Batch Making Burrito Basics

A friend, her teenage daughter, and I knocked out 60 burritos in about an hour this morning.  Well, we assembled 60 burritos in an hour.  Much of the work was done in advance in bite sized pieces. My friend and I each went home with 30 burritos - or 6 meals for my family!

These burritos are perfect for when your family is on the go (i.e. need to be on the baseball field at dinner time?)  Or if you are crazy busy and just want an easy, quick, nutritious dinner option.

Because I use this blog as a personal cooking notebook of sorts, I thought it would be helpful to record the portions in this space.

Ingredients
60 large burrito shells
3 large roasts (about 16-17 pounds, total), shredded
16 cups cheese, shredded
4 cups (dry) brown rice, soaked and cooked in broth
2 pounds dry pinto beans, soaked and cooked with ham bone
2 pounds dry black beans, soaked and cooked
5 pounds onions, sliced and roasted at 425*
10 bell peppers, various colors, sliced and roasted

More Cooking Details
The roasts were cooked in a crock pot on low overnight with a rub made of 2 parts chili powder, 1 part of (each) sea salt, cumin, garlic powder.  Onion powder would have been good, too but I didn't have any.  You could add a can of tomatoes but we didn't.  Save the broth and use it for a Mexican inspired soup.

After the pinto beans were cooked, I poured off most of the water and used my immersion blender to make them like refried beans.  You could also do this with a potato masher - or leave them as beans.  I like the texture of pinto beans in my burritos.  Any kind will do.  I seasoned them with salt, spicy paprika, chili powder, cumin and garlic powder.  If I had more jalapenos growing in my garden, I would have chopped them up and added them.

One pound of dry beans is equivalent to 5-6 cans.  You could save time by buying cans - be sure to drain and rinse canned beans.  I figure if I'm going to make such crazy amounts of food, it is easy enough to cook dry beans.  Beans can be cooked in a crock pot; it's not that much trouble.

As for roasting the onions and peppers, the reason is to remove some water before freezing.  Doing this step not only enhances flavor but also keeps the burritos from being too soggy after they are thawed.  You can omit them all together if your crew does not prefer them.  Also, caramelizing onions is a super-yumma-lish option but takes a bit more time.

Assembly
All ingredients were approximately divided among three very large bowls.  We used one crockpot as a bowl since it was already dirty full of shredded meat.  Mix everything together and taste.  Ours needed more salt; otherwise the spices were right.

Packaging
We have a tutorial here on how to roll and package burritos.

To Heat
Place frozen foil wrapped burrito in a crockpot and turn to high for about 3-4 hours.  If you can, turn mid way through cooking.  If they are thawed, it will take less time.

If you like the tortilla texture crispy like a chimichanga, heat in the oven.  Unwrap (thawed) burrito, slather in butter & bake on a cookie sheet at 375* till golden. About 15-20 minutes.  I use the foil as a barrier on the cookie sheet for easy clean up.

Serve with sour cream and sauerkraut or other ferment of choice.   My favorite ferment pairing is radish relish, followed by sauerkraut and banana peppers or jalapeños.


Other links:
Stewed Chicken for Burritos
Carnitas (Pork) for Burritos

Anyone else batch-making these days?  Are these kind of posts helpful or I should I just write this down in a kitchen notebook?

-Julie

Batch Cooking {Mini-Version}

My pal HB convinced me to tackle another cooking day.  It's been a long time since we've cooked together (over a year!) so we decided to start small.  {Two years ago we had a major marathon cooking day.}  We started messing up the kitchen at 9:45am and were finished with lunch by noon.  My baby naps from 9-11am so we were trying to get 'r done while he was sleeping.

We made two recipes.  Finished product was 5 chicken pot pies (CPP) and 30 beef and bean burritos.  It's the first time we made crusts on cooking day.  Both families are eating CPP tonight.  I froze one in a 9x13 dish and HB took two CPPs home in freezer bags and one crust to freeze.

In advance, for the first time, we each made 8 cups of cream of mushroom soup .  Making the soup in advance made the work easier today.  We just had to mix the ingredients and divide portions.  I quickly sautéed more onions since HB hadn't used onions in her soup.  We didn't cook the celery or carrots; chicken was cooked and chopped in advance.  Recipe here.

