Making my work days more productive
Goals - August 2016

Freezer breakfast burritos

Freezer breakfast burritos | RISING*SHINING Freezer breakfast burritos | RISING*SHINING

When Cedric was tiny and new and up all night I would get up in the morning and be far from ready to be awake. But Chris would hand me hot coffee and I would remember that I had a stash of freezer breakfast burritos and I would feel like I could make it.

Recently I remembered the glory of freezer breakfast burritos when Chris was preparing to go out of town and Sarah gave me some sage advice to "be sure you eat!" And so I assembled the ingredients and spent a surprisingly short amount of time in the kitchen making and wrapping half a dozen burritos. While Chris was away I would shower the night before and then be up with our early bird.

The morning with young children is constant transitions. You don't realize how many transitions until you have a small person fighting and negotiating every single one. But in the midst of all the negotiations and looking wistfully at the garage door - the finish line - that seemed so far away I would throw a frozen burrito in my lunch bag and imagine eating it in the quiet of my office. 

I usually vary my breakfast burrito recipe whenever I make it depending on what I have in the fridge and freezer. It's a great way to use up veggies or leftover quinoa or rice. A batch of frozen burritos is my new go-to recipe to deliver to parents with a new baby. 

Freezer breakfast burritos
makes ~10 burritos 

12 eggs
1 cup cooked quinoa
1/2 cup cooked chopped spinach (from frozen), with excess water squeezed out
grated cheese
roasted potatoes with peppers and onions (from frozen, heated up*)
10 flour tortillas

If planning to freeze burritos prepare 10 squares of tin foil in a stack. Or you can plan to make these for a crowd and eat right away!

Crack eggs and mix well with cooked quinoa. Season with salt and pepper if desired. Pour eggs into hot skillet along with cooked spinach and scramble. When eggs are done remove from heat and set aside, sprinkle with shredded cheese.

Wrap stack of tortillas in a clean dish towel and sprinkle generously with water. Place wrapped tortillas in the microwave and microwave for two bouts of 30 seconds. 

Prepare your burrito assembly area with the tortillas, eggs and potatoes close by. Lay a tortilla on the top of your foil stack and scoop about 1/3 of a cup of the eggs onto the tortilla towards one side. This is an important tip for getting a great burrito fold: don't put the ingredients in the middle, put them to one side!

After the eggs, scoop some potatoes onto the eggs. Fold the tortilla edge over the eggs and roll the burrito over one time, keeping a tight roll. Next, fold in both sides of the tortilla and then keep on rolling until the end, trying to keep everything tucked in. You'll find that you can't load up the burrito too much or you'll compromise a good burrito roll. It takes practice but you'll get there! Also, even ugly burritos taste delicious.

If you are freezing the burritos, place the rolled burrito at one corner of the tin foil and roll long ways across the square of tin foil, mimicking the burrito rolling technique of one roll over, then tuck in the sides and complete the roll. Put burritos in the freezer, high five to your future self!

To prepare a frozen burrito: remove tin foil and wrap in a clean dish cloth. Sprinkle dish cloth with water and microwave ~2.5 minutes. Then, if you have time, put the burrito into the over or toasted oven directly on the rack. Bake at ~350 degrees for a couple minutes, just to give the outside of the burrito a little crispiness.

 

*Each time I've made these I first cook the potatoes in a skillet. But then I realized that I refreeze them in the burrito within 30 minutes so maybe you should just use these frozen if you are planning to freeze the burritos. Haven't tested this out yet myself, though!

 

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