A Handy Breakfast

Tara Fitzpatrick

Julie Spelman, RD
Director of Culinary & Nutrition Services
Banner Thunderbird Medical Center
Glendale, AZ

“Anything that you serve on the breakfast line can go into a breakfast burrito. You name it — eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, tomatoes, onions, black beans, refried beans…We make them to order.

We've found that making breakfast burritos to order makes it easier to keep them in good shape, plus they're much more popular when they're made to order. Customers use a little checklist, just checking the items that they want on their burrito.

We had tried buying breakfast burritos before, but people really want them fresh. It's easy to make breakfast quesadillas using the same setup. For a variation, just get another tortilla and put it on top, or fold over the one tortilla. Quesadillas can bridge the gap between breakfast and lunch really well. Plus, they're smaller, fewer calories than burritos and that appeals to many customers.

We don't put rice in our breakfast burritos. That seems like too much to me. I know people see it as value, but I see it as piggish.

One caveat with breakfast burritos: Always, always have salsa available. If it's house-made salsa, even better.”

Jay Perry
Chef
Oregon State University

“We serve breakfast from the concept Coopers Creek, which focuses on good down-home Southern soul food flavors with an emphasis on barbecue. Our breakfast has taken off with the students, and the main item they love is the breakfast burritos.

“We call it the ‘Real Deal Breakfast Meal,’ because that sums up what it is. The students like the hand-held idea for breakfast. They are in and out the door and onto their next class. We capitalized on what we were seeing and they love the burritos.

“It's funny, students come running in just before we shut down for breakfast, looking for burritos. They'll say, ‘Do you still have them?’

“Here are some of the choices we offer in breakfast burritos:

“We offer whole-grain tortillas and we're working on a gluten-free option.

Mary R. Harryman, RD, LD
Director of Child Nutrition Services
Pasadena (TX) ISD

Since we're in Texas, you can't overstate how popular burritos are. The kids love to get them for breakfast, and we do them two ways: a frozen-prepared version with scrambled eggs, American cheese, sausage and potatoes; and another where we use a scrambled egg mix (eggs, cheese and bacon) that we put into a whole-grain tortilla.

We serve breakfast burritos with a small cup of salsa and a small cup of jalapenos. Even the youngest children love jalapenos here. We count jalapenos as a serving of vegetables!

RECIPES