Easy Corn Cilantro Burritos on the Cheap

My son loves burritos, but I don't like the price of them, especially how quickly he goes through them.  They're a perfect after-school snack, but easily 3 or 4 in one week for almost $3 a pop is quite a hefty price for burritos.  For months now, I've been making these spiffy little guys and I feel much better about the fact that they're from scratch, no oil added, loaded with veggies and as fresh and wholesome as can be.  I hope you enjoy them as much as my son does!

He loves both cilantro and corn, so enter the perfect marriage of two wonderful flavors! These are a snap to make and you'll be set for about 2-3 weeks with enough burritos to feed a small army.  Or a growing son. 

You can adjust pretty much everything in this recipe, from the veggies you add,  the seasonings, to even doubling it and being set for weeks at a time.  I also use sprouted wheat tortillas with whole grains and loads of fiber, so there's added nutrition and digestibility there.  

I make my beans from scratch, but you can definitely use a can if you need to.  Just make sure it's EDEN, as they are BPA free, and remember to rinse them really well to freshen them up.

What's great is that I reuse pretty much everything - as soon as we unwrap a burrito, we save the parchment paper we wrap them in and put them back in the freezer bag.  When they're all gone, we reuse the bag and the parchment and start all over again.  Super cheap, super easy.  That's how we roll. 

Veggie mixture:

1 teaspoon coconut oil, optional

1 vidalia onion, chopped

1 red pepper, chopped

1 teaspoon cumin

3 large stalks kale, de-stemmed and chopped

Bean mixture:

3 cups black beans

1 scant teaspoon sea salt

Add ins:

1/2 cup organic salsa

1 heaping cup loosely packed cilantro, chopped

1/2 cup defrosted or fresh corn

1 seeded jalapeno, optional (adjust to your own heat preference)

Combine the veggie mixture (without kale) in a saute pan and either use the coconut oil if desired, or a little broth to get everything going, until soft. Add in the kale and just give it a quick stir for a minute until it wilts down.  Let cool. Process lightly in a food processor. Set aside.

In a food processor, process black beans and salt until it becomes a smooth paste.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the beans, veggie mixture until well incorporated.  Add in the "add ins" and mix well.  

Set aside your tortillas.  Add in about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of the mixture in the middle.  

Flip the bottom side up over the mixture. 

Flip the left and right sides over. 

Flip the whole burrito over, keeping the mixture in as much as possible.  

Wrap in parchment or wax paper and place them all in a freezer bag.  

When ready to use, wrap in aluminum foil or even just leave in the parchment paper (don't use the wax paper for this step) and bake in a convection (or regular oven) at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes.  Enjoy with fresh tomato salsa, avocado, and raw cashew sour cream.  

Maple Apple Cranberry Chutney

Cranberry Sauce is one of my weaknesses, and until about a few years ago, it did certainly involve shaking out this crazy but fun gelatinous tube of "sauce" out of a can. I thought it was funny that it would remain in that solid blob, but I didn't mind. I'd just take a fork and go to town.  The taste of sweet and tart was undeniably irresistible, and I could eat the whole thing myself, with or without turkey.

After turning plant based, I realized that every department of my culinary life could use an overhaul, or at the very least, a huge improvement. Out went the turkey, but would the can of cranberry "sauce" follow? It was a personal decision for me, but yes, of course, it had to.  I guess formerly I didn't mind that I could save a can or two in my pantry and it would never go bad (insert vision of me eating cranberry sauce in the summer time, spring time, autumn, you name it).  Now that I know better (and have discovered the pop that fresh cranberries make when cooked) I'm hooked to a more mature version of this addictive concoction.  Enter the chutney.  

This maple apple cranberry chutney isn't too sweet, too tart, it just...lingers.  Like a good sunset or a fabulous book.  It takes a little while to taste all the flavors, but it is well worth the wait.  Just use a grown up fork and again, go to town (but in a civilized way, of course).

1 bag fresh cranberries

2 medium sweet apples, such as honeycrisp, diced

Juice from one or two large oranges 

dash cinnamon

dash ground cloves

dash nutmeg

1/3 cup maple syrup, or more or less to taste

sea salt, to taste

Combine all ingredients (except for the maple syrup and salt) and heat over medium until bubbly.  Lower the heat and cook until thickened.  Add the syrup and salt and taste to adjust to your liking.  Eat it hot, warm, or cool, with a big spoon.