Frozen Burritos

When Ryan lived alone, he survived on frozen burritos, and pizza. It's a quick and easy food that he didn't have to do much with. Even though I make delicious dinners with leftovers. Sometimes I am not home for dinner, or we are in hurry. For these occasions frozen burritos are perfect. I hate to buy them because it is packed with so much stuff and kinda spendy. I experimented a few months ago with freezing pre-made burritos. It was a success. I told him if we got a chest freezer I would make more burritos, and frozen mini pizzas. I was slacking a bit, until this weekend. The motivation train was rolling through my house. I canned veggie stock, homemade grape juice and pears in blackberry juice. After that was all done, I took on my last food project for the weekend BURRITOS! Layered with Cilantro cumin black beans, spicy ground beef and cheese. I Bought the tortillas from the Mexican grocery down the road, and snagged a refreshing Mexican coke. First was the beans, I used canned black beans, but this would be good with pinto or refried.

Black Beans:

3- 28 oz Black Beans

1 bunch Cilantro chopped

2 TBS Cumin

1 TBS Red pepper flakes

1 tsp Salt

 In a large pan on medium heat, toss in all the beans, make sure to stir to evenly heat the beans, I like mine partly smashed with some whole beans for texture. Add the cilantro, and spices. Let cook for 5-10 min to incorporate the flavors. Keep stirring every few min. Once ready take off the heat and set aside.

Taco Meat:

2 pounds ground beef, or turkey

1/2 yellow onion- diced small

1 TBS olive oil

Taco seasoning for 2 pounds meat- I used trader Joe's taco seasoning

14 oz tomato sauce or diced tomatoes

3 TBS Jalapeno juice- from canned jalapenos (optional)

In a large pan on medium heat, heat the olive oil and saute the onion. Saute until translucent. Add the meat in small chunks around the pan. Cook meat until browned and broken up into small chunks. Drain off the fat. Add the taco seasoning and tomato sauce to browned meat and simmer for 5 min. Take off heat and set aside.

To assemble you will need:

12 Flour tortillas

12oz grated Cheddar cheese

Cilantro Black Beans

Cooked Taco Meat

If you have the counter space, you can build several burritos at once, assembly-line style, or just stuff them one by one.

The first burrito will help you figure out how much you can stuff in each tortilla and still be able to roll it. Take your filled tortillas, nudge the pile of filling toward one side (you can pull up the opposite end of the tortilla to shape it more into a line), then tuck the sides and begin to roll it tightly, tucking in as needed. Place the assembled burrito on a tray, seam side down. Repeat until all the burritos have been assembled. I had space to put the whole tray in my freezer, once they are frozen I will store in a freezer bag or two. To reheat in the microwave it only takes about 2-3 min on high. Add a bit of hot sauce and you are set for some quick and easy meals.