My Brilliant Friend Rachel’s Brilliant Freezer Burritos

  Y’all know I like to give credit where due, so here is a great big shout-out hooray to my friend Rachel.  Only an IRL friend will let you stand in her dining room and watch as she offhandedly does the most awesome things with food.

Let me just back up a bit to say that we love freezer burritos and the kosher kind – breakfast, with egg, or beans & cheese – cost about $3 or more.  A pack of 6 burrito wraps costs $3-something.  A can of black beans (don’t gasp; yes, I use canned, though she probably doesn’t) costs under $1.  A pack of shredded mozarella – ditto; cheap (the pre-shredded is often cheaper than the blocks, these days, though I don’t like the powdery cellulose stuff it comes packed with).

So here’s what I did, in an attempt to recreate Rachel’s freezer burritos.  I happened to have chicken filling because we were having burrito night here anyway.  If you don’t, just use salsa like she does.  In fact, you can use salsa anyway – extra deliciousness, I say.

BLACK-BEAN FILLING

1. Slice onion (doesn’t have to be too fine) and fry in a bit of oil with a sprinkling of kosher salt, until soft but not brown.
2. Add well-rinsed black beans (or really any other beans you like) and stir until beans begin to soften.
3. Add garlic, salt, pepper, taco seasoning to taste.
4. Add a cup of water and let the water simmer away until beans are mostly alone in the pan (my pan is cast iron, so almost nothing scorches and I can cook it a long time).  Repeat this step if you want softer beans.  Season to taste.
5. Turn off the heat and let beans cool (only because I don’t like putting hot beans in the blender).
6. Add bean mixture to blender or food processor and blend until either smooth or chunky, depending on how you like it.

FAKE CHICKEN FILLING (not really a recipe)

1. Slice onion and fry in a bit of oil with a sprinkling of kosher salt, until soft but not brown.
2. Add a package of fake chicken strips and stir until it begins to brown.
3. Add a can of Hungry Man sloppy-joe sauce, or your favourite BBQ sauce, or whatever, really.
4. Add chili powder, garlic powder, pepper, whatever you want – to taste.  You’re done!

Now make your burritos:

1. Smear wrap with black-bean filling.
2. Spread chicken filling and/or salsa over black-bean filling.
3. Sprinkle with cheese (mozarella or whatever).
4. Wrap it up! (lots of images on Google of how to do this)
5. Wrap burrito in parchment paper.
6. Toss it in the freezer.

But wait!  Here’s the brilliant bit:  SAVE THE BAG THE WRAPS CAME IN!!!  Use it to store the homemade burritos in the freezer.  Isn’t that awesome???  That one tip alone is worth the cost to you of reading this post (I hope).

Don’t they look all cozy, stashed away in there…?  I got 7 burritos out of tonight’s supper leftovers.  It wouldn’t have been so many except that the big kids skipped supper.  And now they have snacks to snack on in the freezer.

Enjoy!