T for Tortillas
This real food abc is going to be a bit different. This is going back to my nutrition roots - ingredients comparison. I love comparing ingredients in foods. I think looking at an ingredients list is so much more important than looking at the nutrition facts panel. When looking at the ingredients in tortillas you will see some are more real than others.
Just a couple weeks ago I made homemade tortillas for the first time. I was always hesitant thinking they would be difficult, that it would be hard to get them thin and that it would take a long time to learn to roll them out perfectly. But my little one has taking a liking to tortillas and unfortunately the store bought ones do not fit into the 100 ingredient simplified kitchen.
So without prior preparation or planning I went on Pinterest, found some recipes and dived in.
I don't know what took me so long. Easy, easy, easy. But the best part is the ingredients list. Let's start with some store bought.
Enriched bleached wheat flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, vegetable shortening (interesterified soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil and/or palm oil), contains 2% or less of: salt, sugar, leavening (sodium bicarbonate, sodium aluminum sulfate, corn starch, monocalcium phosphate and/or sodium acid pyrophosphate, calcium sulfate), preservatives (calcium propionate, sorbic acid, and/or citric acid), distilled monoglycerides, enzymes, wheat starch, calcium carbonate, antioxidants (tocopherols, ascorbic acid), cellulose gum, dough conditioners (fumaric acid, sodium metabisulfite and/or mono- and diglycerides).Store-bought Tortilla #2 Ingredients:
Water, Modified Food Starch, Enriched Bleached Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Vital Wheat Gluten, Powdered Cellulose, Vegetable Shortening (Interesterified Soybean Oil, Hydrogenated Soybean Oil and/or Palm Oil), Wheat Protein Isolate (Wheat Gluten, Lactic Acid, Sulfite), and contains 2% or less of: Salt, Leavening (Sodium Bicarbonate, Sodium Aluminum Sulfate, Corn Starch, Monocalcium Phosphate and/or Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Calcium Sulfate), Cellulose Gum, Preservatives (Calcium Propionate, Sorbic Acid), Distilled Monoglycerides, Enzymes, Wheat Starch, Calcium Carbonate, Antioxidants (Tocopherols, Ascorbic Acid, Citric Acid), Natural Flavor, Sunflower Oil, Sucralose, Canola Oil, Triglycerides, Dough Conditioners (Fumaric Acid, Sodium Metabisulfite and/or Mono- and Diglycerides)I have a hard time seeing the real food hiding in all these ingredients. Now look at the ingredients in homemade tortillas.
Homemade Real Food Tortilla Ingredients:
FlourLard or Tallow or oil
Salt
Water
When you compare the ingredients, it is clear that homemade wins out for "real food".
Although I am not big on reading nutrition labels, I think it a good idea to look at ingredients lists when buying processed foods so you can find ones made with the best (and usually least) ingredients. It is not easy to always make things from scratch, but sometimes looking at ingredients labels will give you that push needed to make the effort (i.e. the guilt of buying crap, which happens to me all the time).
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