Breakfast Burrito

It’s the most important meal of the day.   Yet, I have always struggled with knowing what is the best choice for me – healthy and filling and fast.   When I met with the nutritionist, she made some suggestions, and with lots of trial and error and calculations, I have finally come up with my go-to breakfast for the work week – the Plain Jane Breakfast Burrito.  I call this Plain Jane because all I use is meat, no peppers, onions, or mushrooms like in other burritos and omelets.  But I might add mushrooms one of these days.

The key to keeping this low-cal and low-carb (per the nutritionist) is being picky about the wrap.  I read the labels of all of the tortillas available and tried the La Tortilla Factory brand, since they were low carb.  Next, I started out using real eggs but decided to try egg beaters one week.  They were not terrible and I still felt full, so for convenience and better numbers, I have stuck with them.  And last, the meat choice.  Jimmy Dean Turkey Sausage Crumbles is what I use most often.  I only use ¼ cup of the crumbles with ¼ cup of the egg beaters, so the package will last about two work weeks.   For variety I have used three slices of Publix thin sliced cooked ham or a couple of slices of leftover bacon.  I don’t add it to the eggs;  I just put them in the tortilla and cook the egg beaters by themselves and slap on top.  If I am out of everything else, I have been known to use some Oscar Meyer Bacon pieces.  Really, you can add anything – the aforementioned veggies, cheese, etc.  Just be sure that you check your nutritional values on everything.  Myfitnesspal.com is one of many websites that will calculate the nutritional value for any recipe or list of ingredients.

So after I add my sausage, I let it cook while I grab my lunch and pack it.  Then I flip it when it looks set, and turn the stove off.  Then I grab my diet Coke and my afternoon snack and pack those.  By then, it is ready to be assembled and wrapped in foil and in a few seconds – ta da – burrito ready to go.  By the time I get to work, everything is good and warm and I can have my breakfast while I check my morning emails.

The burrito with ¼ c. egg beaters and ¼ c. turkey sausage is 115 calories, 12 g of carbs, 7 g of fiber, 17 g of protein, and 565 g of sodium.