Meal prep. Except it’s snack prep. I eat way too many Walmart mini microwave burritos. The 4 oz ones that come in a $4 pack of eight. Basically 11.9¢ per ounce
It’s hard to make an exact clone at home because making tiny burritos is difficult due to the urge to over fill. These are larger so one instead of two for a snack. These aren’t as cheap. 100 ounces of ingredients for $17.38 not including the seasoning. So let’s say 19¢ per ounce but are more flavorful (homemade taco seasoning), better texture because they aren’t 50% tortilla and a whole lot healthier.
So it’s all trade offs. But the results are worth it.
These go into the chest freezer and then get bagged.
Hopefully they save you enough money to invest in a full-size microwave. They are pretty legit!
something you might consider doing is preparing these by prebaking these in an oven about 1/3 to half the duration you normally might. The overall consistency and taste will be far superior and they hold up to freezing better and reheat better.
I hadn’t thought about that but you might be onto something there. Though this would also require me to do a much better job at folding. Most of these are going to leak a bit when cooked. Parbaking them as is will create some mess.
Oh yeah. I’ve been doing this for years. You don’t need to fully bake them. Just enough so that they hold their form, then they can go into the freezer. 8-15 minutes, tops. No need to over do it.
The urge to overfill may be overcome by using a scale. No need to be precise, but it does help keep you consistent.
Or a cookie scoop.
Love this idea. I’m going to steal it.
I bet you could get the cost down by shredding your own cheese from a block.
Walmart brand cheese is pretty cheap and block or shred is typically same price or so close that it doesn’t matter depending on the size. This was a 32 ounce bag at 21.8¢ per ounce. They don’t sell a two pound block so two 1 lb blocks at 23.6¢/oz makes shredding your own the more expensive option.
FYI 64 oz block is 21¢ per oz.
Oh interesting. I’m in Canada and the price between block vs shredded is about 20% more for shredded. Even when comparing their own “Great Value” store brand it’s like that.
It always surprises me that I can buy shredded for the same price. I normally don’t because the sawdust coating prevents proper melting, which doesn’t apply instead of a burrito, and block cheese lasts soooo much longer if not opened.
Same price maybe, but check the size/price. I bet they price it the same, but you probably get less volume of cheese. It’s a waste of money to get preshredded unless you have medical bills from shredding your knuckles.
Reread my earlier comment. Everything is priced by ounce. Weight, not volume. I can provide screenshots or links if you’d like.
Nah I trust you, I r just bad at reading
Some rice could also bring the cost down a bit
I’ve done rice before. I’ve found my personal preference requires seasoning the rice so much that it really adds money and time that offsets the benefits of beans. Maybe if I grew up in a more rice focused culture I’d feel different about it.
But it is definitely an option and it can be dramatically less cost than beans, especially canned beans. And rice takes dramatically less time than starting with dry beans if cost is the driving factor.
A mix of rice and beans can provide perfect protein. Though that’s getting more into meal territory than shack.
For what it is worth and from experience, a can of El Pato in the rice cooker goes a long way to make rice accompany this ensemble well.
That is a good hack. And actually more shelf stable than caldo de tomate, con o sin, sabor de pollo.
I thought that too, and for pizza night (every Monday) we started buying blocks of cheese. It is the same price (sometimes more) to buy a pound block of cheese. However they seem to be on sale more often than the bags.
The biggest gain, is the block melts better since it does not have the anti caking powder added to it.
How small is that microwave?!
That’s classified
It’s surprising to me it’s more expensive to make at home with the same ingredients. Are you making the beans from dry, and shredding the cheese?
As covered elsewhere in the comments here, the cheese is the same price for me whether I buy a block or the bag. This is all using commercial ingredients. You could definitely save money if you started with dry beans. But that’s two hours of labor and even if you filled out a few online surveys for a dollar you could better spend that time to offset that cost.
Now if you were going to make a big pot of beans anyway there would be an economy of scale.
Ah that makes sense. Do you like the taste better?
Season canned beans anyway. It’s just a convenience issue.
