Freezer Burritos - Beef, Bean and Rice

If you need a good recipe to feed a crowd, or want to stock your freezer full, this burrito recipe from Tammy's Recipes is a great one to make. It will make about 15 medium sized burritos that you can enjoy now or later. I love finding recipes that you can make ahead and that freeze really well. This was my first time cooking dry beans but you can use canned to make this even easier if you want. I also like the addition of ground beef but you can leave it out if you want to make these vegetarian, just increase the amount of beans and rice each by one cup.

Freezer Burritos
recipe slightly adapted from Tammy's Recipes

Ingredients:
1 lb pinto beans, dry -or- 3 cups of canned (or other bean of your choice)
3 cups cooked rice, brown or white
1 lb ground beef, turkey or chicken
2 Tbsp homemade taco seasoning -or- 1/2 packet of store bought taco seasoning
Frank's Red Hot Sauce (or other hot sauce of your choice)
3 cups shredded Mexican blend cheese
8 inch flour tortillas (about 15)
sour cream & hot sauce for serving

Directions:
If you want to make your own beans, soak them the night before in a big bowl or pot. In the morning, drain the beans (pick out any bad ones) and rinse them well. Place the beans and new fresh water in your crockpot and cook on high for 1 hour. Turn to low and cook an additional 4-5 hours, until beans are fork tender BUT not falling apart. Drain out any excess liquid and season with salt generously to taste. This method will you give you tasty tender pinto beans. They are delicious. I used half for the burritos and froze the rest for another meal.

Prepare the rice. You can use brown or white, instant or long grain. Completely your choice.

The beans and rice can be prepared at any time and stored in the fridge until you are ready to make the burritos. In a LARGE skillet, brown the ground beef (or turkey or chicken) over medium heat. Drain any excess grease. Mix in the taco seasonings and turn heat to low.
Add the pinto beans (if you use canned, rinse them very well before adding) or other bean of your choice.
Next, add the prepared rice.
Mix very well until the ground meat, beans and rice are well combined and warmed through.
Now, this next step is completely optional but we love Frank's Red Hot sauce so we add about 3 Tablespoons to the mixture.
Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Add the shredded cheese.
Mix again and taste a forkful. Delicious. I could eat it just like this, especially with some tortilla chips. It is so yummy.
Assemble your burritos. I wrapped each on in square sheets of aluminium foil. You can actually buy boxes of foil sheets, who knew? Place a very generous 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup on each tortilla.
Wrap your burrito by folding in the sides and then rolling to the opposite side.
Make sure the seam is on the underside and wrap well in the foil sheet.
Now you have your first burrito. Keep going until you run out. I made about 15 and still had some of the meat/bean/rice mixture leftover.
I made some of these for dinner and froze the rest. To freeze, place about 5 burritos in a large gallon sized ziplock bag and store in freezer. To cook fresh OR frozen, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place the foil wrapped burritos directly on the oven rack and cook for 25 minutes if fresh and about 35-40 minutes if frozen.
Serve with hot sauce and sour cream.

Enjoy!