Summer is beginning to fade away. The boys are all in football practice now and the last few school supplies will be purchased this week. I am so sad that our summer has flown away in the blink of an eye. So we are taking every opportunity to enjoy the beautiful weather and our relaxed schedule before school starts.
I diagonally laid out a couple of beach towels as table cloths. I set the table with fun place mats and white plastic plates that I picked up this summer at Wal Mart for twenty five cents each!
To get as much out of the summer vacation that we have left with the kids, we took a bike ride up to our favorite park and brought along a picnic breakfast. We used to do this when the kids were too young to ride their bikes. It is not necessarily a yearly tradition for us, but we have been enjoying picnic breakfasts for some time now.
The menu is always simple and easy to prepare and we must be able to carry everything for the picnic in a back pack. Last night we told the kids that we were going and they all scurried around to get their bikes, helmets, and clothes ready for this morning. It is so great to see that even a terribly sophisticated teenager can get excited about something so simple and basic.
We are taking juice boxes, green grapes, our big breakfast burritos, and morning glory muffins. Feeding my three football players can be a challenge at times, but I am pretty confident that even they will be able to fill up on this picnic.
So this morning we are making breakfast burritos. I love breakfast burritos. I love any kind of burrito actually. But more importantly my kids love burritos. I mean the LOVE them. They are so easy to make and if you make a double batch and freeze them, you have a quick grab anytime hunger strikes. And for teenagers, you'll be grabbing these babies quite often.
The board of ingredients is again simple and easy to find staples.
Start by browning and breaking up your pound of bulk sausage. Cook the sausage all the way through. While the sausage is cooking, you can shred the cheese.
When the sausage is cooked through, remove it from the pan with a slotted spoon and put the sausage into a big bowl.
Cook the bacon in the same hot pan the sausage was just cooked in. Cook the bacon until it is crisp. I drain the bacon on a paper towel for a few minutes to remove any excess fat. Then add the bacon to the bowl of sausage.
Then drain all the fat from the fry pan. If the fat dribbles on the edge of your pan you'll want to wipe it away with a paper towel so your pan does not catch on fire. Add your peppers and onions. Cook the veggies until they soften up and the onions are translucent. I use a wooden spoon to scrape the bottom of the pan while the veggies are cooking. The wooden spoon helps loosen the browned bits from the meat cooking and those browned bits are flavor.
When the veggies are cooked to your satisfaction add them to the bowl of meat.
Add the fat back to the fry pan and add the frozen hash browns. Season them with a pinch of salt and a pinch black pepper. Let them crisp up a bit after they are cooked. The crunchy bits are so good. Add the potatoes to the bowl of veggies and meat.
Mix it all together.
Crack a dozen eggs into a bowl.
Whisk them together.
Add a tiny drizzle of olive oil to your fry pan and add the eggs. Scramble the eggs until they are almost completely cooked. Then add the rest of the burritos mixture and combine.
And now we start assembling the breakfast burrito of champions. Slap down a sheet of wax paper. Nothing else will do. It must be wax paper.
Then put a tortilla down in the middle of the wax paper. Add 1/2 cup of burrito mixture down the center of the tortilla.
Add 1/4 cup of cheese to the top of the mixture.
Then fold the tortilla up.
Finally wrap the burrito up in the wax paper by folding the point facing towards yourself up and over the burrito.
Fold the two ends in towards the middle.
And roll the burrito away from you to finish.
I store the burritos in a plastic zip lock bag. They can then go in the freezer or into the fridge.
Thawed burritos can be microwaved on high for one minute and they come out steaming hot. Let them sit for at least a minute before you try to eat it.
Big Breakfast Burritos
Ingredients:
1 lb. Breakfast Sausage
1/4 lb. Bacon, Cut Into Thin Strips
1 Large Onion, Diced
1 Red Pepper, Diced
4 Cups Frozen Shredded Hash Browns
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
1 lb Cheese Shredded, Colby Jack or Other Melting Cheese
15 to 18 Fajitas Size Tortillas
Directions:
1. Fully cook the sausage in a large non stick fry pan over medium heat breaking the sausage into small bits as it cooks. Remove the sausage from the pan and put in a mixing bowl. Fully cook the bacon strips in the fry pan. Remove the cooked bacon from the pan and add it to the bowl of sausage. Pour the fat out of the pan into a small bowl. If any fat drips on the outside of the pan, wipe it off with a paper towel. Add the red pepper and onion to the fry pan. Cook the veggies until they are soft and tender. While the veggies cook stir them and scrape the bottom of the pan removing the brown bits from the pan. Add the cooked veggies to the bowl of meat. Add the fat back to the pan or discard and add the same amount of olive oil to the fry pan. Sprinkle the hash browns into the pan. Season the potatoes with salt and pepper. Cook the potatoes until they have crunchy edges. Add the cooked potatoes to the bowl of meat and veggies. Mix well.
2. Crack a dozen eggs into a bowl and whisk together. Add a swirl of olive oil to the bottom of the fry pan and add the eggs to the pan. Scramble the eggs until they are mostly cooked. Add the mixture of veggies, meat and potatoes to the eggs and mix well. When eggs are fully cooked, turn the heat off.
3. Place a sheet of wax paper on the counter and put a tortilla in the middle of the paper. Add a 1/2 cup of the egg mixture to the middle of the tortilla. Add a 1/4 cup of cheese to the top of the egg mixture. Fold the tortilla closed and wrap in the wax paper. Tear the wax paper back to enjoy or place the wrapped burritos in a storage container and either freeze or refrigerate them. Make 12 to 15 burritos. Enjoy!
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