Few things add extra expenses to your grocery bills like pre-made frozen food. When life is busy though, those frozen aisles definitely look appealing.

Expert tip: Write the date you made the food as well as any special instructions on either the ziplock bag or the tinfoil as we did with our enchilada pans!

I don’t know why I never tried making my own frozen food before, but I got an intense urge to nest and prepare during the third trimester of my pregnancy and suddenly the time was upon us to try many different frozen meals. Since then, we have continued trying out various frozen meals. Our selections are a bit more limited because i am pescetarian so all those suggestions of 40 frozen crock pot dinners don’t usually work for me, because their main ingredient is usually beef or chicken. However we have tried a decent variety from crockpot vegetarian chills to enchiladas to breakfast muffins, just to name a few!

Unfortunately, it’s also been a bit of a hit and miss process. Turns out I HATE frozen and reheated eggs. Hubby was consequently left eating a lot of dishes that included that… and some of the varieties of enchiladas have come out super soupy a few weeks later when we unfroze them, but one frozen meal became a staple for us and got us through the first six weeks after our son was born: Frozen burritos! We have tested a number of varieties (as you can guess from this paragraph, the breakfast burritos were NOT a hit but other than that they’ve all been a success!) and overall have made huge budget friendly food choices with them.

We set aside a day when we’re together to make a big batch- enough to fill 2-5 freezer bags. We buy the tortillas in bulk from costco because I have not yet mastered the art of tortillas that would withstand how much filling we put in them and then we make a little assembly line. Sometimes the assembly line requires prep- such as roasting assorted vegetables before and making cilantro or cilantro lime rice. Here’s my favorite version because it is the easiest and super cheap:

Frozen bean burritos:
1 large can refried beans (we use 32 oz)
4 cups cooked rice (we like to add cilantro and other spices)
Salsa (amount will vary based on your preference but we make our own from scratch and just use the whole blender full!!)
TORTILLAS (16-20 depending on how full you want your burritos)

1. Heat the refried beans on the stove and once they are warm, mix in the salsa until it is well combined with the beans
2. microwave a few tortillas at a time under a wet paper towel to keep them soft and make them more moldable
3. prepare an assembly line- tortillas, rice, cheese, beans
4. Roll up your burritos and wrap each one individually in tin foil then store as many as you can in a gallon size freezer bag. The double sealing helps keep them from getting freezer burn so they keep longer

I hope you enjoy these! WE are hoping to try some other versions soon, possibly filled with middle eastern flavors and since my baking projects this year, make your own frozen pizza day is definitely going to be a thing in our house the next time I actually have a full day off!!! We actually made  bunch before rehearsals started which ended up being extra handy when we threw moving into the mix of our crazy schedules.

My son is helping us move in… not related to frozen burrito, but this post was majorly lacking in cuteness.

Any favorite money saving grocery tips from you? or freezer meals you’d recommend?