Freezer Breakfast Burritos: A Month of Mornings in One Afternoon

The school bus comes at 7:12, and for the first week of every school year, breakfast at our house looks like a hostage negotiation. Somebody wants toast, somebody wants the last of the cereal, somebody is crying because the toast is "too toasty." Last year I tried something different and spent one Saturday afternoon rolling breakfast burritos. It worked so well that I did it again today, one week into the new school year.

Thirty burritos cost me about $27.50, which is roughly 92 cents each. A box of frozen ones at the store runs well over two dollars apiece, and a drive-thru breakfast for Mike on the way to work costs more than the whole batch lasts him in a week. He takes two a day in his lunch cooler and eats them at his first break.

What goes in them

Prices are what I paid at Aldi and Giant in late August. Yours will vary a little.

• 30 burrito-size flour tortillas (3 packs of 10) - $7.50
• 24 eggs - $6.00
• 1 lb bulk breakfast sausage - $3.50
• 2 lb bag frozen diced potatoes - $2.80
• 1 lb shredded cheddar - $4.00
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed - $0.80
• 1 onion and 1 green pepper, diced - $1.50
• About 1 cup jarred salsa - $1.00
• Oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder - $0.40

Total: about $27.50 for 30 burritos.

How I make them

1. Roast the potatoes. Toss the frozen potatoes with a spoonful of oil, salt and garlic powder. Spread them on a sheet pan and bake at 425 degrees for about 25 minutes, stirring once, until the edges are brown.
2. Brown the sausage. Cook it in your biggest skillet with the onion and pepper, breaking it up as you go. Drain off most of the grease and stir in the black beans.
3. Scramble the eggs soft. Whisk all 24 eggs with a little salt and pepper and cook them over medium-low heat. Pull them off while they still look a touch wet, because they'll cook again when you reheat them.
4. Cool everything. Spread the eggs, potatoes and sausage out on sheet pans and let them sit for 20 to 30 minutes. Don't skip this step. I'll explain why below.
5. Warm the tortillas. Ten seconds in the microwave, a few at a time, so they fold without cracking.
6. Assemble. Set up an assembly line: a scoop of eggs, a scoop of potatoes and sausage, a pinch of cheese and about a teaspoon of salsa. That's roughly a heaping half cup of filling total. Fold in the sides and roll tight.
7. Wrap and freeze. Wrap each one in foil or a square of parchment, then pack them into gallon freezer bags. Lay the bags flat in the freezer until they're solid.

Reheating without the rubbery middle

Take the foil off (please, learn from my microwave's one scary spark), wrap the burrito in a damp paper towel and microwave it for one minute. Flip it and go another 45 to 60 seconds. Let it sit for a minute before biting in, because the center holds heat like lava.

For a crispy outside, reheat it in the microwave for about a minute and then finish it in a dry skillet for a couple of minutes per side. The kids think this is fancy. It is not.

Notes from a few batches

• Soggy tortillas mean you rushed. My very first batch went straight from the skillet into the tortillas. The steam turned into ice crystals, and the tortillas thawed into something like wet paper. Cooling the filling fixes it completely.
• Go easy on the salsa. A teaspoon adds flavor. A spoonful makes them soggy. I keep a jar in the fridge for anyone who wants more.
• Make a kid version. Rosie only eats egg and cheese, so I roll six plain ones and write an R on the foil with a marker. Owen wants his "no green stuff," so his get an O and no peppers.
• Cheaper swap. Leave out the sausage, double the beans and add a second can. The batch drops to about $25 and nobody at our table complained.
• How long they keep. They're best within six weeks. By week eight they start to taste like the freezer.

The whole job takes about two and a half hours, including cleanup. Ella is old enough to run the tortilla station now, which speeds things up and sometimes results in burritos shaped like footballs. They still taste the same.

Thirty burritos won't quite last a full month with Mike taking two a day, so next time I'm doubling the eggs and buying a fourth pack of tortillas. Same afternoon, a few more weeks of quiet mornings.