I can’t lie, guys. Sometimes I crave those cheap freezer burritos. They’re just so easy to buy and stash in your freezer for days when you don’t feel like cooking. But guess what? It really doesn’t take a lot of time or effort to make your own freezer burritos, with ingredients you choose, and they’ll still be super cheap. So this weekend I whipped up a batch of super simple Make Ahead Bean and Cheese Burritos to feed us for the week (and beyond). I stored half in my fridge for the next few days, and the rest went into the freezer for longer storage (but let’s be real, they’ll be gone in a couple of weeks).
Burrito Filling Options
I made my burritos super simple with just some seasoned rice, black beans, cheese, taco sauce, and a few green onions, but the options for what you could put in your make ahead burritos is endless. Here are some great options:
- Taco seasoned ground meat or meat substitute
- Scrambled eggs
- Roasted vegetables
- pulled pork and pineapples
- Jalapeños
- Carnitas
- Refried beans (instead of whole beans)
You can add just about anything to your burritos, as long as the ingredient isn’t very watery or has a high water content (like fresh lettuce or tomatoes). Ingredients with a lot of water won’t store well in the refrigerator or freezer and are best added to burritos that will be consumed the same day.
Bean and Cheese Burritos
Servings 8Ingredients
Seasoned Rice
- 1 Tbsp cooking oil ($0.04)
- 1 clove garlic, minced ($0.08)
- 1 tsp chili powder ($0.10)
- 1/4 tsp ground cumin ($0.02)
- 1/4 tsp oregano ($0.02)
- 1 cup long grain white rice ($0.53)
- 1/2 tsp salt ($0.02)
- 1.5 cups water ($0)
Burritos
- 2 15oz. cans black beans ($1.18)
- 2 cups shredded cheddar ($1.50)
- 2 green onions ($0.17)
- 1/2 cup taco sauce ($0.88)
- 8 large flour tortillas ($2.39)
Instructions
- Begin making the seasoned rice first, so you can prepare the rest of the ingredients as the rice cooks. Add the cooking oil and minced garlic to a sauce pot and sauté over medium for about one minute, just to take the raw edge off the garlic.
- Add the chili powder, cumin, oregano, and rice to the pot. Continue to sauté, stirring continuously, for about two more minutes to toast the rice and spices.
- Carefully add the water and salt to the pot, place a lid on top, and turn the heat up to high. Allow the pot to come up to a boil, then turn the heat down to low. Allow the pot to simmer on low for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, turn the heat off, and let the rice rest undisturbed for five more minutes. Finally, fluff the rice with a fork.
- While the rice is cooking, rinse and drain the black beans well. Slice the green onions.
- When the rice is finished cooking and you’re ready to assemble the burritos, stack four tortillas on a large plate and place a damp paper towel over top. Microwave for 30 seconds to steam the tortillas, to make them more pliable and easy to roll. Steam the next four tortillas only when you’re ready to begin working with them.
- To each tortilla add about 1/3 cup rice, 1/3 cup beans, 1 Tbsp taco sauce, 1/4 cup shredded cheddar, and a few slices of green onion. Roll the burritos up tightly, making sure to fold in the sides first to hold in the the filling.
- Store the burritos in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for 4-5 days, or wrap each burrito individually in parchment paper or plastic wrap, then place in a freezer bag, and store for up to three months.
- To Cook from Refrigerated: Place the burrito in a skillet or on a grill pan and cook over medium-low heat until the outside is brown and crispy and the cheese is melted on the inside.
- To Cook from Frozen in Microwave: Set the microwave to the defrost setting for approximately 9 minutes, or the defrost by weight setting, programmed to one pound.
- To Cook from Frozen in the Oven: Wrap the burrito in foil and bake in a preheated 350ºF oven for approximately 40 minutes.
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Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!How to Make Bean and Cheese Burritos – Step by Step Photos
Begin the rice first so you can prepare the rest of the filling ingredients as the rice cooks. Add 1 Tbsp cooking oil and one minced clove of garlic to a sauce pot. Sauté the garlic over medium heat for only about a minute to take the raw edge off the garlic. Next, add 1 tsp chili powder, 1/4 tsp cumin, and 1/4 tsp oregano.
Also add 1 cup uncooked long grain white rice. Continue to sauté the rice and spices for about two minutes, which will toast the rice and spices and enhance their flavor.
Next, add 1.5 cups water and 1/2 tsp salt. Place a lid on the pot, turn the heat up to high, and allow it to come to a boil. As soon as it reaches a boil, turn the heat down to low and let it simmer on low for 15 minutes.
After simmering for 15 minutes, turn the heat off and let the rice rest undisturbed for another five minute. Finally, fluff the rice with a fork. While the rice is simmering and resting, rinse and drain two cans of black beans, and slice two green onions.
When you’re ready to assemble your burritos, place 4 large tortillas on a plate and cover them with a damp paper towel. Microwave for 30 seconds to steam the tortillas, which will make them more pliable and easy to roll (steam the second four when you’re ready for them).
To make each burrito, place about 1/3 cup of the seasoned rice, and 1/3 cup of the black beans on each tortilla.
