SRLA Breakfast Burritos

"I run therefore I eat."

Yeah.  That's my running mantra.  Remember when I said I finished my first marathon because I promised myself I could eat bacon when I was done?  True story.  I wasn't lying. You can read about it here.

I used to run with Students Run LA. Have you ever heard of them?  It's a great organization that works with urban at risk youth.  Their mission is to have middle and high school students train and run the Los Angeles Marathon (that's 26.2 MILES...all in one shot).  It's a great opportunity for mentors and students alike.  I have completed two marathons with this organization.  I can't put into words my experience of running for myself and with and for my students (and trust me...I'm NEVER at a loss for words.  But here I really am).

Here's some more info if you're interested:

Students Run LA 

Every year 3,000 students participate in our program!

Inspiring at-risk youth to achieve their dreams through a life-transforming experience:
The training for, and completion of, the ASICS LA Marathon. 

 Once the kids and I started logging in 10 or more miles during practice long runs, I started noticing how HUNGRY we all were after we were done.  Actually, FAMISHED is really more accurate of a word to describe how you feel after running 10 or more miles. You can't eat before the run, unless you want to barf it all up during your long run... So I started making these burritos for us to eat after we finished.

The kids still talk about them all the time.  I think they get more hype because after running between 10 and 18 miles, even my shoe would taste good. These burritos most def got me though all of the long runs.  It also helped to reassure me that my kids were going to be okay.  If they could eat a burrito, they weren't going to die from the run even though some of them (myself included) complained like we were dying.

When I make these off season, I use fresh potatoes, but when making 20+ burritos at a time, I cheat and use frozen hash browns.  I like them both. I happened to have some frozen hash browns left over from making crack casserole for Superbowl so here's the frozen hash brown version.  You can also use these easy to make home fries.

This is the recipe for the potato GUTS of the SRLA burrito.

You need:
1 onion
1 jalapeno
1 bell pepper
frozen hash browns
olive oil
seasoning salt
pepper

For the burrito you need:
tortillas
shredded cheese
sliced ham
sour cream (optional)
scrambled egg (optional)

In a skillet on medium, begin to saute your chopped onion, bell pepper and jalapeno (I call this trio the Holy Trinity of cooking.  I use it A LOT when cooking.) in olive oil.  If you don't like spicy, then leave out the jalapeno...but it's soooooo good with it in there.  Give it a try.  Cut off the tip of the jalapeno (stem-side) and give it a quick lick to see how spicy your jalapeno is...If it's a fire bomb, just use half.  Or scrape out some of the capsaicin (seeds and white membrane).  Or just throw caution to the wind and throw it all in there!!

Season with black pepper and seasoning salt.

I had some leftover spam so I chopped it up and added.  But this is optional.  When making the burrito, I use thin sliced ham so I don't usually add spam.

Add to your skillet and continue to saute on medium.

When all your veggies are soft,  add your frozen hash browns.  This was about HALF of a three pound bag of frozen hash browns that I bought at Smart and Final.

Pour 'em in!

Instead of adding oil at this point, I add about half a cup of water (or more to prevent sticking and to help with steaming the frozen hash browns).

I generously season again to make sure my hash browns get yummy too.

Cover with a lid and remember to stir up every few minutes.  These suckers were done in about 10 minutes (after adding the frozen hash browns).

In a separate frying pan, I scrambled up some eggs.  When I make these during SRLA season, I used up to 2 dozen eggs....yeah.  I don't know how to describe what that's like.  It's kind of surreal.  I also scramble this many eggs when feeding 4 of my Indian brother out laws....just saying. Cluck!  Use about one egg per person or 1 egg for every 2 small burritos or 1 egg for every 1 large burrito.
Set your cooked eggs aside.

Time to wrap 'em up!

During SRLA season, I use burrito size tortillas, but off season I make them smaller, I use soft taco sized tortillas like these ones:

I slap them down on the counter and make a burrito assembly line:

Then I add a handful of cheese:

Then a scoopful of hash brown mix:

Then add a scoopful of scrambled eggs and a few slices of thin sliced ham.  I don't have pictures of the egg and ham because sometimes, the fat girl in me just likes potato and cheese and that's what I made this round.  I also added a scoop of sour cream just because I didn't think they were decadent or fatty enough.

Roll 'em up!

Sometimes, I get greedy as I'm making these and over fill.  Then they look like this:

 But don't worry.  This fat, ugly one found a home.....in MY BELLY!

If you over filled and are finding it's too hard to roll into a burrito, you can fold it over and make a fat taco. Yaaaaaaay! FAT TACO!!!!!!!!!!! A FAT POTATO TACO!!! Ohmygosh.  I just got really excited.  You'll have to excuse me.

This recipe will probably make a dozen or more mini burritos or roughly 8 large burritos (depending on how much you put in there).  You don't have to roll them into burritos.  You can serve in a bowl with cheese and topped with sour cream.  Or you can eat them right out of the skillet with a spoon while wearing stretchy pants....in the privacy of your own home.  Just sayin'.

I make in bulk, plastic wrap them up and keep them in the fridge.  I use them as currency to bribe people.  It's super easy to throw the plastic wrapped burrito into the microwave and nuke them in the morning.  You can make enough at one shot to last you all week for breakfast (or as a fat girl snack at night).  I also like to eat these suckers with all purpose green Hulk sauce.

 

SRLA 2012-2013