Busy Parent Breakfast Hack: Put It All In A Tortilla

Mornings. Ugh, right? Everyone is in a hurry, and the family has a dozen different places to be, with zero time to sit down and have a leisurely breakfast. Cue staying up too late for all the TikTok scanning, Pinterest pinning, IG reading, and soul searching you feel compelled to do to ensure your family squeezes in at least a few semi-nutritious breakfasts during your hectic week.

The answer? I'm telling you — put it in a tortilla! If you have time to scramble some eggs, you have time for a meal on the go. It's the busy parent breakfast hack that's going to make mornings less of a hellscape.

The "Wrap"

Let's start at the beginning with a simple choice: to heat or not to heat. Obviously, it's up to you, but in my humble opinion, you should always heat the tortillas. Pro tip: Heated tortillas fold a little better.

My grandma used to just throw them over the open flame on her gas stove, and that's how I choose to tempt fate as well. However, you can put a damp paper towel between your tortillas and toss them in the microwave in 30-second bursts until they're warm enough.

This is one of the few times in life when I'm going to be adamant that size matters: If your tortilla is too small, it won't hold enough of your filling to be tasty, and if it's too big, it gets weird for smaller hands to hang onto and could just be too much for tiny tummies. My personal favorite for breakfast tacos is the fajita size. They're ideal for providing the filling-to-wrap ratio we want.

The Filler

Now that you have your foundation, what do you want to put inside? My personal favorite is papas con juevos, which just means potatoes and eggs.

I cheat. I start with frozen hash brown potatoes with onions and peppers already in the mix. (If your littles won't touch onions or peppers, the basic potatoes work perfectly.) Crack a handful of eggs in a bowl and whip them up. Next, brown those hash brown potatoes in a skillet with a little oil. Once they've browned, pour in your beaten eggs. Salt and pepper to your heart's content and mix it all. As the eggs cook, they bind the potatoes together. When the egg is cooked through, you're ready to throw the whole shebang into your warmed tortillas.

Spoon the filling down the middle, add some ketchup or hot sauce, fold the bottom of the tortilla up, and then wrap the sides over like you're swaddling a baby. I do about half a bag of potatoes to six-ish eggs.

If you don't have time for browning potatoes, bean and egg is a close runner-up for me. Bonus? It's faster. Crack your eggs in a bowl, whisk them up, throw them in a skillet, and let them start to cook. Scoot them over to one side of your skillet so you can dump in a can of refried beans on the other side. Maybe throw a handful of shredded cheese over the top (you can't go wrong with cheese). Let the beans heat up for a minute, and then mix the eggs right in.

It isn't pretty, but trust — they're bomb. I usually do four to six eggs per can of beans and feed a family of four with some leftovers.

More Options

Seriously, though, you can toss almost anything into a tortilla for a portable, family-friendly breakfast.

Brown up some breakfast sausage and pour your eggs over it; those eggs are practically breakfast glue and will help hold the insides in your tortilla. Bacon strips with scrambled eggs? Yes. Scrambled eggs alone? Absolutely. Peanut butter and jelly? Easier than a sandwich. Butter with a little cinnamon sugar sprinkle? Sure, why not? You can even throw a hot dog or ham and cheese slices in a tortilla and have lunch for breakfast.

Savory options could include any combination of the following:

• Eggs
• Bacon
• Sausage
• Tofu
• Beans
• Potatoes
• Sweet potatoes
• Steamed carrots
• Rice
• Onions
• Jalapenos
• Sour cream
• Feta
• Scallions
• Cheese
• Chili sauce

On the sweet side, you could do:

• Fresh fruit
• Honey
• Cinnamon
• Sugar
• Cream cheese
• Peanut butter
• Jelly
• Nutella
• Brown butter
• Caramel
• Chocolate chips
• Whipped cream
• Marshmallow
• Cookie butter

There are no tortilla rules — put everything in there!