For the burritos I crammed 2 giant semi-frozen roasts (6-7 pounds?) in my crock pot last night at 9pm, along with a jar of salsa and a huge onion, diced.  The roasts weren't quite falling apart at 6:30am as I'd expected them to be but they were fine by the time we started assembling the burritos. 

This morning I roasted (at 450*) a gallon freezer bag of peppers that were frozen from last summer.  In two batches, I caramelized about 2 pounds of onions.

 

HB prepared in advance one pound of pinto beans (with a ham bone!) and 1cup brown rice (cooked in in broth and rotel) to add to the burritos.  She mixed everything in a bowl minus the shredded cheese to make for quicker burrito assembly.  Ingredient recap: beef, beans, rice, peppers, onions and cheese.  We tasted and it needed a bit more kick.  So to taste, we added chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, salt and pepper.  Here's how to roll and package.

Play-doh did not make it into burritos.  Or at least I don't think it did.  

Let's not forget the cherubs, shall we?

Our big boys are at the 4-H center today doing a science enrichment program.  The little boys texted each other.

 Caroline approved of the burritos.  It's what we had for lunch.

Want to see more batch cooking shenanigans?  Click here.

-Julie

Another Freezer Cooking Day

Whew!  Another freezer cooking day under our belt - and this one was the most relaxing by far.    Experience has taught us a few things.  Most importantly: lower thy expectations.

Today's menu
Chicken pot pie (tripled)
beef tips
60 burritos (half beef, half bean)
pizza sauce

Ingredients prepared in advanced
15 cups carrots, celery - chopped
18 onions - chopped
12 cups broth
4 pounds dried beans, soaked and cooked
3 whole chickens
2 beef roasts
20+ bell peppers, chopped and roasted

Additional thoughts
1.  I (Julie) feel quite confident about making chicken pot pie filling because I have made it so many times.  Today I couldn't get the sauce (or soup) to thicken and I'm not sure why.  HB reminded me that the last time we tripled the recipe that it was rather soupy then, too.  I do not have this problem when making smaller batches.  So - next time I will make either one batch at a time or make the cream of soup completely separately.

2.  We both enjoyed today's relaxing pace and lower expectations.  The last cooking marathon was too much.  Starting roughly at 9am and walking out the door of a clean kitchen at 1:45 was a pace that this pregnant lady can keep.  We even sat at the table for lunch!

3.  I regret not having a picture of two dear friends that joined us - Lori (who writes here sometimes) and Kelly (who is on furlough from Uganda).

4.  It was a great day.  I hope to get one more cooking day in before the rush of the holidays - and before baby BOY comes, the first week of January.

How to Make Kickin' Kraut

by Caroline ~age 2

Momma is too tired to tell you about our seven-hour sauerkraut endeavors so she asked me to blog about it for her.  First you need to start with about 40 pounds of cabbage.  You could start with a more realistic amount, say, just one head of cabbage - but my mom likes to make really big messes.  As for recipes, she didn't follow one, exactly but sort of used this one.

Next, shred some carrots.  We used ten pounds today.

 After shredding your cabbage, sprinkle sea salt over the top.

 Don't be stingy.  Be very generous.

And the fun part is squishing it through your hands.  Massage the salt into the cabbage to make the tasty juices come out.

My mom wanted to work out her arms, so she used a giant stick (French rolling pin) as a kraut pounder.

Because we wanted to make a kickin' kraut (not a tame one) we decided to also add about 12 pounds of radishes and 10 pounds of onions and 6 cloves of garlic (thank you Kellogg Valley Farms).  All shredded and stirred together in a 5 gallon bucket (twice).  We also added some whey for good measure.

Be sure to gather your supplies before getting started.  I had a lot of fun with the rings today.  Did you know they make really pretty bracelets?

 Momma and her friend Mrs. Stuckey made about 31 quarts of kickin' kraut today.

Bonus points for those of you who noticed my wardrobe change for the last picture.

Lovin' being in the kitchen with my momma,
Caroline
age 2

VIDEO: How to Debone Whole Chicken (in less than 4 minutes)

Call me Tom Sawyer.

