Homemade Whole Wheat Tortilla Recipe

OK, so this is my first recipe blog post. I usually don't cook and if I do it's something really easy. However, my husband and I have been trying to cut out processed foods, and in order to do this and still eat some of the foods we love, I have to bake/cook more. In the process I have become addicted to making at home the staples we use on a regular basis. So here is a whole wheat tortilla recipe.

Ingredients: (Makes 18, 114 calorie tortillas)
2 and 1/2 cups 100% whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oil (try using avocado or coconut oil but vegetable or olive oil will work too)
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup of warm water

Start by mixing the flour, oil, and salt in a bowl. I don't have a dough mixer so I just used a spatula to cut the oil through the flour.

Now, slowly mix in the water until the dough is smooth.

Measure your dough ball. I made 18 tortilla's so weigh your dough ball (mine was about 616 grams) and divide that by 18 (in my case about 34 grams). This will give you a better serving measurement. You don't have to do this but I am a little OCD about serving sizes.

Weigh each ball (or skip this step if you don't want to) and roll each serving into a ball and place on a cookie sheet. It doesn't need to be greased or floured. Once you have all 18 balls on the cookie sheet, wrap in saran wrap and let sit at room temp for about 30 minutes.

Heat a skillet on medium high. The pan should be hot before you cook the tortilla.

Now, lightly dust your counter or board with the whole wheat flour and roll out your tortilla in about 5" diameter tortillas. You don't want the tortilla's paper thin, you want a bit of thickness to them so they puff up. If you want bigger tortilla's make bigger dough balls but keep in mind that will change the calorie count per tortilla.

Some recipes I have seen say to lightly oil the pan, I don't think this is necessary. The amount of oil in the recipe seems to be enough.

Cook the tortilla about 30 seconds on each side. The tortilla will bubble a little, that's OK.

Eat and enjoy! Refrigerate or freeze to help them last longer.

Nutrition info on 18 servings:
Calories: 114
Total Fat: 6.5g
Sat fat 0.7g
Carbs: 11.7g
Fiber: 2g
Protein: 2.2g

Yummy taco made with homemade tortillas!

Note: I adopted this recipe from a few different recipes a read online. Next time, I intend to use less oil. The tortilla's came out good, just a little too oily for me. Next time I plan to only use a 1/4 cup of oil. I will update and let everyone know how they turn out with less oil.

Glitter Ombre Nails

Glitter Ombre Nails

I am digging spring people! The colors, the weather, and the sunshine! I live in Arizona and spring is the best time of year because it's right before it starts to get insanely hot and we have to endure back-to-back 110 days. Guess that's the payoff for 75 degree winters!

Inspired by the Gelish Harmony new spring color line "Love In Bloom", I tried a glitter Ombre nail on my sister in law. I was surprised by how easy this was and had to share.

What you need:
- An all over color
- A medium thickness nail brush
- Accent nail glitter dust (I got mine on amazon.com for $2 and come with 12 colors)

Glitter Dust - $2 for 12 colors from Amazon.com

Start by prepping your nails as normal (clip, file, etc).

Paint your base coat and let dry (or using gel polish cure)

Paint your all over color. I used the Gelish Harmony 'A Mint of Spring'. Let your all over color dry (again if you are doing gel, cure the polish in your UV light). Paint as many coats as needed, but you don't want it too thick. I did two coats (curing each time with my UV light).


Next, before your all over color full dries, you want to put the glitter on. When using regular nail polish, you want the color a little bit tacky to give the glitter a good surface to stick to.

When using the gel polish, do your coats, and cure each time. Since the UV polish naturally has a tacky surface you can just apply the glitter after you cure your second coat.

Apply the glitter by taking your nail brush and dip into the glitter. You do not need to add anything to the brush, just lightly dip into the glitter.

Now, lightly dab the glitter onto your nail from the base (cuticle going upwards). Dust as much as you want to get the glitter effect.

Repeat for all your nails.

Lastly, apply a top coat and let dry. If using the gel nail polish, top coat and then cure top coat. If you feel like you want to add a second top coat feel free.

Try different colors and maybe even doing the ombre effect from the tip of the nail downwards.

Until next time!

Cute Leopard Mani

I'm feeling frisky and ready for another animal print mani!

I used a picture I saw on-line and mocked the idea adding a little of my own touch.

Start by prepping and painting your nails. I used Gelish Harmony Gossip Girl for the pink and use a gold I had for my ring finger and thumb. You want the accent finger to be a little lighter so you will be able to see the leopard design.

Next, using a dotting tool, crate odd shaped circles on your accent nail with the all over color you used on your other nails. So in this cause, use the pink to create the odd shaped dots on the gold.

Now, using the dotting tool again, create little odd shaped "C" shapes around the pink dots. Also, put a random black dot to give it a little accent. It's easier if you put your polish onto a piece of foil and dip the dotting tool onto the foil instead of trying to dip the dotting tool into the bottle of polish.

