About wine: Chipotle versus the Grocery Store

I SO should have posted this last night, whoops! Friday night dinner: Chipotle. John and I are trying to eat out less or at least more cheaply because it obviously gets expensive. Also, restaurant week in Denver is coming up and we want to try some $$ places we would normally never go to. During restaurant week, restaurants offer meals at either $52.80 for two (Denver is 5280 feet high- Mile High City) or $26.40 for one.

I mentioned last weekend that I dislike cooking at John’s house. He lives with 3 roommates and 2 dogs so it is rarely very clean. If you own a dog that sheds like crazy, then take on the responsibility of vacuuming or sweeping regularly! Anyway, the main reasons I don’t like to cook there:

Dog hair everywhere plus it is an old, dusty house. Every time I pull out pots, pans, or mixing bowls, I need to wash it all before I start cooking.
Lately it has been really cleaned up, but usually there are piles of dirty dishes (no dishwasher)
Minimal lighting and heating- it’s dark and cold in there!
The basics are missing- John has some olive oil, some salt, and a few staples like canned tuna and sauce and pasta.. then a bunch of snacks. No vegetables, no meat in the freezer, nothin’!

Ok, so you are probably like “Aw stop whining- spend 10 minutes cleaning and wear a sweatshirt if you’re cold!” That is what I try to tell myself too, but my biggest cooking issue is the lack of ingredients. If we want to cook anything, we have to buy everything. I’m thinking the two of us should brainstorm our eats during the week and I can bring spices, vinegars, oils, etc. down and just make one trip together to buy vegetables, meats, or other specific ingredients. Any other suggestions? Do you prefer cooking in your own kitchen? I think it definitely makes spur of the moment meals easier!

We took a step in the right direction though and got take out chipotle and a $10 bottle of wine.

Vegetarian burrito bowl with rice (they totally skimped on this), black beans, peppers and onions, corn salsa and spicy salsa, guac, and a little cheese. I always say “just a LITTLE cheese please” when I order at Chipotle or they basically start tossing fist-fulls of cheese all over the whole thing. I like my cheese but not in amounts equivalent to the beans!

Before Chipotle, we thought about buying ingredients to make burritos at home. I was interested in comparing the cost of this. Obviously, we could make more burritos out of buying the ingredients at the grocery store, and I would at home, though I’m not sure if John would use all the leftover products!

Chipotle- carnitas burrito and vegetarian burrito bowl: $15

Sunflower Market (estimates!)- burrito wraps ($2), some type of meat ($4), cheese ($2), lettuce ($1), salsa ($2), guac or guac making ingredients ($4), pepper ($1), onion ($0.50), taco seasoning ($1.50), beans ($1.50), rice ($3): $22.50

So initially we spent less. Let’s be honest though, I would have bought other unnecessary things if I walked into the store, but we would have been able to each make probable two burritos plus leftovers of other ingredients. Which I would have to bring back to Fort Collins or John would have to use (doubtful ). Interesting little analysis.

Our $10 bottle of wine, it was fruity and bold.

Now that it’s so late this AM, I’ll just cover breakfast now. One Chobani container with a big spoonful of PB stirred in- TRY THIS- topped with a microwaved apple + cinnamon and a tiny bit of granola I had left (it was literally a TBSP I think, boo).