HB has been bragging that she could debone a chicken in under four minutes.  I told her she needed to prove it.  By the way, we're both responsible for cooking and deboning 3 chickens for our batch cooking day (on Tuesday).  Today she deboned one of my chickens.  :)


Favorite HB quotes from the video:

"I'm feelin' good.  I got some adrenaline going here."
"These are what I call the un-identifyable parts."
"If you're still watching, you're a serious trooper."
"Don't tell Sally Fallon."

Other ideas:
- Use a Kitchen Aid Mixer to help shred the meat once off the bones.
- 5 pound whole chicken yielded 8 cups of meat
- The texture of a whole chicken gross you out?  Close your eyes while deboning.  Your fingers will tell you what is meat and what is not.  Or, wear gloves.
- Cook chicken in crock pot until it is falling apart.  This will make it easier to debone and you'll pick off more meat.

Julie
linked to Monday Mania

Batch Cooking Day Menu

Foods we plan to prepare:

JM = Julie
HB = Holly

- 10 loaves of soaked whole wheat sandwich bread (HB is bread maker)
- marinade for steak/pork chops/chicken x4
- falafel x2
- beef tips and rice x4
- 50 burritos (JM seasons and stews ckn for burritos, HB roasts beef for burritos)
- chicken spinach stew x3
- chicken pot pie x2
- chicken/spinach/mushroom calzone (HB makes dough ahead of time so it will be super tast-a-licious) x2 (makes four big calzones)
- Marlboro Man Sandwiches x1
- red beans and rice x2
- chicken pesto quesadillas (40 dillas)
- pizza sauce
- cheesy mexican chicken (HB makes ahead) x3
- chicken curry (JM makes ahead) x4 as per recipe


If you someone who is nosy likes details, here's the rest written by HB (who is the mastermind Cruise Director behind our cooking days):
  
Tentative Cooking Schedule
{children are off-site with a sitter - can I hear an Amen?!}

9:00-9:30 HB starts first batch of sandwich bread (use little oven), JM starts red beans and rice and pizza sauce
9:30-10:30 HB beef tips and rice (use big oven), JM chicken pot pie
10:30-11:30 HB assembles burritos, JM packages marlboro man sandwiches
11:30-12:00 lunch...burritos of course! :)
12:00-1:00 HB bread/start second batch (use little oven), JM makes marinades, both work on packaging/clean up, etc.
1:00-2:00 HB chicken pesto dillas, JM ckn spin. stew
2:00-3:00 JM falafel, HB calzones (will help with falafel if I'm done early)
3:00-4:00 HB and JM, clean up, package

Things to chop
(specific quantities are written on a sheet of paper, will label when I chop)
33 cups onions
8 cups celery (already chopped)
14 cups carrots (already chopped)
11 cups bell peppers
9 cups tomatoes
3 jalapenos
56 cloves garlic (8 heads of garlic)

Chicken Portions
4 c. calzones
10 c. dillas
2 whole chickens for curry
7 1/2 c. chicken for mex. ckn.
8 c. for pot pie
7 c. ckn for burritos, stewed
9 c. ckn for ckn. stew
total: 45 cups plus 2 whole chickens so that means 8 chickens overall needed
{we've decided that JM will make curry another day this week}

Grocery List
soy sauce (1 c.)
8 lemons
13 onions
8 c. parsley leaves
17 cups (136 ounces) cream
19 cups (152 ounces) mushrooms, please buy sliced
11 bell peppers
32 cups fresh spinach (JM has greens in her garden)
3 jalapenos
9 cups tomatoes
26 burrito size tortillas
80 fajita or soft taco size torts (pick one or the other, don't buy half and half pls)
4 28 oz. diced tomatoes
2 1/2 cups ready made pesto (Whole Foods has a delish pesto in a jar)
8 c. coconut milk
3 cups brown rice
1/2 c. white wine
tomato paste for pizza sauce
12 deli rolls, no HFCS
9 cups shredded cheddar
16 cups shredded monterey jack

Julie's Jobs
Cook 4 whole chickens and plenty of broth (Sat. night/Sunday)
Make curry (Sat. night soak garbanzos, make Sunday?)
get groceries (Sat. afternoon)
chop the 13 onions from groceries (Monday)
chop all but 3 bell peppers (Monday)
stew 7 cups chicken for burritos (Monday)