Now add some accent rhinestones to some of the pink leopard spots by dipping a tooth pick or an orange stick into some clear coat. Open your case of gems, and pick one out with the tip of the stick. Then place the  gem on your nail and top it off with clear coat.

Have fun trying different colors and accents. This is one you can probably do after having a few glasses of wine. My mom and I had a little slumber party and I managed to get a good result after 3 glasses of wine. Mani and wine FTW!

We did this using the gel polish. Please keep in mind if you are trying designs with the gel polish that you need to cure each coat. After we put the all over color on, we cured it in the UV light. Then we did another coat of the all over, cured again. We did the dots with black gel polish, then cured the dots in the UV light. Then we added the gems, and did two coats of the top coat, curing it after every coat.

If you do this with regular polish make sure to let each coat dry in between so you don't have any lumps or bumps.

Striped Dot Nail Tutorial

Striped Dot Manicure

Alright folks, I am back for another fun quick nail tutorial!

This one looks like it may be a little hard but it is actually very easy.

All you need:
- Dotting tool
- Two different color polishes
- Gems for accent

Start by painting your nails your all over color. In this case, I used the Gelish Harmony 'Seafoam'. A nice spring time color. And for the accent we used a black polish.


Next, start by creating a few dots using a dotting tool with a different color from your all over color onto your nail. We chose to put the dots going vertical all the left side of the nail.

Continue creating the dots in a straight line. Try to make each dot the same size. Practice using the dotting tool by putting the color onto some foil and dipping the dotting tool into the polish on the foil and creating dots on the foil. This way you can know how much polish you need on the tool in order to get the size you want on your nail.

Now, finish the rest of your nails, and if you want to add something different, try accenting different nails by placing a rhinestone instead of a dot. Also we created a diagonal line on the thumb to create a different effect.

Have fun with it and try different colors and designs! Thanks to my awesome Mommy for being my hand model on this tutorial :)

We did this using the gel polish. Please keep in mind if you are trying designs with the gel polish that you need to cure each coat. After we put the all over color on, we cured it in the UV light. Then we did another coat of the all over, cured again. We did the dots with black gel polish, then cured the dots in the UV light. Then we added the gems, and did two coats of the top coat, curing it after every coat.

If you do this with regular polish make sure to let each coat dry in between so you don't have any lumps or bumps.

How To: Remove Gel Nail Polish

Got shiny new gel nails? Rocking those bad girls for a few weeks and ready for them to come off? Do not despair, you do not have to go to the salon to get these off. I will walk you through how to do this at home without ruining your nails.

Before I start - let me say, DO NOT peel the gel nail off. If you do, you will ruin your nail!!! If you peel the gel nail polish off as it starts to come up, you will remove the top layer of your nail and it will make your nail weak and brittle.

OK, now that I got that out I will proceed with the instructions.

This is medium grit file

Step 1: Get yourself a nice thick grit nail file. I picked mine up at Sally's for about a buck! File the top layer of your gel nail polish.

Step 2: Tear off pieces of foil that you will wrap your nails with. I like to do longer thinner pieces. You will wrap your finger and the cotton ball inside the foil so you want long pieces that can wrap around a few times.

Tear foil pieces

Step 3: Take a piece of cotton ball and tear it in half. I have the large cotton balls so I like to save $ and polish remove by using a smaller piece of cotton ball.

If you have the larger cotton balls, tear them in half

Step 4: Now dip your cotton ball piece in acetone. You have to use acetone nail polish remover, regular nail polish remover will not work.

Use acetone nail polish remover

Step 5: Place the dipped cotton ball on top of your nail and place your nail on a foil piece. Now wrap the foil piece with the cotton ball in place around your finger. I recommend doing your dominant had first. If you are right handed, wrap your right hand first, then your left. Once you have multiple fingers wrapped it gets a little

tough to wrap the other hand so make it easier on yourself by wrapping your dominant hand first.

Wrap the rest of your fingers. Make sure you place a towel under the surface you are working on. Acetone can ruin furniture and even melt plastic! I am sure you are wondering if it's safe for your fingers. It is, just make sure to hydrate your hand and nail once you remove the polish.

Wait 10-15 minutes once your nails are wrapped until you take off the foil. I sometimes will pour a little more acetone into the foil pieces (at the knuckle of my finger where they are wrapped) if I feel the polish is being stubborn. Just be careful not to spill!

Step 6: Now go ahead and pull each foil piece off. Have your cuticle pusher reader or a similar tool to help scrape the rest of the polish off. When you take the foil off, most of the polish will have lifted up at the ends. If there is still some polish on the nail, that't OK. Use your scraper to remove the excess. Once you are done scraping each nail, there still may be some residue on your nails. Just dip a cotton ball into the acetone and remove the rest with a cotton ball.

You can also do the "easier" route and dip your hand in a bowl of acetone nail polish. I don't like doing this because you expose your hand and nails to SO much acetone and it can really dry it out. Also this way, you can still move around without being tied down to a bowl of polish remover.

If anyone has any suggestions to add that have worked well for them please leave them in the comment box. I would love to try them out!