OP: what you are missing is salt and oil. My kid worked at cava and all the meats and sauces are prepared with an oily marinade and plenty of salt. Yours was healthier.

Anonymous wrote:Don’t use WF guacamole it’s super overpriced. That’s $20% of your expense.

Ripen avocados on the counter and put in fridge, they will stay at the perfect ripeness for a long time, ready to use.

WF guac is perfect. I've tried to make my own, it just doesn't seem worth it and doesn't save anything. Store avos are rarely perfectly ripe or the guac just tastes slightly mediocre in the end. And again, it's really not saving money: Regular priced avocados, fresh cilantro, 1 or 2 limes is right around $10 or 11. All to run the risk of wasting time and it coming out inferior to the perfect guac WF has aced.

This thread is so weird. I make “Chipotle” bowls at home so we can have the variety and higher quality, and I can control the sodium. If I simply wanted to save money we’d be eating rice and beans.

When we were in Asia, it was cheaper to have food delivered to us than going to the grocery store and doing it ourselves, so no one cooked. That would be really cool to happen in the USA and make our lives easier.

Qdoba is so much better than Chipotle. Chipotle is trash.

Don’t use WF guacamole it’s super overpriced. That’s $20% of your expense.

Ripen avocados on the counter and put in fridge, they will stay at the perfect ripeness for a long time, ready to use.

I’m trying hard to see how OP spent $50. Here’s a rough budget:

2 avocados - $3
2 cans beans — $3
Rice — $1
Tomatos — $2
Onion$1
Salsa $5
Lime $1
Chicken, 2.5 pounds $21

That’s like $37– maybe a little more if you use skirt steak. If you’re paying more for organic of course you can’t really compare that to chipotle prices.

I do think between 5-10 pp is reasonable budget for make at home burrito bowls. Restaurants will get some economy of scale, certainly. (There’s an SNL skit about Arby’s where they are wondering how Arby’s can make that big meat sandwich for $5.). If you buy the massive meat packs at Costco or Walmart and separate them out, you can save money. Same with buying big bags of dried beans instead of canned beans. Even the six pack of avocados at Costco saved a bunch of money.

This is all one reason why I never feel bad about buying a $15 salad at Chopt. It would be pretty expensive to buy all those items and it would take me for ever to separately prepare the 15 different things I put into the salad. So I feel like it’s a good value for me. Unlike the burgers at 5 guys which I could make easily in 10 minutes for half the price. Fast food that has a lot of elements in it is labor intensive and makes sense to do at scale by a fast food restaurant.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids love Chipotle so I figured I could easily whip up burrito bowls last night. Family of 4. Steak and chicken. Whole Foods guac. Good salsas. Corn. Rice. Beans. Herbs and spices. Cheese, which I shredded. Onions and peppers. Leafy lettuce. It was over $50, took me well over an hour to prep and cook everything, tons of cleanup, and tasted fine but nothing special. Everyone finished their plates but no rave reviews.

Chipotle is $9-12 per person. And the kids and my husband would prefer it over what I served. Did I do something wrong or does everyone sort of know this and when the family craves burritos or burrito bowls you all order out?

How much was the Whole Foods quac? What kind of steak and chicken? You probably used a higher quality meat.

I think it's $10 or $11 for the largest container?

Anonymous wrote:What you served was probably healthier and/or bigger portions, and you likely have some leftover salsa and/or cheese (perhaps other things).
However, I agree with you. For highly customizable bowl meals, I find it is SO much work at home. So many dishes to clean, so many little 'odds and ends' to put away/make sure they don't get lost in the back of my fridge, and so much prep. Chipotle, Cava, etc. just have an economy of scale that you don't have at home for 4 or 5 people. It is a lot of mental load also.
I do plenty of cooking, and this is not an issue when I make less fussier meals like baked fish or chicken with salad and a carb. (which is more of our typical fare)
OP, you are not alone.

I think you nailed it, hard to compete with their economy of scale when a family wants options. I know they make a ton of money, obviously, but their margins really don't seem very high once I tried to make bowls myself.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chipotle is not a great value, Mexican food is disgustingly cheap to make. You people may not know how to cook.

That’s what I assumed but I think it’s only a cheap meal if all the family wants ground beef and/or you make it weekly to use all the leftover ingredients before they expire.

