I’m not sure anyone who’s out there reading this will be shocked when I say that I have a bit of a problem when it comes to burritos. So this week I tried an experiment, namely making a whole bunch of burritos and then freezing them for future lunches and dinners. My brother stopped by while I was still cooking (or, just as the smoke started pouring out of the microwave, but more on that later), and simply didn’t believe that I have never made my own burritos before. “But you like them so much, why wouldn’t you just make them yourself?” And I could only answer feebly, “Because Chipotle already does it perfectly?”

I found this Everyday Food recipe a few weeks ago and immediately printed it out. It seemed very easy, and bean burritos are my favorite anyway. Plus, I’m enough of a beginner that I need instructions for freezing and then subsequently reheating food to be spelled out for me line by line.

I set out to make these on Tuesday night, and it sort of started off badly and continued downhill. I didn’t calculate ahead of time that I had not bought the quick kind of brown rice, nor did I make anywhere near enough. Luckily, the long cooking time for the rice gave my slow ass time to chop the onions, garlic, and jalapenos. (Disaster number two: thinking that because jalapenos aren’t that hot, I didn’t need to pay attention to my hands and touching my eyes. Idiot.) Anyway, basically, you get the onions, garlic and peppers cooking, add the tomato paste (I’m still not sure I am happy about this addition; it totally overpowered everything) and beans, and cook until everything gets nice and combined.

Meanwhile, I decided to cook more rice, but in the microwave this time, because I didn’t want to use the same pot on the stove again? I really don’t know. I thought it would be quicker somehow, and something went wrong somewhere, because even though it still should have been way short on cooking time, in the amount of time it took me to let my brother in (and for him to help me carry my new desk into the apartment), the microwave was smoking, the rice blackened, and the tupperware warped and melted. (My apartment still smelled like burning the next day).

At this point it was almost 9pm and I was starting to lose interest in ever eating these burritos… but my brother convinced me to snap out of it and I wrapped them all up and ate one, too.

And it was pretty tasty, all told. The flavors had a lot of time to combine, and it wasn’t too liquidy, so it didn’t ooze too much.

I’m glad that I have seven future meals all ready to go, but this whole experience has definitely broken a bit of that whole MustFollowRecipe rule-following internal strictness, because the recipe? Made a decent burrito. But the way I’d make a burrito myself (rice, black beans, peppers and onions, salsa, cheese, sour cream and/or guacamole if I’m feeling indulgent) would have been better. And I can still make them ahead and freeze them.

Say it with me now: DUH.