Don't Waste Leftover Mashed Potatoes — Make A Heartier Breakfast Burrito

Breakfast burritos are a great way to start the day. And they're also great for cleaning out the fridge — you can fill your tortilla with just about anything you want, which means they're great for using up leftovers, like potatoes. Breakfast burritos often come with potatoes (often hash browns or home fries), but that doesn't solve the problem of those leftover mashed potatoes that you might have in your fridge from last night's pot roast or fried chicken dinner. Luckily, there's good news for mashed potato lovers and breakfast burrito fanatics alike — you can ditch the hash browns and use up those leftovers for a hearty, delicious handheld meal.

Simply lay your tortilla flat, spread mashed potatoes down the center of the exposed surface, and place the tortilla in a heated skillet, potatoes facing up. For extra flavor and a crispier tortilla, add butter to the pan first.  You can heat until the tortilla is soft and the potatoes are warmed, or you can leave it in long enough to get some crispiness and color on it. Slide it out of the pan when you are ready and add the rest of your ingredients like eggs, cheese, bacon, sausage, avocado, and salsa on top. Fold it up — more power to you if you've mastered the art of folding a burrito like a pro — and enjoy. The mashed potatoes will give you the filling heartiness you want from a breakfast burrito, and you can rest assured that you aren't wasting those leftovers. However, there are still plenty of ways you can upgrade your mashed potato breakfast burrito experience.

One of the best things about potatoes is their versatility, and the same goes for breakfast burritos. That means you've got lots of wiggle room to play with flavors and ingredients. How you season your mash will simply add more flavor, and in some cases, texture, to your burrito, so if you enjoy making garlic mashed potatoes, cheesy mashed potatoes, or tend to add chives or sour cream, you can use them just as easily as a plain old mash. If you love a hearty helping of bacon in your breakfast burrito, using super bacony mashed potatoes could help you save time in the morning by cutting down on bacon prep, or just give you an extra bacony burrito alongside a few crunchy rashers.

If you miss the crispiness of hash browns, you can even fry up your leftover mashed potatoes for a nice crispy touch. Add the potatoes, loosely formed into a rectangle, to a heavy, heated skillet — no butter or oil necessary (though you can add some for extra richness) — and heat until they're nice and crispy on the bottom. After flipping and crisping the other side, you can either put them on the tortilla in one flat serving, or break apart the potatoes while they cook so you've got lots of crispy bits. Once you've mastered using leftover mashed potatoes in your breakfast burritos, you might just find yourself making extra for dinner, so you'll have enough to use the following morning.