Holly's Jobs
Cook 4 whole chickens and plenty of broth (Sat. night/Sunday)
make mexican chicken (Sunday)
chop 20 c. onions (Saturday)
soak 4 c. chick peas (Monday)
slow roast beef for barbacoa burritos (Monday)
soak and boil 32 oz. beans for beans and rice (Saturday)
soak 2 batches bread (Monday)

linked to Monday Mania

Radish Relish with Friends

Last fall, I gave Missy and Eddie Stuckey (of Kellogg Valley Farms) a quart of lacto-fermented radish relish.  Today Missy came over and brought friends and we made about 10 gallons (40 quarts) worth of the yummy stuff.

Above Lori is working the food processor.  Below Missy and Anita prepare the carrots and turnips.  Missy supplied us with about 50 pounds of chemical-free radishes, turnips and carrots from Kellogg Valley Farms.  She did a lot of work before coming harvesting, washing and capping the veggies.

Below, left to right: radishes, carrots, turnips.  We bought onions and garlic.  Another friend (who has a cow) gave us 3 quarts of whey.  We only used 2 quarts...that's a half gallon of whey.  This was a giant batch of radish relish.

Because Kellogg Valley Farms does not use chemicals (they are Certified Naturally Grown), I don't freak out about the bit of dirt left on the veggies - especially since we were doing such huge quantities.  Actually even if I were doing a small batch, I still wouldn't scrub the dirt off or peel the carrots.

Fifty pounds of produce is super sized!! It didn't take long for us to realize that our kitchen bowls were insufficient.  I found a food grade 5-gallon bucket in the garage, and later decided to put a plastic liner in a galvanized bucket.  This was a LOT of relish, people.

I didn't hire a babysitter today, my son is at a homeschool co-op and my little girl sat in the sink and played in water while eating carrots.  By the way, she loves radish relish and will eat it fist over fist.

I failed to take a picture of the end results because we were cleaning up like mad - this stuff got a bit crazy messy.  It was a really fun day.

-Julie

VIDEO: Chicken and Rice Soup

HB shares her secrets for making a HUGEMONGUS batch of delicious, nutritious chicken and rice soup in no time flat.  It is four gallons worth to be exact.  Watch below or click here if reading in email.



And for the record, she added the chicken after the rice cooked (no matter what she said on the video).  There wasn't room in the pot for it.

-Julie

Cooking for an Army

When HB and I get together and cook a month's worth of food for two families, we have been cooking and chopping solo in our respective kitchens for several days prior.  I've attempted to document in pictures the vast proportions of food used in this herculean effort.

Cooking insane amounts of food causes one's mind to wander and I've wondered about the sanity of chopping 23 cups of onions!!  Yes, I used my food processor for some of the onions.  However, it is not alway consistent with chopping the onion.  I need to hide from my texture sensitive son so I chopped some of the onions in tiny pieces.  And it makes me cry.  You should smell my house.

Other odiferous offerings: this is what 24 chopped cloves of garlic looks like.  All of it went into the curry.

We used fresh and roasted garlic.  Food photographer I am not.  Let me reassure you, those 8 heads of roasted garlic were incredible. My husband, who eats girl food, said it looked so good he wanted to eat it for breakfast.

Not everything is stinky.  Some of it is kind of sweet - like 8 cups of coconut milk.

Here's what four pounds of garbanzo beans look like after they've been soaked and cooked.  That's almost two gallons of beans!

yummy hummus here we come!

The Cruise Director told me to roast 22 sweet potatoes but I think I roasted a few extra...and we used every single one.

I used a roaster for the first time this week.  It's really just a huge crock pot.

Long story short: last week I let the water boil out of my broth leaving a dry crock pot.  In an early morning stupor, I poured cold water into a very hot (and dry) crock pot.  Do not do that.  It will crack.  You will be sad.  And feel very stupid.

Every cloud has its lining.  I borrowed this roaster from my friend who has TWELVE children.  (Yes they are all biological!  I suppose she feels like she cooks for an army every night.)  This roaster is awesome.  I cooked 3 chickens at the same time.

The next day I cooked three more (total of six) because the Cruise Director told me we needed more chicken.

