Sometimes I Cook- DIY Chipotle-Inspired Burrito Bowl

It's my personal belief that Chipotle is God's greatest gift to mankind.

That may be putting it a little seriously but honestly, it's my favorite food. There's almost nothing better than getting a burrito bowl after a long day. The food is filling, healthy (relatively) and I don't feel like I need to go to the gym for hours after I eat it.

With all that being said, I don't like to spend a lot of money and after seeing many a pinterest tutorial on Chipotle copycats, I thought I'd try it myself. The issue I really find with a lot of the Pinterest tutorials is that I don't have all of the necessary ingredients, or I have a variant of something. Because of that, I altered all of the recipes I found to fit my college-sized pantry. I winged it, I'm not ashamed to admit that, but I'll try to give as best of a description as I can! I also made everything in much larger quantities so I would have left overs for later in the week.

A couple of things before I start. First: Somewhere in the reaches of the internet I found an article about how you can successfully freeze cilantro. Well I'm here to tell you that's just not true and if I were to change one thing about this whole process, I would use fresh cilantro, not cilantro that was fresh which I later froze. It turned to the consistency of cooked spinach (which I hate) and I had a lot of trouble cutting it. Second: This won't taste exactly like Chipotle. Nothing will. I think they put magic in their food. Also I used pre-cooked steak and leftover fajita veggies so that could be part of it. Third: Generally, I would have chosen chicken and cooked it myself but I had steak pre-cooked so I threw it in there. 

Also, do NOT under any circumstances touch your eyes after handling the jalapeños and wash your hands even when you think you're good. Because you will touch your eyes, and they will burn. I'm speaking from my experience just one hour ago.

For fully-pinterestable images of the components, check out the BOTTOM of this post! 

How I usually like my Burrito Bowl: Brown Rice, Chicken, Fajita Vegetables, Mild Salsa, Corn Salsa, Cheese. No, I don't like beans so I can't really help you with that, but I'm sure there are TONS of copycat recipes out there to mimic the black or pinto beans!  

Brown "Cilantro-Lime" Rice: (~3 servings)

• 1 cup brown rice (I used Uncle Bens Instant rice, and I'm SURE there are better ways) 
• 3 tablespoons lime juice 
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro 
• salt
• pepper

Cook Rice according to package. After cooking, stir in chopped cilantro and lime juice. Season with salt and pepper to taste. 

Mild Salsa (Pico de Gallo) (~3 servings) 

• 2 Medium sized tomatos, chopped
• 1/2 large sweet onion, chopped
• 1 medium jalapeño pepper, de-seeded and chopped FINELY
• 1/2 Cup Chopped Cilantro 
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• salt 

Dice tomatos, onions and jalapeños. Chop cilantro and stir with diced ingredients. Top with lime juice. Season to taste

Corn Salsa (~4 servings) 

• 1 package sweet white corn, frozen (You can use fresh or off the cob, this is just what I had) 
• 1/2 large sweet onion, chopped (If you want to be authentic, use a red onion, I just, again, didn't have one) 
• 1 medium jalapeño, chopped 
• 2 tablespoons lime juice 
• 1 clove garlic (I used minced) 
• salt 
• pepper

Cook corn according to direction, stir in diced onions, jalapeños and garlic. Top with lime juice and season to taste. 

Key Fob Tutorial

Update: My tutorial is currently featured on the University of Delaware's UD.I.Y. Pinterest Board! Pretty sweet, huh?

______________________________

It's my first tutorial (squeal)!

I've recently discovered (thanks to a family friend) one of the most simple but adorable sewing projects! Key Fobs are stupid easy to make- even for a beginner sewer- and I can't believe I hadn't thought of the project myself! The key fobs are durable and useful, and can be used to hold your house and car keys, and even as a replacement strap for a clutch! This tutorial can be modified using different size materials to make full size lanyards or even smaller key fobs.

What I used:

• 1 inch cotton webbing (*** For this particular one, I used a lighter weight non-cotton strapping, but I've recently switched over to the heavier cotton)
• Fabric of Choice (at least 12 inches long) 
• 3/4 inch Bias Tape maker
• Heat n' Bond Strip
• 1 inch metal D-ring 
• 1 inch split rings 
• Sewing Machine
• Iron 

Total Time: 10-15 minutes 

I started by cutting my materials to size. I like to make my key fobs big enough so they fit comfortably around my wrist, so with a seam allowance I cut my strapping to 12". Because the fabric needs to be pulled through the bias tape maker, the specs on that are 12" by a little less than 1 1/2". For the fabric, it really depends on the texture, some of the heavier fabrics need to be a little smaller to run through the bias, so you should play with it until it's perfect for you. (I know that's a little general but it's what worked for me! I've learned that sewing isn't really an exact science sometimes.)

While running the fabric through the bias tape maker, be sure to iron it as it comes out so you get the consistent shape. After running it through, I used a small strip of heat n' bond (cut in half) and fused it to the fabric for some added stability and strength! After that, take the paper backing off the heat n' bond and flip it so that the fabric strip and strapping are layered. Depending on wether you're using cotton webbing or something more synthetic, it's important to lay a towel or piece of fabric over the fabric and strapping before you iron to fuse the two materials. This will help prevent any melting on synthetic strapping! 

 Fusing the two materials together makes it a lot easier to sew them together and will help prevent any slippage that might occur. It keeps the materials nice and flat and makes it so that pins are unnecessary! I like having a pin-free fabric, I think it looks cleaner. For this step all you need to do is sew up and down each side to make a permanent connection between the two materials. The next step is super-mega important! Be sure to slide the D-ring onto the material BEFORE you sew it into the key fob shape! If you forget to do this you won't have anything to attach keys too and that would just be not fun at all. When sewing, be sure to put the two good sides together and sew so that you can see only the strapping. Because this material tends to fray, it's important to go over the seam a few times when folding over.

All that's left to do is turn your fob right side out, and sew another seam on the outside next to the D-ring (sorry I didn't take a picture of this step, but you can clearly see the outside seam on the finished product.) This seam will help keep the D-ring in place. After that, just attach the split ring to the D-ring and viola, you have your very own key fob!

This is a super simple project that almost anyone can do! I'm so happy with how the key fobs are turning out and I just had to share how easy it was. All in all making one takes between 10 and 15 minutes! I also have an embroidery machine so I like to embroider on the fabric before running it through the bias tape maker. That adds about another 10 minutes to the total time, but I think the personalized ones are super fun and make great gifts! 

Hopefully this tutorial was easy and straightforward! I can't wait to start sharing more of my projects as I expand this blog! I have plans to open up an Etsy store in the near future so look out world, I'm coming for you!

XO Meagan 

Perfect for Pinterest: