Cooking with Kurt: Breakfast Burritos

No pictures for today’s recipe of the week (I’ll put one up tomorrow) but it is a great way to start your day… for a week! Again, I make things in bulk so I don’t need to cook first thing in the morning or every night as we all have busy schedules. And in most cases, leftovers are much better than freshly cooked food… most cases… This recipe should be easy and fast!

Ingredients
1 large green pepper
1 small red onion
1 package of baby red potatoes (2-3lbs)
1/2 package of fresh broccoli crowns
1lb lean ground turkey
1 package of sharp shredded cheddar cheese
A dozen(12) eggs
Whole Wheat Tortillas (small 8inch diameter ones)
1/4tsp Fennel Seeds
Chili Powder
Cayenne Pepper
Black Pepper
Good Seasons Italian
Red Wine Vinegar
Olive Oil (Extra Virgin)
Salsa

Food Preparations and Cooking:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F

First the potatoes.  You’ll need to boil them quickly in a large pot of water for about 10 minutes.  They should be pierceble with a fork.

In the meantime while the potatoes are boiling, dice pepper and onion into small cubes (1/4inch by 1/4inch size) and keep them in separate bowls.  Chop the broccoli crowns into smaller bite sized pieces.

By this time, your potatoes should be done.  Drain them and place them on a cutting board.  You’ll be quartering each potato; after each cut, let it sit on the cutting board for a couple of minutes to cool before transferring them into a larger mixing bowl.

Time to start cooking the veggies.  Add a little bit of oil to your pan (more if you don’t have a non-stick pan) and add the broccoli first.  After a couple of minutes, add the onions and peppers and saute for 2-3 minutes until firm but tender on the outside.  Remove the pan from heat but leave your veggies on the stove.

We need to season our potatoes before adding our veggies.  For this, we’ll need 1/2 a package of Good Seasons Italian season, 2tbsp chili powder, 1/2tsp cayenne pepper, 6tbsp olive oil and 2tbsp red wine vinegar and a couple of dashes of freshly ground black pepper.  Once you mix your “dressing,” add it to your potatoes and mix liberally.  Once mixed, add the veggies and mix again.

Two more steps!  We are now going to cook the ground turkey with some fennel seeds (to give it that slight sausage taste).  I chose turkey here since it is very lean and low fat.  You can substitute for bacon and sausage or even ham.  Cook until brown and drain the oil/fat before transferring to your potato/veggie bowl.  Mix thoroughly and transfer your filling to a 9″x13″ Pyrex baking dish.  Put the dish in the oven and set your timer for 25minutes

Finally the eggs.  Scramble them and cook them.  Make sure the egg pieces are fairly small (nickel to quarter sized).

Assembly:

Take a tortilla and microwave it for 10 seconds to get it nice and warm.  If you place a moist paper towel over the tortilla, this makes it even more pliable and tastier (microwaves tend to dry out foods).

Now that your tortilla is ready, place about 2 pinch-fulls of cheese and spread it in the middle of your tortilla.  Add about 3 spoonfuls of egg across the tortilla and add about 3 spoonfuls of your potato/veggie/turkey mix.  Finally add a little salsa and roll/fold your tortilla to enjoy.

Leftovers:

Proper storage is crucial here.  Never mix your eggs with your filling mixture.  Keep them in separate containers for storage as they will last longer.  When you are assembling this first thing in the morning, you can then put everything on 1 plate to microwave.  Not too bad for just a couple of minutes in the morning.  It is a healthy (sub 400 calorie [please don't quote me on this... this is just an estimate as turkey is lean, cheese is at a minimum and the major source of calories is the tortilla]), balanced breakfast (protein, fiber, simple and complex carbs [for the quick and sustained energy release]).

Modifications:

Like I said, bacon, ham or sausage can be substituted but at a higher calorie cost.  Veggies can be substituted for something else.  Guacamole/sour cream for breakfast?  Sure but again, it is extra calories.