Often imitated . . .

. . . but never duplicated.

That's right. I'm talking about the Chipotle burrito.


I have blogged about my love for all that is Chipotle on several occasions. Like the story of my elation over FINALLY getting a Chipotle in Iowa. (which was convenient when we lived in Iowa. Now that we live in Germany, not so much!) When we were giving thanks alphabetically, Chipotle made my "C" list. It even made the list of my top 5 loves!

So, there is no doubt that I love Chipotle; however, the last couple of times that we have been in the States, friends and family alike have been trying to convince me that there are other burrito joints that are just as good - if not better than the original - the burrito that has had my heart since I was just a teenager!

At this point I'm pretty sure we've tried them all, and I've got to say that a lot of them were pretty good.

Qdoba makes a mean queso sauce and in the summer time their mango salsa is to die for. They also have a loyalty card program which is a bit of a perk. And they're my parents' favorite of the many burrito options in their area.


Bullritos are the fan favorite in the Houston area. They have a fun ordering system where you check what you want on their printed bags (a lot like Which-Wich) and turn it in at the beginning of the line. They assemble it and at the end of the line the cashier calls your name, or whatever name you wrote on the bag during the ordering process - the boys have a lot of fun with this ;). One of their distinctions is a delicious Cilantro Ranch sauce. Yummmm!

Most recently, we were introduced to Moe's in Charleston, SC. Moe's has a pretty wide selection with funny names like "The Homewrecker" and the "Joey Junior." They also do free chips and salsa with every order, and the location we went to had a soda machine that looked like it was straight out of an episode of Star Trek - complete with a touch screen and several different flavor variations for each soda option.


But I've got to say, while I'd never be one to turn down a burrito - any burrito (especially living in Germany where good Mexican food is VERY hard to come by), Chipotle is still my favorite. By a landslide! I don't know if it's just that it was my first burrito love, or the delicious combination of their steak and rice and salsa and sour cream and guacamole that no one else will every be able to fully duplicate!

Not that I haven't tried. I mean the closest Chipotle to us is in London, which is an eight hour drive, so it may as well be in the States with as often as we get there, so I've tried my hand at recreating Carnitas and Cilantro-Lime Rice, but it just isn't the same. There were rumors at one point that Chipotle may be opening a new location in Munich, which is much closer, but alas we have not seen any movement on that for awhile, so . . . We will have to make due with our homemade version and our memories of the real thing!

Do you have a food item or a restaurant that you have to struggle to do without? Or someplace you can't imagine moving away from?

Hope you're having a great week!

Tag! I'm It!

Schotzy over at Wings of Eagles tagged me to share five things that I love.

1. I LOVE my hubby :) He's a wonderful, amazing man, with a heart for God and for others, and he's a total hottie!

2. I love my puppy dog - Diddy (the black one)! She's adorable, and she's such a cuddle bug!

3. I love vacations! It is so nice to be able to relax and enjoy the company of friends and family that we do not see often.

4. I love our appliances. Shortly before we got married, Austin purchased all brand new stainless steel appliances to be the icing on the cake of our dream kitchen

5. I love Chipotle burritos! And I hope to enjoy several while on this vacation :)

Thanks for reading everybody! Hope you're all having a fabulous weekend! Signing off from beautiful and scenic Colorado Springs! :)

Our Chipotle Baby . . .

I found this pic today (by found, I mean I was looking at it hanging on the wall of my cubicle at work), and thought I would tell you all a funny story about two of the great loves of my life.

As I was contemplating telling the story (that we will eventually get to in the course of this post), I realized that I have been utterly remiss in communicating my love of all that is Chipotle. I have told you all about the men in my life, and I brag on my hubby (who rocks!) every week, but I have yet to even mention Chipotle. I'm so sorry Chipotle, I love you, and I miss you terribly - I'm hoping I can convince Austin to come visit this weekend!

