Butches in the Kitchen: Eating on a Dime

You know you’ve missed us; we missed you too. I know Kyle has a few recipes still up his sleeve,and so as not to miss out on the fun, I thought I’d share a delicious dish that’s been my lifesaver this last month.

I’ve been a little poor of late, which means no glamorous life of constant restaurant dining for me and lots of cooking at home and packing lunches. All well and good, you say, but really, who has time and money to cook delicious food and get up earlier in the morning to pack lunch?

Luckily for you, I agree. So here’s my cheap, simple, healthy and delicious burrito recipe:

Foodstuff:	Spices/ Seasoning:
1 tbsp olive oil1 onion (I use yellow or white)2 cloves of garlic 1 red pepper 1 green pepper 1 can of black beans Brown rice Tortillas (semi-optional, since this works well as a salad-type meal too) Avocado, sour cream, salsa (optional)	1 tablespoon chili powder1 1/2 teaspoons cumin1 teaspoon black pepper 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon paprika 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder 1/4 teaspoon onion powder 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Okay, so honestly the thing that’s going to take longest in this recipe is the brown rice. It’s super healthy for you, but also a good 40-45 minutes of simmering goodness. If you’re just cooking for yourself, the first panel of serving instructions should work fine. A cup of uncooked rice should yield something like 2.5 cups cooked.

So pop that on the stove and get it going. When you have about 15 minutes left on the rice, you can start your prep. Personally, I’m a little OCD about my ingredients (or I watch too many cooking shows) so I like to have everything all chopped and in bowls beforehand. If this is you too, there should be the garlic pile, the onion pile, and then the red and green peppers, which you can cut into strips and then halve them so there aren’t giant spears o’ pepper in your burrito. If you prefer to prep as you go… well then there’s that as well.

Alright. Here we go:

Chop up the onion to your desired texture.

Put the olive oil in a pan, and let it heat up for 30-45 seconds. Then dump in your chopped onions. You want the heat on medium, so that the onions get lighter in color, but don’t start to brown. This process is going to take about 3 minutes.

While those onions are cooking away (and you’re occasionally stirring/shaking/checking on them) chop up two cloves of garlic (unless you already did, superstar!). You are going to add these to the onions after the 3 minute mark. I recently learned that my old method of doing the garlic first and then the onion was the reason it kept burning. The garlic you chopped is in tiny pieces. The onion will reduce the heat it’s being subjected to so you don’t get burnt garlic bits in your food. No one likes that.

Okay, now, with the garlic and onions well on their way to cooked (say 30 seconds to a minute) you’re going to add the spices. To be honest, I lifted this recipe from someone else, because the first time I made these, the recipe I followed said “Fajita Seasoning…” and I said, “WTF is THAT?” If you don’t have all the spices I listed, it’s totally okay. I usually just throw cumin, garlic salt, pepper, paprika, a little chili powder (and tumeric if I feel like making everything cheery and yellow) together and adjust to taste.

So add spices to the onions and garlic, and mix in for about 15 seconds.

Now add the peppers and stir well! This is going to cook for roughly 5 minutes, so that the peppers cook through but retain some crunch.

So your rice is pretty near done, your veggies look delicious:

Veggie Goodness

And all that’s left is the beans. Pop the can open, drain it, and toss them in a small pan over low heat for 2 minutes. I like to stir in a little hot sauce, but it’s completely up to you. Beans done.

Congratulations! Everything is done! Now all you have to do is assemble this sucker and dig in!

If you’re forgoing the tortilla, go scoop of rice, scoop of beans, and 2 scoops veggies piles in a bowl, top as you will and dig in.

Note on toppings: I <3 avocados with this, but have also done salsa and sour cream. Both are delicious. If you’re feeling really courageous, you COULD make guac for this (also delicious) but remember the avocados will run you extra at the supermarket. Also, personally I don’t feel the need for cheese in this mix, but I’m not gonna tell you not to do it. Your topping choices are your own.

If you want it all in a tortilla, I recommend looking for burrito sized ones (about 12 inch diameter). If you can’t find them, regular sized ones are fine, just be aware that there’s a lot to stuff into this meal and the smaller the tortilla the bigger the potential mess factor.

Tortilla heating methods vary. So people like them cold/straight out of the bag, others wrap a stack in tin foil and then throw them in a warm oven for a while. Still others nuke the suckers for about 15 seconds, and of course, there’s the tried and true method of laying one over the warm, delicious veggies you just made and letting it heat up that way. There is no wrong way (of the ways I’ve listed) to heat tortillas.
Once your tortilla has warmed to your liking, go rice, beans, veggies, toppings, roll it up and dig in.

Done right, this recipe should make 5 burritos, so potentially, you’re talking about 5 lunches or dinners or what have you. The rice and tortillas are an initial investment, but once you have those in stock, barring toppings, you’re looking at a meal that feeds you for multiple days for under $7. It just doesn’t get more awesome.

Enjoy!