+ or - $10 is not enough savings for me to waste all that time shopping, cooking and cleaning for mediocre burrito bowls once or twice a month.

They’re mediocre because you can’t cook well. If it’s the first time you made it now you should know how to do it better. They’re expensive because you don’t meal plan or know how to shop frugally. You won’t learn to cook or teach your children how to cook or budget or meal plan if you order chipotle every time you want a burrito bowl. Next it’ll be Olive Garden every time you want Italian because you can’t make good spaghetti. Once in awhile fine but as a go to? Not good for many reasons. Next time don’t forget the cilantro and lime juice, both fresh. And salt, you need good salt. Do you have good salt? Try this place:

https://www.jqdsalt.com/

You can do this. Keep trying!

You are a really nice person. I had written OP off by page three of this thread (lazy, bad cook, just wants to order food out) but you are actually getting them to try. We have so many good cooks on this forum with creative ideas that it can be hard to keep encouraging when someone is determined to be obstinate. You are a good person.

FWIW last time we had Chipotle (1x in 10 years in an emergency) we all got diarrhea. Also, guacamole should absolutely have lime juice in it. Doesn't need to be fresh. I pick up fresh limes at the asian food store for cheap but also a big bottle of lime juice for backup.

Anonymous wrote:Kids love Chipotle so I figured I could easily whip up burrito bowls last night. Family of 4. Steak and chicken. Whole Foods guac. Good salsas. Corn. Rice. Beans. Herbs and spices. Cheese, which I shredded. Onions and peppers. Leafy lettuce. It was over $50, took me well over an hour to prep and cook everything, tons of cleanup, and tasted fine but nothing special. Everyone finished their plates but no rave reviews.

Chipotle is $9-12 per person. And the kids and my husband would prefer it over what I served. Did I do something wrong or does everyone sort of know this and when the family craves burritos or burrito bowls you all order out?

How much was the Whole Foods quac? What kind of steak and chicken? You probably used a higher quality meat.

Anonymous wrote:Kids love Chipotle so I figured I could easily whip up burrito bowls last night. Family of 4. Steak and chicken. Whole Foods guac. Good salsas. Corn. Rice. Beans. Herbs and spices. Cheese, which I shredded. Onions and peppers. Leafy lettuce. It was over $50, took me well over an hour to prep and cook everything, tons of cleanup, and tasted fine but nothing special. Everyone finished their plates but no rave reviews.

Chipotle is $9-12 per person. And the kids and my husband would prefer it over what I served. Did I do something wrong or does everyone sort of know this and when the family craves burritos or burrito bowls you all order out?

WF Guac is so expensive and not sure what "good salsa" is, but you would have saved by making these from scratch!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:making a burrito bowl with a bunch of different toppings is going to be labor intensive. If you just did rice, beans, cheese and salsa that would be faster and better than Chipotle.

The key to saving money on your family's Chipotle dupe is to...nix half the toppings, force everyone to eat the same protein, avocados must be on sale, and don't bother with fresh lime juice in your guac. lol

lol??

The key to getting a cheap BMW is to...go buy a Honda Accord?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:making a burrito bowl with a bunch of different toppings is going to be labor intensive. If you just did rice, beans, cheese and salsa that would be faster and better than Chipotle.

The key to saving money on your family's Chipotle dupe is to...nix half the toppings, force everyone to eat the same protein, avocados must to be on sale, and don't bother with fresh lime juice in your guac. lol

Was OP’s goal to duplicate Chipotle burrito bowls?A goal to duplicate a restaurant dish (but easy and not expensive) is a questionable goal. To the extent OP is trying to convince herself that it’s not worth it to cook at home and she should just do takeout - sure that’s true if you have unreasonable expectations and little cooking experience.

at the end of the day “rice and beans” is a dish enjoyed in many varieties around the world. It’s cheap and delicious and you can make it at home. But no, it is not going to be a “Chipotle dupe” and also be quick and cheap.

I'm OP and yes, I was hoping to get close enough and or expect substantial savings. Neither really happened and I spent much more than I would have guessed. I think the challenge is when everyone likes the protein variety Chipotle offers. I'm not trying to convince myself or anyone else cooking for your family in general isn't worth it. I cook for my family 5 or 6 nights a week!

Anonymous wrote:Yes because you used premium ingredients.

Which Chipotle doesn't do.