Another reason this roaster is incredible: BROTH!!  I'm talking GALLONS of broth at one time.  Those are chicken feet in there, people.  Go get you some.

This is just a small glimpse of what it is like to cook for an army.  To read the menu and recipes for our cooking day, go here.

Not pictured: 3 gallons of broth, 60 cups of cooked and chopped chicken, 4 quarts of heavy cream, 5 pounds of butter, 7 pounds of cheese and a lot of soap to wash all the dishes!

-Julie

Batch Cooking: Another Day in the Freezer

HB and I cooked a ton of food today - great proportions of nutritious and delicious goodness (menu and recipes here). My saintly mother arrived last night from Kentucky and not only provided childcare for us today but also washed a mountain of dishes.  She was a HUGE help.

L to R: Brenda (Julie's mom), Julie, Gramm (HB's son) and HB

I will admit to telling HB that I thought we were biting off more than we could chew.  Her response?  "I will not admit defeat until I walk out of that kitchen."  She was raising the bar whether I was ready or not.

The biggest difference maker of the day was the fact that the Cruise Director came with a schedule in hand.  She wrote out what and when dishes would be made and by whom.  In the end we agreed that the schedule helped tremendously with our time management.

It must also be said that we could not have cooked this much food on our first cooking day.  This is our fourth time to cook together.  Each time we get to know each other better - our strengths and weaknesses (I don't always measure - she likes to follow recipes exactly.)  I feel like we're kind of in a rhythm now.  The next cooking day will go even smoother.  But I don't think it would be possible to make more food.

HB started immediately with sauteing onions and peppers for the burritos while I went to work on the curry.  Below is a picture of her burrito making station.  She was making burritos at 9:00 this morning.

After the above picture, the Cruise Director had me so busy that I couldn't didn't take any more pictures until the end of the day.

Below you'll see our packaging station - a card table and an ironing board.  Instead of rolling up the area rug, I put the orange table cloth on it (because the rug is a bear to get to lay flat if it's moved.)  Please note that we were running out of table space so I started laying packaged food on the floor.  The Cuties boxes were the perfect size for storing our burritos for the freezer.

Recap -
8:45 - HB arrives
8:46 - we start cooking
8:47 - our boys start fighting arguing.  My mother runs interference.
11:00 - Mom takes 3 kids to Chick-fil-A
11:30 - HB & I eat lunch standing up while cooking/cleaning
2:00 - drink pina coladas for a little pick-me-up.  A special drink is always planned for the day.
2:45 - HB leaves to pick up the twins from preschool (I washed dishes)
It's starting to get blurry now.  I can't remember if we were packaging before or after the twins.  Because once the 4 year old twins were in the kitchen...well, production screeched to a crawl.  My mother took them to the park.  We worked like mad to clean the kitchen and package remaining food.
4:30 - HB's swagger wagon pulls out of my driveway.
4:31 - I put burritos in the oven to warm for dinner.
4:32 - I collapse on the couch.

-Julie

Real Food Bloggers Bite Off More Than They Can Chew

HB here.

'Tis the night before another cooking day with Julie. After our last cooking day, we ran out of food way too fast. So, this time, we've decided to up the ante. We are attempting to cook more than we've ever cooked! Doesn't that sound awesome? Don't you want to come wash our dishes?!

Here's what's on the docket:

Nourishing Traditions Curry (recipe improved and quadrupled by Julie)

My Chicken Alfredo Lasagna (enough for six-8x8 pans, recipe to come)
Hummus (roasted red pepper and the traditional varieties...Julie soaked and cooked four pounds of dry beans that cooked up to almost two gallons of garbanzos...)
Burritos (36 total, some beef, some chicken, some pork, some mostly bean for the man who eats girl food)
Cheesey Mexican Chicken (recipe quadrupled)
Chicken Pot Pie (recipe quadrupled)

I need onion goggles

Pizza Sauce (huge batch in crock pot)
Sweet Tater Casserole (recipe here, doubled, sans raisins)
Chicken and Rice Soup (HUGE batch)
Soaked Muffins (recipe quadrupled, adding zucchini that we froze from the summer)

In order to prepare for cooking day, Julie has been chopping up a storm (I tried to help, but she insisted on covering chopping duties. Isn't she the best?!)  We've cooked and deboned a total of 11 chickens, I've made lists, written instructions and gathered a few things to take to Julie's house for cooking and assembling the dishes.

