found anything, it was usually almond meal).
I hope you enjoy these! I am especially proud of these! As a bonus, I cut them up and baked them at 350 degrees F for about 10 minutes and made chips! They are sturdy enough to handle any salsa, guacamole, and MAYBE bean dip (not sure about that one).

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, grated (or 1 1/2 cup sharp cheddar/jack blend, grated)
  • 1 1/2 ounce cream cheese
  • 1/4 cup yellow corn meal (or almond meal)
  • 1 large egg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cut 12-24 pieces of parchment paper to roughly 5 inch squares. Place grated cheese and cream cheese in a microwave safe bowl.

Microwave 1 minute, stir, then microwave 1 minute. Let the cheese mixture cool slightly, then pour the corn meal over the top, followed by the egg. Carefully mix (it will slosh around) until it looks like a cohesive dough.

On a flat surface (not a tile countertop), drop dough by Tablespoons (or use a Tablespoon cookie scoop) on 1 piece of cut parchment paper. Place a second piece of parchment paper on top of batter and gently flatten with your fingers. Take a flat plate, pie pan, or board and gently press down to flatten the dough. Don’t use all of your strength! You don’t want the edges too thin.

Place the parchment paper dough package on a cookie sheet (you can try to gently peel off the top piece of parchment paper so you can reuse that but it’s not necessary) and keep going. Once your sheet is filled, place in pre-heated oven for roughly 9 minutes, until there are a few brown spots. Let cool and place in a Ziploc bag to store in the refrigerator.

To serve, just heat them on a pre-heated skillet, on medium heat, just until warm.

Nutrition information: For 1 Corn Chortilla: 71 Cal; 4 g Protein; 5 g Tot Fat; 3 g Carb; 0 g Fiber For 1 Cheddar Chortilla: 84 Cal; 4 g Protein; 7 g Tot Fat; 1 g Carb; 0 g Fiber

Health, Level 1

Adding Fats Into Your Diet


A MyFitnessPal friend just adopted a ketogenic way of eating.  A few tips that just popped out of my head and through the keyboard that I thought I should share with all of you: how to incorporate more fat into your diet without scooping out spoonsful and eating it like ice cream.


Yes, I did that in the beginning.  I was desperate to get all the fats into my diet that I needed to.  For those who don’t know, the basic way it works with the ketogenic approach is you replace all the carbohydrate calories you normally eat with fat calories.  In the beginning, when you are just starting out, that is a lot of fat!  That’s why you see so many people (and I did this for almost the entire year I was strict keto) drinking Bullet Proof Coffee (if you google that, you might not see what I drank.  I just added a tablespoon each of butter and coconut oil to my coffee and just stirred it in … much better together than either butter or coconut oil by themselves). Or they eat fat bombs. Really. I tried one recipe and it was just cold fat with something (I think it was peanut butter) meant to make you forget you are eating a chunk of fat but it failed.


The problem with doing drinking my bullet proof coffee every day was those nights when we would indulge in a fantastically fatty rib eye steak, I would go over on my fats (a lot).  So, I slowly began skipping my bullet proof coffee days and consuming more fats with my meals.  Eventually, it got to a point I did not need my bullet proof coffee.
So, what were these fantastic tips I gave my friend?  The first tip: Starting now, buy fattier meats.  Through so many years of being told to eat less fatty meats, we had switched from 80% ground beef to 90%, bought chicken breast instead of other cuts, and purchase pork loin instead of the fat-rich cuts that didn’t require sauces to make them edible.  Now, we buy the 80% ground beef.  We buy chicken thighs instead of breast.  Did you know that most of the wonderfully smelling chicken that is grilled outside of Mexican markets is de-boned, skinned chicken thighs?  That’s why it is always so juicy and WONDERFUL!  We buy pork chops, the fattier the better and when we want steak, it is either rib eye steaks (with that glorious marbling) or tri-tip roasts.  I’ve also (as I’ve written about before) begun branching out with pork butt roasts and even some beef roasts, leaving as much of the fat as I can.  Don’t forget fish: any form of salmon has more fats but have you checked out canned fish like smoked herring or sardines?


The second tip (which I don’t think I told her): Track your fat!  When I input my meals into MyFitnessPal, I would almost always forget to track the fats I used in cooking.  On the days when I remembered, I would almost end up over my allotted fat amounts.
So, there you have it.  Two tips to ensure your intake of fats is mostly from whole foods instead of a spoon.  OH!  I almost forgot.  If you want to order fats in bulk (instead of paying outrageous prices for tiny containers at the store and do not mind if they are not organic), go here (this is not an affiliate link, I just really like them): http://naturaloils.com/shop/Default.htm

Dinner, Levels 2 And Above, Lunch, Recipe

Fat Head Pizza

I’ve tried a number of pizza crust substitutes. Some were good but this one is the first one I can say tastes like some kind of bread. O.k. For all those old enough to know what I’m talking about, remember when frozen pizzas first came out? Remember the crusts were … thin and cardboard-like? That’s kinda what this crust reminds me of. My point is: IT TASTES LIKE CRUST! Not cheese, not egg, but actual crust. I doubled the recipe and spread it as thin as they suggested. I was thinking it might be o.k. to leave it a bit thicker but I could pick up the pieces and eat them … like pizza! Another bonus: if you grind your own almond meal (like me) and don’t quite get it all ground, those chunks of almond taste fantastic! lol AND I finally found parchment paper! This stuff just peeled off … I love it!
http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/2013/06/30/weekend-bonus-the-older-brothers-oldest-sons-faux-carb-pizza/
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella
¾ cup almond flour
2 tbs cream cheese
1 egg
Garlic salt
Parchment paper and cookie sheet