Make-ahead breakfast burritos

I’ve been trying to streamline as much of the work week as possible – lots of make-ahead dinners are par for the course, but I’ve never been very good at make-ahead breakfasts.  Curt usually eats granola bars and I typically will have yogurt and granola, but I’m growing bored.  Also I find that the more protein I have in the morning, the longer I can go without feeling hungry again.

I found this recipe on Pinterest as well – it’s like a sickness, all this pinteresting.  I did modify it somewhat, because I wanted something a little more eggy and a little less meaty.

Make-ahead breakfast burritos

1 lb bacon

12 eggs

2 lb potatoes

1 TB chili powder

2 TB olive oil

Salt & pepper

1 C grated cheddar

12 flour tortillas (soft taco size)

Preheat oven to 400F.  Cut potatoes into bite-sized pieces (smaller pieces wrap better in the burritos).  Toss potatoes in olive oil, chili powder and salt & pepper and place them on a cookie sheet.  Roast about 45 minutes or until tender, stirring every 15 – 20 minutes.

Obligatory “what’s taters, Precious?”

While potatoes are roasting, cook bacon and crumble.   Beat the eggs together with a couple of tablespoons of water, and cook in a large non-stick skillet until scrambled.  Combine eggs and bacon.

Add potatoes and cheese and stir to combine.

To assemble, soften one tortilla by microwaving for 10 – 15 seconds.  Place tortilla on your surface of choice, and put a scoop of filling in the center of the tortilla.  Slightly less filling is better, because if you use too much filling the tortillas will tear.

Fold over the edges and sides to make a packet, and then place folded sides down on a baking sheet.

The finished product.  Cover and freeze until firm – several hours or overnight.  Then I pull them off the sheet and put in a ziplock so we can grab them in the morning.

To warm up, microwave for one to two minutes on medium to defrost, then about another minute on high to warm through.  If the tortillas are too tough once warmed up, sprinkling your burrito with a few drops of water may help.  I eat them with a whole bunch of salsa, because salsa is my friend and I heart it so.

Salad in a jar experiment

Why, hello there.  Yes, I am still alive and yes, the child is doing well – she just makes it hard for me to post.

I found this salad in a jar post on Pinterest and was intrigued.  I eat a lot of fruit, but I struggle to eat raw vegetables because I just don’t find salads that interesting most of the time.  Also, who wants to assemble a salad at 7:15 in the morning on a Tuesday?  Not I.

Anyway, I am forever buying “salad stuff” and then leaving it in the fridge to rot.  I thought this might be a good way to pre-make lunch salads and then I would be able to just grab them from the fridge daily during the week.  Winning at salad!  Yay!

On Sunday, May 20th I assembled five salad jars with the following (listed first into the jar to last):

• Homemade vinaigrette
• Sliced yellow bell pepper
• Sliced scallions
• Slice cremini mushrooms
• Green peas (from frozen)
• Crumbled blue cheese
• Spring mix
• Baby spinach

Salad in a jar, hanging out in my office.

Then I sealed up my jars, put them in the refrigerator, and went on my merry way.  Note that I do not have a vacuum sealer and when I say “sealed up” I mean “put the lids on and screwed shut.”

Monday:  Looking very good, some of the peas discolored from touching the dressing.  No decline in quality though.  Everything was tasty and the texture was good.

Tuesday:  Looks about the same as Monday.  Mushrooms are starting to get a little soggy which concerns me, but are still fine.

Wednesday:  Mushrooms looking quite weird and have shown a precipitos decline in quality.  Quite soggy and I didn’t eat most of them.  I am afraid for Friday.  The rest of the veg holding strong and the spinach/greens were not soggy at all.

Thursday:  Same as yesterday!  I am less afraid for tomorrow.  The decline in quality of mushrooms soaked in vinaigrette appears to progress in non-linear fashion.

I can’t believe I just wrote that sentence but I kind of love it.

Friday:   A few of the greens were kind of soggy, but I am inclined to believe they would have been soggy anyway because most of them were fine.  Mushrooms the same, everything else was great!

It works!  I didn’t think it was possible but it works!  I am definitely doing this again.

Happy Memorial Day weekend, everyone.  Have fun!