Poor Julie had a hard time chopping the 23 cups of onions needed for our adventures. She sent me this picture in the middle of the day with the subject line "I'm okay" and she mentioned something about me being a "slave driver". That girl has a flare for drama.

flour FLOUR everywhere!

My last task of the day was to grind the wheat for the muffins and begin the soaking process. Long story short, I didn't install the bowl on my grain mill properly and several cups of freshly ground wheat flour shot out all over my pantry. My pantry is also my laundry room, which means that freshly folded and laundered items were baptized in flour. Props to my wonderful husband for cleaning up the HUGE mess. Did I mention that as soon as I discovered my grain mill spraying my pantry, I put myself in the line of fire to save my precious laundry?!

All in the name of nutritious meals for my fam,

-HB

Chicken Curry *tweaked* from Nourishing Traditions

This recipe was inspired from the Chicken Curry (page 287) in Nourishing Traditions.

My family liked it (thanks Rachael for the suggestion!) so it has been decided as a batch cooking recipe.  The original recipe does not call for rice (potatoes or beans).  However, I served it over rice the first time I made it.  The second time making it, I added rice while cooking to save a step.  I like the consistency much better.  It is now like a stew or thick soup.  The sweet potatoes, green and garbanzo beans were added for flavor, texture and bulk.

Following recipe is tweaked and quadrupled from the original recipe in Nourishing Traditions.  Of course you can alter the spices for your family's palate.

2 whole chickens, cooked and deboned
1.5 sticks butter or 12 T coconut oil
6 cups onions, chopped
8 T tumeric
4 t five spice (cinnamon, fennel, cloves, star anise, white pepper)
5 T cumin
1/2 t cayenne
4 t corriander
24 cloves garlic, diced
16 cups chicken broth (one gallon!)
4 lemons, juiced
4 c brown rice, soaked for better nutrient absorption
8 cups coconut milk - make your own for cheap
8 cups frozen green beans
4-6 c. diced sweet potato, cooked
4-8 c. (2-4 cans, rinsed/drained) garbanzo beans - optional
lots of Real Salt
fresh cracked pepper

Directions
Saute onions in butter until soft.  Add spices and stir for several minutes.  Add chicken broth and lemon juice and bring to a boil.  Stir in garlic, rice and coconut milk.  Simmer partially covered for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until sauce is reduced and thickened.  Stir in chicken and season to taste.  Add sweet potato and green beans very last since they are already cooked.

Serve sprinkled with toasted coconut and chopped green onions.  On the side serve a fermented chutney, like this one with apples or this one with cranberries.

-Julie

Batch Cooking: The Menu

not pictured: french onion soup & burritos

It is super fun to cook with your best friend.  We emailed back and forth for a few days about what recipes we would use, based on each family's preferences, what we have been eating lately, as well as what we had on hand.

We were able to create seven different recipes, the most diversity we've ever had.  This was possible because of the work we did in advance and we were in the kitchen for 5.5 hours on cooking day, but most of all because my best gal pal is organized and keeps me on track.  Seriously, I could not have done all of this by myself!

The Seven Recipes
1. Taco Soup with chicken - similar to this but of course we tweaked it.
2. Mexican Cheesy Chicken - to be served over rice - the recipe is basically cheese, cream, chicken, tomatoes and peppers.  You can add broth if it gets too thick.
3. Chicken Corn Chowder - similar to this and this; we used potatoes, milk and cream instead of broth, and didn't add cheese.
4. Chicken Pot Pie
5. Pizza Sauce - tomato sauce and paste, lots of fresh thyme, dried basil and fresh minced garlic warmed in a crock pot for several hours.
6. Burritos - chicken, beef and pork - 24 total, 12 for each family.
7. French Onion Soup (a la Julia Child)

We each took home 14 generous meals (with side dishes to make leftovers it will go further to maybe 20 meals).  Plus pizza sauce for 4 nights of pizza; we both make two pizzas once a week.  This is a total of at least 18 nights of no cooking, just thawing what is in the freezer.

