Freezer Meal: Breakfast Burritos
One of my goals for the new year is to do more freezer meals for my family. In looking over my spending habits for 2011 I can clearly see that our family spent entirely too much money eating out and I need to bring that down in 2012. So the plan is, to make more meals at home and have items in my freezer ready to be warmed up or cooked for easy meals that don’t cost me a fortune.
Even though I have a stockpile of food there are many days where I look and say “we don’t have anything to eat”. What that really means is that I didn’t thaw out any meat or plan something for dinner or I just don’t want to cook. I am a lucky girl in that my husband cooks 50% of the meals for our crew. We switch days on who cooks and who cleans the kitchen. That works for us. We both work a full-time job. It was not always this way however because I have been a stay-at-home/work-at-home mom for 20+ years and I used to do all of the cooking and cleaning. It took my husband some time to get around to the notion that I now work a full time job, often longer hours than he does at his job outside of the home.
So, back to the goal….do more batch cooking and have options in my freezer ready to go for those days we don’t feel like cooking and are tempted to going out for dinner or grabbing a donut or muffin at the store.
I hate cooking breakfast. I am not a morning person. I dislike the smell of food cooking first thing in the morning. And I don’t want to eat breakfast until after 10 AM. The problem is, I am the only person in my household who is like this. Everyone else wants to eat as soon as they wake up and on the weekends they all want home cooked hot breakfast and not cold cereal. So in our first freezer meal project my husband and I whipped up some yummy breakfast burritos.
Ingredients:
- 2 lbs. bacon, diced
- 2 lbs. breakfast sausage
- 1 large onion, diced small
- 1 cup diced bell pepper (I used frozen diced bell pepper)
- 20 eggs
- 36 fajita sized flour tortillas
- 1 (8 oz.) bag shredded cheddar cheese
Directions:
In a large skillet (I used my electric skillet) cook the bacon until browned. Drain grease from bacon and set aside on a plate with a few paper towels to absorb the grease.
In the same skillet brown and crumble the sausage until cooked through. Drain grease from sausage and set it aside on another plate with a few paper towels to absorb the excess grease.
Using the same skillet saute the onion and bell pepper till the onion is translucent and the peppers are soft yet a little crisp.
While the onion and bell pepper are cooking, crack and scramble the eggs. For large quantities of eggs like this, I like to scramble them in my blender.
Once the bell peppers and onion are cooked add the eggs and cook just as you would for scrambled eggs, stirring the egg mixture while cooking until they are cooked through, being careful not to over cook the eggs. Then add the cooked bacon and sausage to the eggs.
Turn off the heat to the pan and sprinkle egg mixture with cheese. Cover pan and let it sit for about 5 minutes to let the cheese melt.
In a frying pan (or Comal if you have one) warm your tortillas one at a time and proceed to make your breakfast burritos. Always warm your tortillas first to prevent them from cracking while folding your burritos. Use about 1/4 cup of filling for each burrito (I did not measure this).
Continue making burritos until you run out of either filling or tortillas (or if you do it right…both at the same time)
Once all of your burritos are made, wrap each one in plastic wrap and place into labeled freezer bags and seal, removing as much air as possible. Frozen burritos will store for 2-3 months in regular freezer bags. For longer freezer storage you can seal them with your Foodsaver and they will last 5-6 months easily.
To eat, unwrap a burrito and place on microwave safe plate. Cover loosly with the plastic wrap and microwave for 1 minute, flip over and cook one more minute. Serve with Tabasco or salsa if desired.
*Note – you can stretch this recipe even further by cooking up some shredded potatoes or frozen hash browns after cooking the bacon and sausage (set aside and add back in at the end). Potatoes are a inexpensive filler to make even more breakfast burritos. You can also add ham, tomatoes, change up the type of cheese you use (pepper jack?), add some spinach or other veggies.
I used coupons for most of the ingredients for this recipe except for the eggs, which we usually buy by the flat, and tortillas, which I didn’t have any coupons for. But I figured the cost for me to make this was about 75¢ – 80¢ per burrito. I buy sausage, bacon and cheese when I can get it cheap and freeze it so I pulled those out of the freezer to make this. I had the frozen bell peppers in my freezer because I bought a couple of bags when they were on markdown at Albertsons for 25¢ a bag. The onion was fresh and cheap. I paid like $2 per package of tortillas. Overall it was pretty inexpensive I think for a hot breakfast I can serve my kids any day of the week. And I can warm theirs up at the crack of dawn when they want to eat, then warm mine up after 10 AM when I want to eat!
