Breakfast Burritos

Prepare vegetables: Heat oven to 400 degrees. Coat your largest baking sheet thinly with oil. Arrange your components — potatoes, pepper(s), onion, sausage or strips of bacon — in different parts stripes down the pan. (This allows you to rescue some items sooner if they cook faster.) Coat with another glug of oil, and season the potatoes and peppers well with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Roast for 30 minutes. The bacon and sausage should be cooked through and crisp at this point; you can remove them and set them aside. Use a thin, large spatula to lift and turn the potatoes and peppers; return them to the oven for another 5 to 10 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. When potatoes are tender, scatter spinach on top, return to oven for 5 minutes; it will wilt quickly. Use your spatula to mix all of your roasted ingredients together. Scatter black beans over (this will warm them), crumble or chop bacon, if using, and return it or the sausage to the tray so everything’s in one place.

Prepare eggs: Whisk your eggs together in a large bowl until lightly beaten. Season well with salt (I use 1/2 to 1 teaspoon kosher) and many grinds of black pepper. Heat your largest frying pan over medium-high heat. Once it’s hot, add a bit of oil to the pan and heat it too. Once the oil is hot, add your eggs. Let them cook for 20 to 30 seconds before beginning to move and turn them in spatula-wide sections. When eggs are mostly cooked but still a tiny bit runny, scrape them into a bowl. The residual heat of the eggs should cook them to about the 95% mark; they’ll finish cooking as you warm your burritos.

Assemble burritos: Place a large square of foil on your counter. Place first tortillla over it. [I find mine are soft enough to wrap without tearing from the bag, but if yours are not, lay it on a pan in the probably still residually warm oven for a minute or two to soften (but not dry out).] Eyeball about 1/8 of the vegetable mixture and scoop it into the center, followed by a little salsa (I use 1 to 2 tablespoons per burrito), 1/8 the eggs, cheese to taste, plus whatever fixings you cannot live without.

Roll the burrito tightly by folding the sides over the filling then rolling from the bottom up. Wrap in foil the same way; folding the foil first over the ends of the burrito (ideally forming a “cup” at each end to catch drips, although my kids just see this as a challenge).

If eating right away: I rewarm the foil-wrapped burritos on a tray for 5 minutes in a 350-degree oven. (This is just to get everything hot again and melt the cheese.)

To freeze: Place foil-wrapped burritos in a freezer bag and press all of the air out. They will keep in the freezer for 2 months.

To warm from the freezer in the oven: I place the foil-wrapped burritos on a tray in a 350-degree oven for 30 to 40 minutes (turn over halfway) to heat them through. Depending on how cold your freezer is and how packed the burritos are, it could take more or less time. To check, press a toothpick through the foil into the center of a burrito and pull it out; if the toothpick feels warm or hot, the burrito is heated. If it’s cold (it will be clear if it’s cold), it needs more time.

To warm from the freezer in a microwave: Remove foil and microwave for 2 1/2 to 2 3/4 minutes, turning burrito over halfway. I find microwaves range a bit in defrosting times so you might find you need more or less.

To defrost in the fridge and warm in the oven: If you’re a plan-ahead type, you can let it begin defrosting in the fridge overnight. I heat these the same way I do frozen ones, but check 10 minutes sooner. I highly recommend not leaving burritos in flour tortillas in the fridge for more than a day; the wetness of the fillings can make the wrappers mushy or soggy.