-Julie for HB

How to Roll and Package a Burrito

For our batch cooking days, HB is really the master mind behind it all.  I'm just the grunt.  Whatever she tells me, I do.  She plans the menu (with feedback from me) then makes the grocery list and best of all tells me what to do on cooking days (which is welcomed!).  She is quite the cruise director.  Without her my life would be directionless and I most definitely wouldn't attempt to cook as much as we did.

Below she is filling a burrito while chatting away with friends sitting at the bar.  She is an extrovert's extrovert.  How she multi-tasks like she does, I don't know.  I'm doing good just to get pictures taken.  (Please notice pictures of the cute little Santa Baby - that was seven years ago!!)

She set out all the ingredients and put a few on the tortilla at a time.  I suggested dumping it all in a bowl and scooping portions from the bowl.   Never question the Cruise Director.  Her ways are good best.

Ingredients: meat (carnitas, chicken, or beef), fresh tomatoes, corn, shredded cheese, grilled onions, grilled peppers, and black beans.  We didn't use rice because the Cruise Director says that rice in burritos turns to water after being frozen.  And yes, we used Mission Tortillas as part of our unhealthy 20%.

And this is how you fold:

note: below the first rolling end is narrower. 

She rolled them individually in foil.  To reheat - slather with butter (this makes the outer shell crispy!) and reheat at 350* until warmed through, about 15-25 minutes.

I served ours with sour cream and lacto-fermented radish relish.  Avocado would have been yum but they all looked gross at the Kro-ga.

-Julie

Batch Cooking: The Work in Advance Part 3 and Other Tips

Batch cooking is not only work on the day of cooking.  There is plenty you can do in advance.  I have written before about things you can do to make cooking day easier (part1 and part 2).

Work in advance:

1.  If you have small children, pay a babysitter.  It is worth your sanity.  Being Christmas vacation, our husbands were able to distract entertain care for the children.

2.  Don't do laundry - or anything else - on cooking day, except cook (and wash dishes!)  Stay focused.

3.  Decide before cooking what you will eat for dinner that night.  At the end of the day, I am tired and my brain doesn't work so well.  If I have decided ahead of time what's for dinner life is good.  

4.  Cook meat and broth the day or two before.

5.  Chop what you can in advance.  HB likes using the very inexpensive gallon sized bags that require a twist tie to store these chopped veggies.  Oh what a feeling to remove the twist tie and dump it all in a stock pot!!  Below you see several bags of similar contents.  With a sharpie marker, HB wrote which recipe or how much was in each bag.

Below, left to right: mirepoix (celery, onions, carrots), cooked chicken, onions, more chicken, mirepoix, more onions, brats (cooked and sliced).

Below are veggies I chopped the morning of our cooking day, left to right: chopped bell peppers, jalapenos (from my garden in my fridge since Thanksgiving), sliced bell peppers, fresh tomatoes from a neighbor's garden before the frost!

6.  If at all possible, start the day with a clean dishwasher.  Try to clean as you go and start the dishwasher when it is full.  This is easier said than done.

7.  Packaging - we use a lot of plastic bags because it is easy.  Above you see HB ladling soup into a pitcher that has a gallon freezer bag in it.  This method helps you keep the bag upright and not make the bag too full.  Remember liquids expand when they freeze.

I am brand loyal and prefer Zip-lock brand because I've had better experiences with it.  HB however, uses the Wal-Mart brand (we rib each other a lot about this!).

We also used plastic yogurt, sour cream, etc., containers labeled with masking tape.  I plan on eating one of the soups this week so I stored it in a half gallon mason jar.  This was also helpful because you can put very hot soup in a glass jar; I would not put hot soup in a plastic bag.

HB packaged some of her pizza sauce in half pint glass jars.  I froze some pizza sauce in a (blue) silicon cupcake mold.  Once frozen popped it out and put it in a gallon bag.

HB wrapped each of the burritos separately in foil then marked them for the type of meat inside (just as they do at Chipotle).  So they don't get "lost" in my freezer, I put them together in a bread bag.

8.  Invite more people (if you're extroverts like HB and me).  Some neighbor girls joined us for most of the day.  At first they took my toddler to the park but later they sat and chatted with us.  Occasionally we asked them to help.

That's all the tips I can think of for now.  What advice can you add?

-Julie