Printable VersionTags: Breakfast, Breakfast Burritos, Burittos, Freezer Meals, OAMC, Once A Month Cooking
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These sound delicious. I have to start cooking our of my stockpile more too. Thanks for the recipe!
Awesome idea, ty4s. I can’t wait to see your other ideas. I am SAHM but often I find myself saying the same thing when I have stockpiles too. This is a great plan.
I love this idea! I will definitely be trying freezer meals this year.
Thanks ladies for the comments – these really are tasty and something I will be making at least once a month for sure. Everyone in our house loves them.
This sounds great. I am going to do this too for my grandchildren that stay with me in the mornings before school. Thanks. Can’t wait for other ideas.
I love to freezer cook! I make regular Mexican burritos with ground beef or turkey (onions and peppers cooked with the meat), spanish rice, refried beans, salsa – of course if you aren’t on a low-fat diet like we are you can add the sour cream and shredded cheese as well. I make a huge batch every 2 months and we love them!
I buy a breakfast burrito almost every morning, and it gets expensive! You’ve inspired me to save some money! Thanks!
Great idea! I have a big bag of southern style hashbrowns I’m going to throw in too. In your picture, is that really only one cup of cheese? No way…fess up! ;) I’m thinking two cups for my cheesy kids.
Hey Tomi, thanks for pointing out the cheese. No that is not one cup but one bag of cheese (I edited the recipe). But you can add as much cheese as you like of course! The hash-browns is a great addition. With a bag of hash-browns you could easily make another 10 or so burritos.
hi, these look delicious!! and thankfully we have all the ingredients in the uk so i will be making some! one quick question, the cooking time ( in the microwave) is that from frozen? x
Hi SAHM-uk thanks for stopping by! The microwave re-heating time is from frozen.
Just wondering what size bag — 2 cups? 4? I am one of those people who needs specifics because I don’t trust my instincts!! These look wonderful — and for my family of spicy-food lovers, I might add some pepper-jack cheese!
Hi Betsy I used a 8 oz bag of cheese. (I will add that to the recipe)
Can you use corn tortillas (my bf and I are Gluten sensitive) or do they not heat up as well from frozen?
Hi Magan,
I would guess that you could use corn tortillas, however they are so much smaller and would be really hard to fold into burritos. I think you could maybe use corn tortillas and the same filling and make breakfast soft tacos instead. Also they do make gluten free tortillas, La Tortillas Factory, French Meadow (look for the printable coupon link on there too!), Food For Life and I am sure other brands make them as well. You could also make your own, here is a recipe I found, looks a little complicated, but then again I have never tried making gluten free tortillas.
You are so helpful! Thank you :)
These sound great!! I think I might try them for my hubby to heat up as he is running out of the house for work every morning. My son will love them too. However, I have a daughter that refuses to eat eggs. Maybe I can try a few with the hashbrowns and other ingredients but just leave out the eggs. Thanks for sharing!!!
Hi Rebekah these are great for hubbys, my husband has been taking one to work every now and then and heating up when he gets there. And you could totally make these up without the eggs and use hashbrowns for your daughter.
I highly suggest this concept! This has LITERALLY changed my life. With 6 children and a crazy schedule like most families. I have been a group for over 2 years that cooks about once every 2 1/2 months and we make 100 meals in about 5 hours. We go home with 24 each and leave one each for our church. We make the meals for 8 and spend on average about $8 or $9 per meal. You can read on my blog how we do it. I am working really hard to get more details on there because people are asking me all the time how we do it. I am also sharing our recipes. It really makes me happy to know that all I have to do is put out a large frozen baggie of food to thaw and then just simply cook it and I’m done! Go for it! Love the recipe!
Do you possibly know the the amount of calories or sodium that is in each serving?
I have no idea. You could run the ingredient list through recipe calculator. Here is one I have used in the past. It would really depend on what brand of tortillas, cheese, sausage and bacon you are using. – http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp
For anyone wanting to know the Weight Watchers points- I just made a 1/2 batch of this & used 2 cups of cheese. Each one is 7 points. I used regular everything(not reduced fat etc) HTH!
