Breakfast Burritos

When I go out for Mexican dinner, very often I end up ordering fajitas, one of my favorite foods. But with this delicious order almost always comes a huge plate with rice and beans, and quite honestly, I hardly eat any of it. I'm too busy stuffing my face with hot steaming tortillas, filled with spicy beef strips and lots of grilled peppers and onions :-) My sense of practicality (or being downright cheap) has me taking home the beans and rice ever since I've found a great way of using them for a different dish. One of the things I love is something easy and simple to pop in the microwave for a quick pick-me-up, or when I feel like a snack. During the week I do not always have time to eat breakfast, and it's easy to have something hot to eat on my way to work. I use the refried beans and rice as a basis for Breakfast Burritos that are easy to make, easy to freeze and easy to reheat.

Unlike the guacamole and lettuce that often accompanies the fajita fare, refried beans and Mexican rice freeze well. And that is exactly what the three small ziploc bags contain that I thawed earlier (see yesterday's blog) today.

Depending on how much beans and rice you have, adjust the amount of tortillas and eggs. The tortillas I use are about 6 inches in diameter, and the amount of filling is approximately 2 full tablespoons of beans and eggs each.

Breakfast Burritos12 whole wheat tortillas

refried beans and rice

6 eggs

1 onion

1 red pepper

1 green pepper

salt and pepper

2 cups grated cheese

Thoroughly reheat the beans and rice, and mix them. If you have some hot sauce or salsa, you can add that to the mix. Beat the eggs in a bowl, add salt and pepper. In the meantime, dice the peppers, slice the onion. Put a little bit of olive oil in a skillet and sautee onions and peppers until they are soft, add the egg mix and scramble the eggs. Now heat one tortilla at a time (in my microwave 30 seconds is exactly right), and place it in front of you on a cutting board. (Heating the tortillas will make it easier to fold them.)

Place two tablespoons of the bean and rice mix in the middle of the tortilla in a rectangular fashion, place two tablespoons of the scrambled eggs on top of the beans and add a tablespoon of grated cheese. Now fold the sides of the tortilla with your index fingers over the filling, use your thumbs to flap the front of the tortilla over the top and roll the whole burrito forward on the cutting board on top of the rest of the tortilla, hiding the filling from view. In the beginning, it will take a little bit of practice to get the amount of filling right. Follow the same procedure with the rest of the tortillas, letting the burritos cool seam down on a second cutting board. When you are done, place them separately in ziploc bags, folding the remainder of the bag over and pushing out the air. Since the burritos have cooled down quite a bit, you will not have as much condensation in the bags, and they will freeze easier.

To reheat, just pop them in the microwave for a couple of minutes and breakfast is served.

Enjoy!

Scrambled Eggs with Hash Browns, Sausage, Peppers and Onion

Sitting on the counter, defrosting, is my first UFO. Actually, there are three UFOs, but they all seem to contain the same type of food. In my "freezing fervor" I often forgot to mark the bags thinking "Ohh, I'll KNOW that this is beef stew/goulash/spaghetti sauce/etc etc." Let's face it, once frozen, they all look alike, one a bit lumpier than the other perhaps, and there is no way of telling which is which. By the way, I freeze most of my leftovers in ziploc bags so I can flatten them. They stack well and take up a lot less space than containers do!

At first glance it looked like these bags contained something unsuitable for human consumption and would look more in place in eh....dare I say it, a sick baby's diaper. But even in my most frugal moments, I cannot imagine having frozen something like that. I'll just have to wait till these bags thaw out! Ah...patience....it's a scarce thing to come by in this house.

In the meantime, I've located some other, more easily recognizable food items. A 3/4 full bag of frozen hash browns, a bag of pepper stir fry, 1/2 pound of breakfast sausage and 1/2 bag of grated Cheddar cheese. There's some eggs left in the fridge, so let's use those too. This will be great for an easy breakfast fix.

Scrambled Eggs with Hash Browns, Sausage, Onions, Peppers (cheese optional)

2 cups of pepper stir fry mix (you can replace this with fresh peppers and onions)

5 eggs

1 cup of grated cheese (optional)

1/2 pound of breakfast sausage

Brown the breakfast sausage in a skillet or stirfry pan, and pour off the fat. Add the pepper stir fry mix ( or fresh sliced onions and peppers), until the onions are soft, and add the hashbrowns. In the meantime, beat the eggs in a bowl (you can add a little milk for more fluff). When the potatoes are cooked thoroughly, add the eggs to the mixture in the pan and scramble until the eggs are done. Pepper and salt to taste. Sprinkle cheese over this mixture if you wish, I'm more of a cheese girl but some people love this dish with hot salsa. Also excellent on some whole wheat toast or one on of those sliced bagels from your freezer.

You can freeze the leftovers in ziploc bags, making single portions. Flatten them and refrigerate before freezing. They microwave very well and make it an easy fix for a quick breakfast or improvised lunch. Make sure you mark your bags with the date, the contents and instructions on how to re-heat the food. You may want to eat this breakfast food within six months.

Well, the bags on the counter have defrosted sufficiently and I know now what they are. More on that tomorrow!