If you have never enjoyed a Chipotle burrito, you, my friend, are seriously missing out! Imagine if you will, the most beautiful, gleaming, modern decor, ecclectic, but very tasteful, music pumping through the sound system, and food so delectible in its all-natural goodness, that it makes my mouth water just thinking about it. Do you have that image in your head? Good. Now put all of that into a fast. food. restaurant!!!! Too good to be true, NO!! It exists, in all it's cheesy, spicy, tomatoey goodness in the form of Chipotle Burritos!!!!

My love affair with the burrito the size of my head began when I was in high school, though I remember it like it was yesterday. The rumor had been flying around school all day that a new Mexican place was opening at Union and Academy, and as part of the training for their staff they were offering free burritos to everyone who came through the doors! Not the first 50, or even the first 500, EVERYONE!!! Free food, and an excuse to get off campus was enough for us, so my friends and I piled into my family's minivan (I'm not sure why I was driving the minivan on this day, but I distinctly remember that I was because the driver's door latch had a pesky habit of letting go right when you were going about 45 miles an hour down Palmer Park Blvd, scary . . . but, I digress). When we arrived at the restaurant, the line was snaked through the entire restaurant and out the door. We all knew that we had only 45 minutes before 4th period started, but we were far more interested in free burritos. When we were about half-way through the line, we spotted our history teacher (for whose class we were inevitably going to be late, if not miss all together) leaving the restaurant. He just shook his head and laughed. We all made our way to the front, ordered and jumped back into the van for a very fast ride back to school. I think we were about 35 minutes late for our hour-long class, and we ate our burritos at our desks. Our teacher was really cool, and since we didn't do that kind of thing too terribly often, didn't make a big deal out of it. And the rest, as they say, is history.

After our love at first bite, I was hooked. Chipotle was at least a weekly trip for me, with or without a friend, and once I ate two burritos in one sitting (quite a feat for someone of my appetite). When I left Colorado Springs to go to college in Dubuque, Iowa, I was crushed to learn that there was no Chipotle in Dubuque, or in the entire state of Iowa for that matter! How was I going to last an entire school year without Chipotle. The closest one was in Madison, Wisconsin - a 2 hour drive both ways, but I somehow conned friends to make the trip with me multiple times throughout the year! (I didn't even have a car while I was at college, but I had awesome friends and an stupendously amazing boyfriend who took me every time I got the craving :) ). I had quite the system - I would order 1 burrito, and 1 burrito bowl with an extra tortilla, eat the assembled burrito in Madison, and take the burrito makings back to DBQ to be enjoyed in a day or so (any longer than a day, and it was a little gooey).



I have now eaten Chipotle burritos in 6 different states, and it never gets old! This picture is from the grand opening of a Chipotle in Phoenix, AZ. (We just happened to be there on opening day while we were visiting my grandfather for his 80th birthday!)



Thankfully, Austin loves the burrito almost as much as I do, so he makes sure that we get some whenever we are in an area that has them!

As I had said, there were absolutely zilch, zero, nada Chipotle locations in the entire state of Iowa, so when I went and fell in love with my handsome husband and we decided to live in Iowa, it was a very difficult transition for me. We wrote many e-mails to the proprietors (who always answered, and were very upbeat and polite when they did so) begging them to bring a Chipotle to our fair state.

While planning a weekend trip one evening, we were surfing the web to find out if there were any Chipotle stops along our route only to see that they had finally built a Chipotle in Iowa! Iowa City!!!! (Which is a shorter trek than between Dubuque and Madison!)

It was such fabulous news! I whipped out my cell phone right then and there and called my parents' house in Colorado! My parents are notoriously difficult to reach at their home, so I left a message. In my excitement, it sounded something like this:

"Hey everybody, call us as soon as you get this, we have the best news!!!"

Yep, they thought we were having a baby!

Well, we cleared up that little misunderstanding, and informed them of our elation over the new Chipotle! They were very excited for us and shared in the joy of our "new arrival."

For Christmas last year, my sister gave us a gift certificate for Chipotle (cleverly packaged to look like a burrito wrapped in tin foil :) ), so this picture is me and Austin in our "new family" pose.




Thanks for reading and indulging my silliness! If you're interested in finding a Chipotle near you, click here! And no, they don't pay me to advertise for them, they're just that good!
Have a great Wednesday!