A friend and I got together today and made 80 freezer burrito's ( 40 for each of us). We had a lot of fun and they came out great! We want to do it again so here's what we did.
Refried Beans - much cheaper to make your own. at least 3 nights before rinse, then soak pinto beans in a crock pot with enough water to cover them by 3" and add a little baking soda and let them sit overnight, (don't turn on the crock pot). I used this recipe : (http://www.kitchentreaty.com/easy-vegetarian-crock-pot-refried-beans-without-lard/) and TRIPLED the amount.
**This required 2 crock pots to cook them up the next day.
I substituted 1 diced onion for the onion powder. So for a triple recipe you will need:
3 lbs (6 Cups) Dry Pinto Beans - divide soaked and rinsed beans between the crock pots and add
9 cups of Broth ( 2 - 32 0z cartons of chicken broth ( 1 in each crock) plus 1 cup water each
6 TB Olive oil ( 3 T each C ) C = crock pot
6 cloves of garlic minced ( 3 each C)
2 tsp cumin ( 1 tsp each C)
1 onion diced ( 1/2 in each C)
2 tsp Chili Powder ( 1 tsp each C)
2 tsp Salt ( 1 tsp each C)
cook on low at least 8 -10 hours. Mash or blend with immersion blender when they are done.
Store in fridge until needed.
1 - 2 Days Before - Cook Chicken or Beef -
80 burrito's used about 10 lbs of Meat.
Cook chicken (crock pot, pressure cooker ..) until done and then shred.
It worked to put small batches in my food processor and hit the button 3-4 times quickly to get a nice consistency.
Add taco seasoning -2 TB and 1/3 C of water per pound. Or season with cumin and salt to taste.
For Beef - brown cubed steak pieces in fry pan and add seasonings. My friend bought steak sandwich meat and cooked it up quick in a pressure cooker with a little water. Shredded nicely.
Next chop up in food processor and sauté in frying pan with some olive oil:
6 small Onions
5 cloves Garlic
1 green Bell Pepper (seeded)
Mix the veggies into your meat mixture to taste. Store in fridge and heat up before assembling.
(You can make this the day of depending on how you cook it.)
Day of: Add 4 Cups of Rice to 8 cups of boiling water and cook until done.
Meanwhile juice 6 Limes. And put 2 big bunches of rinsed Cilantro leaves in food processor.
Stir lime juice and cilantro into rice. Add salt if you like.
Into a Bowl shred 2 - 9 oz packages of Queso (Mexican crumbling cheese).
(We also had 30 oz of Chihauhau cheese which we shredded. This cheese melts nicely but costs more so next time we may just use all Queso .)
Heat up griddle, spray with olive oil and lightly brown 8" Flour Tortilla's.
We did this in batches of 20.
Or you could wrap a package of 10 in a damp paper towel and microwave them until warm.
The heat makes them easier to roll.
Make an assembly line starting with plates of warm Tortilla's, then bowl of refried beans (rubber spatula made it easy to spread), then cilantro Rice, then Meat and finally Cheese.
Using a cookie sheet place 2 tortilla's side by side and add each of the ingredients.
Put the mixture more towards you instead of directly in the middle.
Start rolling and push in the ends as you go. After you have made about 10 of them wrap them tightly in saran wrap ( or tin foil) and place in labeled Freezer Ziploc bags.
We ate the first ones we made to see how they tasted and because we were hungry by then =]
It took us about 5 hours to do this today, that included making everything but the beans and cleaning up afterwards. If we make up the meat ahead of time it will go quicker.
I definitely want to do this again!
We figured that the best way to save money is to find the chicken and chihauhau cheese on sale and to make our own refried beans. I'm sure they will be gone quickly.
Shopping List:
3 lbs Dry Pinto beans
2 - 32 oz cartons of Chicken (or veggie) Broth
(We estimated that this was equal to about 9 cans of Refried Beans )
7 Onions
11 cloves Garlic
Cumin
Chili powder.
10 lbs Meat - chicken or steak (or 5 lbs of each)
Taco seasoning ( see recipe below)
2 big bunches of fresh Cilantro
1 green Bell Pepper
4 cups of Rice
6 Limes
32 oz Queso Cheese
80 - 8" Flour Tortilla's
Taco Seasoning:
Mix together:
4 TB Chili Powder
3 1/2 TB Paprika
3 TB Cumin
1 2/3 TB Onion Powder
1 2/3 TB Garlic Powder
1 Tb corn starch
Store in jar. Use 2 TB of seasoning with 1/3 cup of water per pound of meat.