Good to know, thanks JoesWife for the Weight Watchers points update!
Those burritos look amazing. I love the batch cooking too. Great ideas!
Any suggestions you can give if you don’t have an electric skillet? May I should just break down and purchase one.
Hi Nancy, you can easily do this in a very large skillet on the stove top too. Since most skillets are not big enough to hold all of the ingredients once cooked you may just need to do your batches of everything and toss in a big bowl and combine then make your burittos.
I love my electric skillet though and since I am cooking for a large family we find we use it just about every day for everything. Grilled cheese sandwiches, pancakes, stir fry and everything in between. They are not that expensive either. I think ours was around $20 at Walmart. We can fit 6 pancakes or grilled cheese sandwiches at one time which is nice because then I can eat a hot meal at the same time as the rest of the family!
do I need to wrap each burrito individually or can I wrap a few together? 2 at a time would work great since we both wake up for breakfast at the same time. I am just looking to save some time on the wrapping end????
Hi Jayke, thanks for dropping by. I would think you could wrap burritos in pairs of two if you would normally heat up two at a time. Don’t see any reason why that would not work out for you.
I just made these today. I didn’t have an electric skillet so I used my biggest pan. After I cooked the eggs with the peppers and onions I transferred the eggs to a giant mixing bowl and combined them with the bacon and sausage there. I also didn’t add the cheese like you said. I put the cheese inside the tortilla before wrapping. Turned out great and I am so happy to have breakfast done for a while :)
That is awesome Cherie that you made them and they turned out good. It really is nice knowing that you have something ready to heat and eat for breakfast isn’t it?
Cannot wait to make these! What a brilliant idea!
Making these in the morning… bought a ton of tortillas last night at ALdis…. 99 cents for a bag of 10!!! =)
Awesome deal Amber on the the tortillas! I hope you stocked up on them!
Made these this morning…great idea and i added OreIda potatoes O’brien for the peppers and onions. And for my spicy husband…seasoned with a little cumin and cayenne pepper. They were a HIT! They will be freezer ready for him to take to work! Thank you!!
Awesome, I love adding potatoes to ours too. Stretches them out a little bit more!
Thanks for the idea. Can’t wait to try more recipes, I’m making the Rigatoni this afternoon. Made these this morning. Seemed like a lot of bacon so I didn’t use a full 2lbs and ended up getting 36-40 (lost count as we ate a few). I’m working out in the morning before work and need some protein to refuel, this will be much better than a bowl of cereal! Thank you!
These are wonderful. We made them in our cook a month in a day, day. Put a little salsa on them and they are great.
Sandy, that is awesome! Do you have a group of people that do once a month cooking together?
Great recipe! I have 2 bags of hash browns that I was wondering what to do with…
I am about to have baby #4 and this is great. I am going to have a c-section in May 2012 so this is going to help me out alot. Cant wait to start making freezer meals. Thank you again
This is my go-to breakfast now!! I make up a huge batch (I do add a bag of the fresh hash browns) and put them away in the freezer so on busy mornings I know I have a yummy breakfast just a few seconds in the microwave away!! Thanks so much for posting!!
That is awesome Lynne, thanks for stopping by and letting me know that you are whipping these up. I have been making more of these myself and playing with different combos. I added some fried country potatoes to my last batch and used Jack cheese – yummy!
These sound yummy. I also make extra pancakes and french toast and freeze them. I would just but the in the toaster oven when ever they wanted something hot. Thank you for the idea.
I found this on pinterest and am so anxious to try it! I just have one question; do you let your burritos cool down all the way before freezing them or do you freeze them while they are still warm?
Hi Nellie, thanks for dropping by! I just go ahead and wrap them up and freeze while still warm. Either way I don’t think it matters.
I also found this on pinterest and made them a few weeks ago. I substituted turkey bacon and loaded it up with veggies to make it a little healthier, and they are GREAT, and so easy :) Thanks for the recipe and idea!
That is awesome Mary, I am so happy you enjoyed the recipe and idea. What veggies did you end up adding? I am always looking for ways to add more veggies to our diets.
[...] And I don’t want to have to do the dishes every single morning. So when I came across this recipe for freezer breakfast burritos, I knew I had to start making [...]