Brown Bag Burritos vs Taco Bell Beef & Bean Burritos
When my friend Amy posted her recipe for Brown Bag Burritos, I fell in love. First of all, we all love Mexican food. Secondly, could the recipe be any easier? And thirdly, it's so freezer friendly. I knew right away that I want to stock my freezer with these burritos!
My assumption that this would be a great recipe for our family dead on. These are great! And as former Taco Bell junkies, Eric and I were super excited to have another reminiscent recipe to add to our list. (The first was my homemade Taco Bell Mexican Pizzas.)
So last night when Eric asked what we were having for dinner and I told him we were having those brown bag burritos, he had a great idea. He picked up two beef and bean burritos from Taco Bell on his way home so that we could compare. Taco Bell no longer carries the regular beef and bean burritos so he got the 1/2 lb. beef combo burritos. The ingredients between the two burritos are almost identical.
Here's what we have. The Brown Bag Burrito is on the left and the 1/2 lb. beef combo burrito is on the right.
Obviously the Taco Bell burrito looks fuller. But keep in mind the length proportion between the two. (And honestly, is a 1/2 lb. burrito really necessary?)
Honestly, if this were a blind taste test, you probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the two. However, Eric and I both agreed that we truly preferred the brown bag burritos. We didn't feel like we were eating fake food. (Do you know what I mean? Does the ground beef from Taco Bell really seem like real meat to anyone?)
So we definitely declared the brown bag burritos the winner! I didn't do a cost analysis of the brown bag burritos, but I'm willing to bet they are much less than the Taco Bell ones.
And once again, I'm providing the same disclosure, with a few key changes, on this post that I did on our frozen pizza throwdown post - (Note - Neither Taco Bell or Amy's Finer Things had anything to do with this post. It is not a sponsored review. Just the crazy opinions of my husband and myself who were feeling a little slap happy one Tuesday night.)
7 comments:
I'm sure your homemade burritos were a zillion times better than anything from fast food---taco bell meat isn't fit for a dog....
I'm sure your burritos tasted better, but in reference to Taco Bell's burrito... keep in mind, the tortilla is wrapped different, so, yes, it does look like a different size. Both ends are tucked in on the TB burrito, but it is the same size tortilla that you used for your burritos. And I'm sure they used more filling, that's why it's fatter... but ALL restaurants give bigger porportions than we do at home...
And TB's beef is REAL beef, it's just crumbled a lot more than I know that I do at home. Yes, I know this, because I once worked at TB a long, long time ago.
Disclaimer: I was not approached by TB to defend them... I'm just giving MY opinion. ;o)
Going to try your recipe, I do bean and spanish rice with cheese burritos for the freezer and they are great for quick lunches for work and home on the weekends. I tuck both ends so they are smaller looking but the freeze well this way. I used to take the time (tons of time) to wrap each burrito with freezer paper. Now I find it works just fine and dandy to place them on a cookie sheet and freeze, then place in a gallon ziploc bags. Save time and money! I wish I had figured that out sooner. P.S. my fam loved the mexican pizzas ( and the kids are super picky)
I'll have to give these a try! It's always fun to find a healthier, more frugal approach to your favorite foods!
Shannon
Mmm, actually, I think yours is probably close to the same fullness. They just tucked the ends in, making it seem fuller. Yours looks yummy!! Taco Bell never seems to agree with me.
Last summer after hearing my dh talk nonstop about how wonderful Chipotle was, I decided to try to copy their burritos. I asked him exactly what he gets in his burritos there and did the exact same thing. The only difference is that the Chipotle burritos are about $5 and mine are about $.50 when done in bulk. Yum!
I needed this post today. Thanks, Kate. :)
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