Then add 1 Tbsp taco sauce… (this helps keep the burritos moist)
And finally, 1/4 cup shredded cheddar and a few slices of green onion. Roll the burritos up tightly, making sure to fold the sides in first to hold in the filling.
And now you’ve got eight burritos ready for eating or storing for later!
You can keep your burritos in the refrigerator for 4-5 days. To cook them from the refrigerator you can just place them in a skillet or on a grill pan and cook over medium until the tortillas are brown and crispy, and the cheese is melted on the inside.
Or you can freeze them for about 3 months. Knowing that we’ll eat these up within a couple weeks, I took the lazy route and just popped them into a freezer bag. If you want to store for longer and prevent freezer burn, you will want to wrap each burrito individually in either plastic or parchment before placing them in the freezer bag.
To reheat the burritos from frozen, you can either use your microwave’s defrost setting (mine took about 9 minutes on defrost) or reheat in the oven. Using the oven does take some time from frozen. Wrap your burrito in foil and place in a preheated 350ºF oven for about 40 minutes.
And then enjoy! If you want to reheat from frozen and still get that nice crispy exterior, I’d first do the defrost in the microwave and then crisp it up in a skillet at the end.
I really enjoy the photographs you include with the recipes (besides the fact that your recipes are out of this world good). I typically ‘read’ your posts first with a little food photo gazing, and then get to the meat of the matter.
Keep up the awesome photography work – the effort is well worth it and adds a well-appreciated dimension to your posts.
We smear refried beans across the wrapper, add a couple spoons of taco meat and diced onions. Tuck and roll, chill, freeze, and bag. To eat, thaw, place on a small plate, drench with enchilada sauce, sprinkle with shredded cheese. Nuke for a couple of minutes for an approximation of Taco Bell’s enchirito. Marvelous! Add a handful of sliced black olives to make it more like the original version.
These look really tasty! I might try to add pineapple to a filling featuring ham and cheese, i.e. a Hawaiian burrito! :)
Hmm. That sounds good to me. You’d better check with Janet below, though. She seems to have a lot of rules about what’s acceptable in a burrito 🤪
Made it twice in one week, it was awesome!
I like your suggestion for adding scrambled eggs, as this seems like it could be a quick grab-and-go breakfast. Would you still consider them freezable, and if so, would the freezing directions change at all?
Yep, you can still freeze them. I would make sure they are cooled completely in the fridge before transferring to the freezer, just to minimize the ice crystal formation as much as possible.
Yum!! Made these for our meal prep. We added a shredded bbq chicken. Next week we’ll add tinned corn & a bit more salsa. So easy and tasty!
These look incredible! I will definitely be making these soon, I love freeze ahead meals, and this is a good one because it’s so hearty! Thanks for sharing!!
What is taco sauce? As a Canadian, I am not familiar with this product.
Overall, this sounds delicious and it is officially on my list to try out.
It’s a slightly tangy sauce that has southwest spices in it.
I was going to use a thick salsa.
Is the rice to water ratio correct? I usually use 1 part rice to two parts water, so would use 2 cups of water for the one cup of rice.
A lot of people do 1:2 for rice, but I always do 1:1.5 and it turns out great. I would just stick to the ratio that you’re used to using.
When exactly did rice become a burrito component? When I ate them in Texas during 80s and 90s they were rice free, usually filled with refried beans and/or meat elements and cheese–often cilantro and raw onions added. The first time I ever saw rice in a burrito was my first visit to a Chipotle restaurant in Kansas in the early 2000s–also my last visit to a Chipotle. Anyway, a large flour tortilla, about 10-12 inches, has about 220-350 calories all by itself so adding rice seems like carbs only as filler. These look tasty, particularly the seasoned rice and I like the whole beans vs refried, but I’ll take the rice and beans in a bowl with just a little cheese and cilantro on top
Was this comment necessary? I’m half mexican – go ahead and eat rice in burritos if it makes you happy. It isn’t that big of a deal. Some people like to double up on carbs so they dont have to eat for several hours.
It may be a Cal-Mex thing. I grew up in LA County and we’ve always had bean and rice burritos. I’m in my late 40s, so “always” is about 40 years. ;)
There’s a Wikipedia page alllll about burritos including history and regional variations.
I’m making these this week!
If I am making these to freeze, should I let the rice cool before assembling?
Yes, that would probably a good idea. You can spread the rice out on a baking sheet to help it cool faster.
We love making breakfast burritos and freezing them. Egg and Bacon, egg and sausage and steak and eggs!!
This was filled under vegetarian but it call for pulled pork. Im confused. Still love you Beth :)
It doesn’t call for pulled pork. :) This is a rice, bean, and cheese burrito. In the introduction I listed some other things that people could put in their burritos if they want, like pulled pork, but this recipe does not include that.
Do you think short grain brown rice would work in this recipe?
Sure, just make sure to adjust the rice to water ratio and cooking time to that which is recommended for short grain brown rice.
I really love the new graphics that appear when I go to Pin your recipes…the photo labeled with the recipe title in a cute font is great. I will definitely be making these sometime in the next few weeks!
Thanks!