Using up leftover roast beef: Homemade Burrito Bowls

I finally made an entire roast the other day in the slow cooker.  I have a general to aversion to large, whole pieces of meat but I have conquered my fear in the last few months.  I am even cooking entire whole chickens now!  (The funny thing is, there is really nothing more simple than putting a whole chicken or roast into the crockpot.  What was I so afraid of?)  So this week I had a nice amount of leftover, tender, yummy roast beef to use up.  I decided to play around with it a bit (what?  being creative in the kitchen?  I'm totally branching out these days...) and create a homemade version of Chipotle's Burrito Bowl.

Everyone in my family loves Chipotle take-out.  In fact, we were falling into a pattern of having it about three times a month.  But at about $30 a pop each time to feed my whole crew, that really adds up.  So I dug around in my pantry and freezer and came up with the homemade version of my favorite Chipotle item - the burrito bowl.  My husband took a few bites and said "This is even better than Chipotle's."  Wowzers - now there's a compliment!  I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture of the assembled bowls because they were a thing of beauty.  Really.

Here's what I used, but use whatever you have on hand to suit your tastes and how many mouths you have to feed.  I apologize that the measurements are no where near exact - I just threw some stuff together and now I'm guessing:

Homemade Burrito Bowls:

2-3 cups leftover cooked roast beef
1/4 - 1/2 cup water
1 Tablespoon (or 1/3 packet) taco seasoning (I used this homemade taco seasoning)
2-3 cups cooked brown rice
1 can black beans
1/2 - 1 tsp. cumin
1/4 - 1/2 chopped onion
Toppings such as sour cream, lettuce, salsa, cheese

Combine water and taco seasoning in small bowl and whisk together.  Shred the leftover roast beef and place in saucepan with the water/seasoning mixture.  Simmer on low for a while.  Add more water as necessary to keep the beef moist.

Saute the chopped onion in a bit of olive oil.  Simmer the black beans (undrained) in a small saucepan with the cooked onion and cumin.  Simmer until heated through and the cumin flavor is really incorporated into the beans.

To assemble your bowls, start by putting the hot cooked rice on the bottom.  Top with a hearty scoop of black beans and follow with the beef.  And then comes the fun part - toppings of your choice!  We used guacamole (I found a packet of Wholly Guacamole in my freezer that I used, otherwise I would've left this out), sour cream, shredded romaine lettuce, salsa, green Tabasco, and some shredded Monterey Jack cheese.  Serve with chips and salsa.

Yumminess and love in a bowl.  And no where near $30 to feed us all.

This post is linked to Frugal Friday at Life As Mom.

Menu Plan: week of 7/16/12

Wow, it's been soooo long since my last post that I don't even recognize the Blogger page to type my posts anymore!  It is next to impossible to find a spare moment to come down the basement (where the computer is) by myself for longer than two minutes to type a post.  I've tried doing it with three kids running/crawling around me and that just leads to frustration and a cranky mommy shouting "Please give me five minutes of peace to type!"  So today I've squeezed in a few moments while all three kids are resting at the same time.  This will be short and sweet.

It is 100 degrees here today (again) so I've planned a menu using my stovetop and slow cookers.  Here is what is on our menu this week:

Monday:  Slow Cooker Roast Beef (my mom's recipe - just throw in two cans of Golden Mushroom soup with the roast and you have instant tender roast w/ gravy), Crockpot baked potatoes (yes, I have both slow cookers going today), corn, watermelon
Tuesday:  Beef and Bean Burritos (making up a recipe using leftover roast beef), chips and salsa
Wednesday:  Mac and Cheese soup (new recipe), fruit salad
Thursday:  Clean out the fridge night!
Friday:  Homemade pizza, Caesar salad

Check out I'm an Organizing Junkie for more menu planning ideas!