It’s no secret that we love frozen burritos here at Freezer Meal Frenzy. In fact, that’s how we first got into the world of frozen food reviews.
And Trader Joe’s puts out some pretty decent frozen burritos. We’ve had the pleasure of sampling the Beef Steak Burritos and the Mildly Spiced Organic Vegetable Burritos, and both were quite tasty. So today we approach the Trader Joe’s 99% Fat Free Bean & Rice Burritos with high hopes.
In the past, we tried to come up with our own method for cooking these, but we ended up having to cook our burritos for much longer than the recommended cook time. So this time we followed the instructions on the package to the letter. We first preheated the oven to 450 degrees fahrenheit, then placed the burrito on a cookie sheet and popped it into the oven for ten minutes. Once the ten minutes were up, we pulled out the burrito, wrapped it in tinfoil, then stuck it back into the oven for about 15 more minutes.
These come out crisp around the edges and toasty hot all the way through.
The flavor is a bit odd. It’s mostly a pinto bean-based filling, but there’s a weird aftertaste that we want to blame on the cheddar cheese. And we definitely found more cheese than rice inside this burrito, so we’re not sure why they went with the name “Bean & Rice” over “Bean & Cheese.”
We also found some green chiles inside, but this is by no means a spicy burrito. In fact, we’d say the spice level is almost zero here, though there’s a barely noticeable ghost of spiciness somewhere inside.
The package advertises these burritos as 99% fat free, and according to the nutrition facts, each burrito has 2g total fat, with no saturated fat and no trans fat. We’re not sure where the 99% figure comes from, so we’ll have to take Trader Joe’s word on this. As far as calories, one burrito is pretty light, at 260 calories (and only 10 from fat). The sodium is no slouch at 490 mg, but at least that’s lower than many other frozen foods on the market.
So what’s our conclusion? Well, Trader Joe’s 99% Fat Free Bean & Rice Burrito seems like it’s been misnamed. There’s very little rice inside, and we’re still scratching our heads over the math on the 99% figure. It’s a decent tasting burrito, but there’s an aftertaste that we found a bit unpleasant. If you’ve got a hankerin’ for a vegetarian-friendly burrito from Trader Joe’s, we recommend the Mildly Spiced Organic Vegetable Burrito over this one.
To learn more about the nutrition content or ingredients in this frozen burrito, check out our package scans below.
