Making your own is being mindful

Cook this food at home to bring mindfulness into your life.

Mindfulness simply means being present or in-the-moment, while acknowledging your thoughts, feelings, and sensations without judgement.

Mindful eating helps you become aware of your hunger and satisfaction, and how to best nourish your body. Making your own version of a food commonly bought in the grocery store is a great way to bring mindfulness to a meal, because you can better prepare your body for enjoying the meal and experience how food truly tastes.

Recently, my family was making tacos for a weekend meal and we decided to try making our own shells. We were tired of the same old store bought hard shells and missed the flavor of fresh tortillas. I decided this would be a new cooking experience; and honestly how hard could it be to make a tortilla shell? After a quick research online I realized there were some easy instructions and product brands were included with the information – even better! My co-worker had made fresh corn tortillas and actually stored them for later use – one more reason to make our own.

Fortunately, Masa Harina (instant corn masa flour) was on sale at the local grocery store. The mixing directions were quite simple: add 1 ½ cup water with 2 cups flour, mixing until it forms a soft dough along with instructions to form the shells. Typically one would use a tortilla press but I was able to press the dough into a 6 inch shell using a small flat bowl and my very own hands.

It takes a bit of practice but the tortilla flavor was wonderful and I can honestly say I will never buy corn tortillas at the store again (well, maybe if I’m REALLY crunched for time). Here’s how making our own tortilla shells helped my family practice mindfulness:

• We enjoyed the flavor of the fresh tortilla which allowed us to SAVOR the meal
• We ate LESS because it was more satisfying and filling
• Our family stayed at the table and enjoyed the MOMENT
• Eating our fresh tortillas kept us AWARE and tasting the food
• We cooked the meal, enjoyed the meal and felt NO JUDGMENT about what we ate!

Check out our corn tortilla recipe and tortilla stack tacos recipe and try for yourself!