So, The Man, every once in awhile, likes to eat one of those frozen burrito type things.
You know, you buy them in the frozen, fake food section of the grocery for 89 cents? And they are always hard and so hot on the ends that they burn all the flesh off the roof of your mouth, and frozen in the middle? They are full of who knows what and terrible for you? But the middle filling part is sort of tasty, you know the part that's luke warm and not frozen and not so hot that it burns your tastebuds off before you can eat it? That part is kinda good?
He asked me awhile back (about a year ago or so) if I could make them because he was having trouble finding one that actually tasted as good as it should/could.
So in true Goodwife fashion, I got in the kitchen and this is what we came up with. They are good, they are tasty, and while not healthy by any stretch (probably??) they are a nice, occasional, weekend lunch!
First you need about a pound or so of some kind of ground meat. I use pork from our piggies that we raised.....and I sprinkle it with some seasoned salt and then I nuke it with the lid on until it's done. You can cook yours on the stove top if you'd like......
Then once your meat is done, and you've broken it up into nice small little crumbles, you are going to add in your favorite taco type seasoning. I used a packet of the stuff from Aldi, because I'm lazy like that, but if you've got some uber secret special blend that you grind yourself, then by all means go for it!
Then you are going to dump in some beans. I use home canned black beans, or home canned pinto beans. IF you are going to use store bought beans, I'd use refried beans. The reason being, that home canned beans are MUCH creamier than canned beans from the store and you want this filling to be pretty creamy.......
So you dump your beans in a bowl and mash them up a little with a fork. If you are using refried beans you can of course skip that step, and then you dump the beans in with your cooked, seasoned, ground meat and mix it up good. Then you are going to dump in some shredd-y cheese. I used mexican style from Aldi, but you can use whatever you'd like. I'd say about a cup?? Not really sure how much, but don't use too much or it will dry your meat mixture out.....
Now, you can use whatever size tortilla shell you'd like. I've got a hungry man on my hands, so I made super mondo burritos.....and the itty bitty ones are for me!
Then you are going to tear you off some wax paper.......
About this big in relation to your tortilla shell......
When I worked at Micky D's I opened 5 days a week and one of my tasks was to roll breakfast burritos. I rolled around 150-200 breakfast burritos a day, 5 days a week. After over a year of working there, I rolled literally thousands of burritos and didn't care if I ever rolled another one in my life, but consequently I became very good at it! You'd be surprised how many people struggled with rolling burritos....
So anyway, you slap your meat on there, however much you want in relation to how big/thick you want your burrito to be. Remember, I'm feeding a very hungry man so ours are pretty huge.
There are two ways you can fold this....the one end open style or the both ends closed style....this one I'm rolling one end open....
Bring the right edge of the tortilla up...
Then fold the bottom up and give a little tuck up there at the top to trap the meat.....
Then roll it over so the seam is down.....
Now drag it down to the corner of your paper....
And bring the corner up and over the burrito....
Fold each end in.....
And roll.......until you get to the top corner.
Repeat with the rest of your burritos and when you've got them all neatly rolled up, put them in a ziplock bag, label and toss in the freezer!
Total time on these, start to finish?? About 20 minutes......
I usually just put them right back into the tortilla bag, but I didn't use all the tortillas this time.
When you are ready to nuke these, I do them on defrost for about 2 or 3 minutes, then nuke them 1 minute at a time until they are done. This prevents those hard ends and frozen middle!
You could heat these in the oven if you aren't a microwave kind of person, but I'm not sure how long it would take and I'd do them in foil instead of wax paper....
So here's the recap.....
1# ground meat (I use pork)
Seasoned salt to taste
Cook meat, making sure to crumble well...
Add 1 packet of taco seasoning
Set aside.
Meanwhile mash up some home canned black or pinto beans, or else open up a can of refried beans. Add those to your meat mixture, then stir in about 1 cup of shredded cheese.
Assemble burritos, roll, roll in wax paper, and freeze!
To serve, heat in microwave or oven.
These are really delicious with some rice, salsa, guacamole, sour cream, whatever toppings you desire, or they are also great just by themselves!
Till next time......God Bless!
