Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Cafe Rio! Yummy!


Delicious! This recipe makes so much, I freeze the chicken after shredding and cooling, then use it for burritos, salads, quesadilla's, or soups the rest of the week!
Food Storage Ideas: If you are stocking up on meet in your freezer, this recipe will work. You might now be able to get all the ingredients for the dressing but thats ok- still works well enough

Cafe Rio Chicken
1 small bottle Kraft Zesty Italian Dressing
1 T chili powder
1 T cumin
3 cloves garlic—minced
5 lbs chicken breast

Cook all together in a crock pot for 4 hours, shred meat and cook 1 additional hour.

Cafe Rio Pork Barbacoa-Amie's Fav
6lb Pork Loin
21oz Dr Pepper- can use coke but I think the DR Pep works best in this recipe- do NOT use diet
1 C Brown Sugar
2 Cloves of Garlic
7oz can chipotle sauce- remove chilies unless you want to burn the house down with your tounge!
6oz red taco sauce
1t. Dry mustard
1t. Cumin
1/2 t. Salt & Pepper

START THIS IN THE MORNING (or night before)
Cook the pork for about 8 hours then Place ingredients in the blender and then pour over pork loin in crock pot. Cook low additional 3 hours hours and then shred- cook another hour.





Café Rio Dressing
1 buttermilk ranch dressing packet (make as per recipe)
2 tomatillos (tomato like vegetable with a husk around them)
½ bunch of cilantro
1 clove garlic
Juice of 1 lime
1 jalapeño (Use the seeds too if you like it spicy. You could substitute a few drops of green tobasco for the jalapeno.)

Use a food processor to blend all the ingredients well. Refrigerate.

Café Rio Rice
3 c water
4 t chicken bouillon
4 t garlic –minced
½ bunch cilantro
1 can green chiles—or equivalent fresh
¾ t salt
1 T butter
½ onion
3 c rice (see note)

Blend cilantro, green chiles and onion together in food processor. Bring water to a boil and add all ingredients, simmer covered 30 minutes.

Now Put it together


  • Tortilla – you can make your own, mine came from a package.

  • Cheese -it is a good idea to warm these two up so the cheese is a little melty.

  • Beans – black or pinto (mine came straight out of the can, warmed in the microwave with a little garlic powder and green Tabasco sauce).

  • Rice – don’t be stingy now!

  • Pork - I am actually salivating while writing this post…

  • Lettuce – Shredded Romaine, you want small enough pieces to get a little of everything on your fork

  • Pico de Gallo – I like extra pico, so I give myself an extra scoop.

  • Tortilla Strips – slice a corn tortilla into strips, brush with olive oil and salt and pepper and bake on a foil-covered sheet for 15-20 minutes at 350-ish.

  • Creamy Tomatillo Dressing – I like to keep mine on the side so my lettuce doesn’t get too slobbery.

  • This is really best served with a cold Dr. Pepper with a few slices of lime squeezed into it, but if that seems like Dr. Pepper overload, your beverage of choice will probably be fine.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies


These are quick and easy to get done in a hurry before kids come home from school.
I will say however that they are best right out of the oven, since made with a cake mix these tend to get, well good just not as grest as the day of baking. But oh so good when warm :)

Ingredients:

1 PKG Devils Food Mix
½ C. Butter or Margarine, Softened
1 tsp. Vanilla
2 Eggs (2 T. dehydrated eggs + 1/4 C. Water)
1 C. Peanut Butter Chips (or chip of your choice)

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Beat half of the dry mix, the butter, vanilla and eggs in large bowl on medium speed until smooth. Stir in remaining cake mix, the nuts and chocolate chips. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls (about 2 inches apart) onto cookie sheet. Bake 8 minutes.