Black Bean, Cilantro and Lime Freezer Burritos

Yay!  I have a camera again so I can take pictures and blog.  For some reason, without a photograph, I am at a loss for blog posts.  Hopefully I'll be able to become more regular in my blogging once again.  But, enough of that.  Let's talk food!

I recently came across some homemade freezer burritos from Tammy's Recipes.  My hubby likes to keep the frozen ones on hand (when I remember to buy them) that you can pick up in packages of six at about any grocery store.  They make a quick meal when life gets uber-busy.  These burritos tend to give me heart burn.  Plus, the last package I bought had a huge list of ingredients that I couldn't pronounce and am pretty certain that I couldn't walk into a store and buy.  In the interest of cutting as much processing out of our diet as possible I was pretty happy to come across Tammy's simple and inexpensive version.

Basically, it's just equal amounts of beans, brown rice and cheese, with a little (or a lot of) hot sauce for flavor.  The beauty of these burritos is that you can totally customize the flavors or ingredients (like beef or chicken) to accommodate your family's preferences.  You can also use gluten-free tortillas and make them G-free. You can click here to see Tammy's step-by-step tutorial.

When I made them the first time I made them with pinto beans just as in the original recipe.  However, added some spices like cumin, salt, paprika and chili powder for extra flavor.  These were really good and a big hit with my son who requested them several days a week for lunch.  I much prefer him eating these than the frozen dinners he usually prefers.  They were fairly easy to prepare - just pull the foil wrapped burritos from the freezer and stick in a 400 degree oven for about 35 - 40 minutes.  No need to thaw first.

I got to thinking about some different flavor combinations, though.  I had recently stocked up on some dry beans when they went on sale and thought that black beans would go famously with the cilantro that grows like crazy in our garden.  So, this weekend I set out to make another batch using black beans, cilantro and lime.

The first thing I did was soak a 1 pound bag of black beans over night and then cooked them.  Once they were done I drained them.  In the meantime I cooked some brown rice with a cilantro sauce I made and had frozen.  I'll share the recipe for that tomorrow.  This is how it came together.

Put the drained beans in a large bowl.  I found that 1 pound of black beans gave me 5 cups.

Add 5 cups of cilantro rice.

Next, I added hot sauce and lime juice to taste.  Next time I will add cumin as well.

Finally, add cheese.  Once again this is personal.  I used colby jack, but you can use whatever suits your fancy.  I used two bags because I like how the cheese gets all melty and holds everything together, but you could certainly cut that amount in half.

Stir it all together.

Now they're ready to be filled.  I used two packs of burrito sized flour tortillas, giving me 21 finished burritos.

Fold them up burrito style and wrap.  For this batch I opted to wrap the burritos in wax paper instead of aluminum foil in hopes that I could heat them in the microwave.  It worked like a charm - just nuke frozen burritos for about 2 minutes.  After wrapping individual burritos simply place into gallon sized freezer bags and stick into the freezer.  I can get about 6 in a bag.

The nice thing about these is that you can cook the beans and rice one day and then assemble them the next.  This makes a lot of burritos for a little bit of work.  Plus, they taste much better than the artificial ingredient laden, heart burn causing, store bought freezer burritos.

So, if you're like me and looking for some quick and healthier options to whip up in no time on a busy day or evening - give home made freezer burritos a try.

Update:  I sent these to work with my hubby for lunch yesterday and he liked them even better than the original version, which he liked very much. Score!

Happy Monday!