Compact, portable and delicious. The humble homemade veggie burrito. Depending upon how you feel about reusing foil (we think it’s a grand idea!), return the foil burrito wrapper to your pocket and save for the next day’s lunch.
When people ask me if we often eat out when skiing, I laugh and explain that while we enjoy delicious food (and a lot of it!), we prefer to spend our money on skiing, not dining.
This carries through to our philosophy about lunch. If we paid for ski resorts lunches every time we ski, we’d be broke.
Instead, we carry the humble, yet delicious, veggie burrito.
The BEST Ski Lunch (Hiking, Camping, Biking Lunch), Ever
Here’s why the veggie burrito is the best lunch ever.
- It doesn’t spoil. Beans, rice and cheese burritos aren’t going to make anyone sick if you carry them with you for a few hours — even in summer.
- It is easily portable. Wrapped tightly in a tortilla, which is then wrapped in foil and placed in your pocket, the veggie burrito can be smushed, crushed and flattened, with no discernible reduction in deliciousness.
- It’s inexpensive. We are talking the most basic of ingredients.
- It’s healthy. Use brown rice and whole wheat tortillas, and you’ve got an extra-nutritious lunch on the go.
How To Make Veggie Burritos
Step One: Gather your ingredients. Don’t worry about exact quantities. This is all about taste.
Ingredients: whole wheat tortillas, canned black or pinto beans (or cook dry beans overnight in a crock pot), cooked brown rice, shredded cheddar cheese, salsa, garlic, chili powder, green onions, avocado, cilantro, olive oil
Step Two: Mix together the beans, cooked rice, green onions and shredded cheese. We find that two cans of beans, two cups of rice and about 3/4 cup of cheese makes approximately 6-8 burritos.
Step Three: In a frying pan, heat 1 tablespoon (or so) olive oil and add chili powder, salt and pepper to taste.
Step Four: Add the rice and bean mixture to the hot oil and stir in salsa to taste. Stir the mixture over heat until it is well combined and the cheese is melted and mixed in completely.
Step Five: Once the filling is heated through and the cheese is melted, remove the mixture from heat and add fresh cilantro.
Step Six: Place a small amount of filling on one side of a tortilla. Add extras like avocado, fresh tomatoes, onions and so on, according to taste. Avoid the temptation to fill your tortilla too full. Roll up the tortilla, covering the filling and tucking in both ends of the tortilla. Your goal is a “sealed” burrito.
Step Seven: Place sealed burrito on foil and roll it up so that it is airtight and leak proof. If you like, place the foil wrapped burrito in a plastic bag before putting it into your pocket.
Recipe Notes
Obviously, adapt this recipe to suit your family’s taste. Tortillas stuffed with most anything (peanut butter and jelly!) make a good skiing, hiking, camping, biking lunch. Just avoid items that can spoil if left unrefrigerated.
If you prefer to heat up your burrito before eating, place it in a pocket with a hot hand warmer for a few runs. That’ll do it!
As for where to eat your lunch, this depends upon the resort. Some resorts are very strict about prohibiting outside food. Others are not. Some provide on-mountain picnic tables or brown bag areas in lodges. Wherever you eat your burritos, take your time and…
Enjoy!
Do you have a go-to outdoor lunch that is portable and inexpensive? If so, please share your ideas in the comments.
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I’ll have to give this a try but I need to get my burrito wrapping skills up. I’m getting better but there is still and awful lot of squish-out with my burritos.
At Whitefish a few weeks ago I was at the summit house and they only had veggie burritos available, no objectsion on my part so that is what I had. LOL, we found a few days later at the Bonehead of the Week Awards this was due to the winner forgetting to turn the freezer back on after cleaning it out!
I wrote about this some years ago taking the sandwich approach http://www.wi-ski.com/apres-ski/health-fitness-nutrition/brown-bag-lunches/ and of late I’ve been dining on hill more often than not. I
Okay, so first. Less is more in burrito wrapping! Avoid the temptation to overstuff. If you want more filling, make two burritos!
Next, that story about Whitefish is too much, but a testimonial to the non-perishable nature of beans and rice (when dry!).
Finally thanks for sharing your brown bag lunch tips! Cheers!
Yum! Can’t wait to do a test run of burritos…Didn’t occur to me, and I cook frequently, to sauté ingredients vs heating… thinking of all the DELISH ingredients we could add/swap out: wild rice with fresh mozzarella and pesto, quoina and diced peppers w feta. We will def make these for our late spring hikes on the Superior National Trail!
Those variations sound yummy! I like melting and mixing as the flavors blend more consistently.
Superior National Trail is on my list! Would love to learn more!