Breakfast Burritos And Guacamole

Over the past month we've gone over several different ways to have a hearty, egg-based breakfast beyond just the standard over-easy or scrambled eggs and toast, such as the breakfast skillet or even the breakfast sandwich. Now it's time to take a look at my personal favorite and what may just be humanity's greatest culinary creation: the breakfast burrito.

I don't know who first decided eggs needed to go in a tortilla, but that person forever altered the way I eat and what I prefer for my morning meal. It's just genius - everything that would be in a taco, just with breakfast fixings instead.

To start the perfect breakfast burrito, whisk together a few eggs with either a dab of milk or sour cream. I like 3 - 4 eggs and usually end up putting them in two separate tortillas, while Megan generally goes for just 2 eggs.

Pour this pure gold concoction onto a hot skillet with some melted butter or a teaspoon or two of vegetable oil, like you were making fluffy scrambled eggs.

There are a whole lot of different ways to make breakfast burritos depending on what flavors you like and just how hearty you want your meal to be. On the pepper comparison guide we put together earlier this month we mentioned canned green chillies, and these are perfect here, as are chopped fresh anaheim or poblano.  In the picture below we're using the canned variety, which have a softer texture and go fantastic with the eggs, especially if you plan on also using sausage or bacon.

For our first type of breakfast burrito we'll start off with a warmed flour tortilla, a thin layer of sour cream, and the finished eggs and chillies.

For a truly filling and delicious meal, sometimes we like to take these up to the next level and throw in chili! Any canned variety will do, but homemade chili made with thick chunks of beef are the best. If you go canned, I personally prefer the spicy, no-bean variety, but just about anything works here.

Finishing off these magnificent early morning creations are a layer of verde salsa and some shredded cheddar cheese.

Here's another version of the same basic idea, but this time with Gimme Lean soy sausage, egg beaters, and some tomato salsa.  A steaming mug of coffee with french vanilla creamer is the also the way to go here.

If chilli isn't your thing, or you'd like to make this more like a regular burrito, you can instead go with refried beans.

For a full-on burrito theme, spread out a layer of fresh guacamole. Don't bother with the store bought variety - the best kinds are mostly avocado anyway and will end up costing you five or six dollars, whereas making your own fresh guacamole will only end up costing about two dollars and will taste better. A crash course of avocado creation can also be found below.

Here we've spread the heated refried beans over the guacamole on a tortilla briefly warmed on the stove (the microwave works too if you are running out of burners!)

Because we've always got to find new ways to make already delicious things even more stuffed with amazing flavors, we're also going to throw breakfast potatoes into this burrito. To use up leftovers and keep our meals connected, for this burrito we used well seasoned french fries we had made from scratch and baked (instead of fried) for dinner the night before.

Here it's all coming together: the fluffy eggs, the crunchy potatoes, and the delicious combination of guacamole and beans.

Of course a layer of shredded cheese needs to go on top to finish it off. You can have fun by changing up the type of cheese, from the standard cheddar to something more exciting like pepper jack.

To make hers more like the breakfast burritos sold at fast food restaurants, Megan instead slapped on a slice of American cheese, which melted over the hot potatoes.

 

There are plenty more methods for putting together your perfect breakfast burrito - from cooking up sausage or bacon first to using more exciting wraps like spinach or sun-dried tomato tortillas. The sky is really the limit here, as there really isn't a wrong way to put together a breakfast burrito.

Now, on to a little look at how to make guacamole. Again, the store stuff usually isn't worth it. We once bought a $1 guacamole that literally tasted like french onion chip dip - just colored green. Instead of shelling out for the more expensive varieties, just pick up two avocados, which are usually on sale for around 79 cents a piece at Smiths or Albertsons.

Slice off the outer skin and then pull the sections of the avocado away from the hard inner pit, which should then be discarded.

We're going to mix in a few extras with the avocado for a more exciting flavor. Here we've got cilantro, tomato, and jalapeno, all of which we already had in the fridge to use for another meal that week.

Use a fork or spoon to mash the ingredients together along with some garlic powder and the juice from a lemon or lime and presto - restaurant quality guacamole right at your home table.

This is going to be our last look at heavy breakfast meals for awhile as we move on to exciting new things at Six-Seven-Eight, including the start of grilling season. Also up shortly is the culinary world journey we've mentioned in a few previous blogs, where we will be challenging ourselves to cook new recipes in new ways outside our comfort zones from countries across the globe, starting with Mexico.  See you again soon!