I know this looks like roadkill covered in cheese, but it was in fact delicious. Though if you put cheese on roadkill, it would probably be good too.
In case you were wondering, flank steak comes from the bottom abdominal muscles of a cow. This is the type of steak that you can use to make stir fry and fajitas. I used to actually know all the parts of a cow and other farm animals, because I went to cowboy sleepaway camp when I was a kid, and we had to learn that for some reason. Flank steak is also the type of steak needed to make this new recipe I found, which is pretty much a burrito casserole.
My carne asada burrito casserole, which I read on a blog which might have been written as a joke, tbh, was not much to look at. It is also verifiably not a one-pot meal. It is literally no easier than making a burrito or fajitas in the traditional method. But my philosophy towards one-pot meals is not necessarily that they must be literally “one-pot.” I was drawn to this because, yes, in the beginning, it takes 3 (3!!) (well, a rice pot, a skillet, and a casserole dish) and two cutting boards, at the end of the ordeal you are left with a single casserole dish and a pre-mixed, pre-assembled burrito that you literally just scoop out of the dish and microwave and put this fancy avocado salsa on it and you have dinner in approximately 3.5 minutes, and a single plate and spoon to wash. And it’s giant, so it will feed you for a week. If one were to make a weeks worth of burritos filling, then you would have to assemble a burrito every single night, (because burritos, unlike casseroles, which frankly are improved by chilling in their own juices for a couple of days, get soggy and sad if not eaten immediately, thus diminishing their utility as a make-ahead meal) and have a gazillion tupperware containers taking up space in your fridge. With the burrito casserole, there are exactly zero pieces of tupperware in my fridge: I have one of those cool casserole dishes with a plastic lid that snaps on for storage that my mom got for me from Home Goods when I first moved to Wisconsin back when I was a fledgling grown-up person who didn’t even own a cast iron skillet.
My love for this burrito casserole can also be translated to other aspects of life. I like the burrito casserole because, although it involves a lot of effort at the outset, if you take the time to do it right, the rest of the week will be smooth sailing. (Man, I really hope law school works out the same way).
There is, of course, room for improvement. The recipe wasn’t clear–it called for two cups of cooked rice, which I interpreted to as “cook two cups of rice”, so my casserole was extra rice-y. I also am apparently a useless human who doesn’t know how butchers work, because I couldn’t’ find the right cut of steak to use. So I bought one which was cheapish and looked close enough, and it turned out fine, because when you marinate something in cilantro and garlic and olive oil and sear it then chop it into little pieces then cover it in melted cheese even dirt would taste good.
My love for one-pot meals does not stem from a fear of doing dishes, though seriously, one day I am once again going to have an income and maybe someday live in a less-dark cave that has a dishwasher. I like one-pot meals because they imply completeness: you can have a dinner, that lives in 1 (1!) tupperware dish, and you can reheat it to your heart’s content and not have to spend your precious downtime steaming vegetables or scrounging around for a starch. See, your starch and vegetables are already incorporated into your one-pot meal. Plus, one-pot meals, tending to be practical and not overly fussy (also covered in cheese) tend to keep pretty well in the fridge.
Does this paint me as a slightly eccentric, one-hundred percent single person who is very good at cooking for one? Possibly. But whatever, I will continue enjoying having to cook and go to the grocery store only once a week, while you are chopping vegetables night after night/ cursing the gods for your inability to plan ahead and make your own fancy burrito casserole and having to order take out.
In Case You Were Wondering. . . 
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