Book Update: “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers” by Robert Sapolsky continues to astound me. He goes into great detail how stress suppresses the immune system. Something about B cells and T cells and all that jazz. Basically, you get stressed the more likely you may get sick. He brings up an interesting point that this fact is not to our evolutionary advantage… but never elaborates on that insight.
Another chapter in the book is how stress suppresses reproduction. Many of you may have already heard this before in sayings like, “You can’t get pregnant when you’re stressed.” He goes on to find examples in a hunter-gatherer tribe in Africa who have only 8 children per family on average. But, they aren’t stressed. This is because the women constantly breastfeed and have prolactin in their system. How does their breastfeeding differ from our Western culture? They breastfeed until age 4. And they breastfeed for 1-2 minutes every 15 minutes all … day … long. So, that is why their prolactin never goes down and it is the prolactin in the system that inhibits reproduction. Seems to me that if the baby is nursing all day and night long for 4 years, you probably don’t have time for other activities…. but what do I know? I’m not a professor of Biology at Stanford University.
Recipe Update: These tortillas were awesome! Costco sells them at their stores for $6.97 for a package of 50. I wonder if I would spend even more than that making my own… I doubt it. But pretty close. Anyway, the ones by TortillaLand I used in these recipes were UNcooked tortillas. However, you can use regular, already cooked tortillas as well. Why use uncooked? Because they last a really long time – about 2 months in the fridge. And they are much cheaper. And they only have FIVE real ingredients in them. They are made the way I would make them at home with water, salt, fat, flour and sugar. These recipes also work with whole wheat tortillas as well. They actually taste really well with the spicy cajun version.
Our favorite out of all 3 recipes is the spicy cajun. You don’t have to make it that spicy. Just a little sprinkle makes your tortilla chips look pretty, but without the heat. I love the savory chips with guac, salsa, cheese, beef, chicken, tomatoes, or plain. The sweet tortilla chip can be served alone or with fruit salsa.
**If you make these recipes using homemade or store-bought Tortillaland Tortillas that are NOT cooked, then simply follow these additional instructions for each recipe:
1. “Dock” or poke each tortilla with a fork before slicing with the pizza cutter. This will help keep the tortilla chip to bake flat. The “poofy” tortilla chips you see below were part of my first round of experiments which didn’t go so well until I figured out I should poke them with a fork to release the steam.
2. Increase your bake time 1-2 minutes.
Salty Baked Tortilla Chips
4 servings
4 tortillas
salt, preferably sea salt or kosher salt
cooking spray
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Using a pizza cutter, cut the tortillas into 8 wedges. (Prick with fork if using raw/uncooked tortillas.)
2. Lay the tortillas on a baking sheet lined with parchment, silicone or cooking spray.
3. Now, spray your tortillas with cooking spray. Sprinkle with salt.
4. Bake for 6-10 minutes. Watch carefully towards the end. Sometimes, they can go from pale to burnt quickly. Why the large timeframe? Because tortillas come in all shapes and sizes, I can’t predict how long that particular one will take to bake in the oven.
Spicy Cajun Tortilla Chips
4 servings
4 tortillas
salt, preferably kosher or sea salt
cooking spray
Creole seasoning or homemade cajun seasoning (my recipe here)
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Using a pizza cutter, cut the tortillas into 8 wedges. (Prick with fork if using raw/uncooked tortillas.)
2. Lay the tortillas on a baking sheet lined with parchment, silicone or cooking spray.
3. Now, spray your tortillas with cooking spray. Sprinkle with salt. Sprinkle with cajun seasoning. The more seasoning, the spicier the chip.
4. Bake for 6-10 minutes. Watch carefully towards the end. Sometimes, they can go from pale to burnt quickly. Why the large timeframe? Because tortillas come in all shapes and sizes, I can’t predict how long that particular one will take to bake in the oven.
Cinnamon Sugar Tortilla Chips
4 servings
4 tortillas
cooking spray or melted butter
1 Tb. sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon (or use your own premade cinnamon sugar mixture. I use 1 cup sugar to 1 Tb. cinnamon)
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Using a pizza cutter, cut the tortillas into 8 wedges. (Prick with fork if using raw/uncooked tortillas.)
2. Lay the tortillas on a baking sheet lined with parchment, silicone or cooking spray.
3. Now, spray your tortillas with cooking spray or brush them with melted butter. Sprinkle with salt. Sprinkle with cajun seasoning. The more seasoning, the spicier the chip.
4. Bake for 6-10 minutes. Watch carefully towards the end. Sometimes, they can go from pale to burnt quickly. Why the large timeframe? Because tortillas come in all shapes and sizes, I can’t predict how long that particular one will take to bake in the oven.
Use cinnamon sugar tortillas for ice cream, for fruit salsa, decoration, with honey, with whipped cream, with apple/cherry pie filling, etc.
