Cafe Rio Pork

Here it is...the best Cafe Rio Pork recipe that I've tried. (I've tried 3 others.) I think this one is as close to the original as I've tasted. I found it on the site The Girl Who Ate Everything. I've made it a few times and even made it for a family get together. Everyone loved it! This is definitely on my "favorites" list! We usually eat this as part of a "Cafe Rio Burrito". This includes: a flour tortilla, Lime Cilantro Rice (recipe is below), sweet pork, beans (either black or pinto), cheese, and a green chile verde sauce. Then we roll the tortilla and smother it with more sauce and cheese. We've also had leftovers as a pork taco and a pork sandwich. Definitely a keeper!

Cafe Rio Pork
by The Girl Who Ate



4 lbs Pork Roast (I've also used a tenderloin)
4 cups Root Beer
5 small cans tomato sauce (Last time I used: 1 large can sauce and 1 1/2 cans ketchup)
2-4 TB Molasses or honey (I always use 4 TB honey)
3 tsp. Garlic
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 1/2 to 3 cups Brown Sugar (I used 3 cups)
Pepper to taste
4 tsp. Cumin


Cook pork roast in crock pot 8 hours in a little water. In the morning, pull apart with fork and drain all the water. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook another 4 hours in the crockpot. ENJOY!

Chicken Pot Pie

I got this recipe from the blog "The Girl Who Ate Everything" and it was SO good! It did take a little bit of work, but really not too bad for such a good meal. My kids even asked for seconds (which is a good sign). We had just a little left over and I'm sure it won't be one of those things that gets put in the fridge and then forgotten. I will definitely make this one again!

Chicken Pot Pie
from The Girl Who Ate Everything
adapted from Allrecipes.com

1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cubed (uncooked)
1 cup sliced carrots
1 cup frozen peas
* I just used a small bag of frozen carrots & peas and they worked great
1/2 cup sliced celery (I omitted this one since I had no fresh celery)
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup chopped onion (I will omit this next time - it had too much of an "onion-y" taste)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp celery seed
3 cups chicken broth (you might need a little more)
2/3 cup milk

2 (9 inch) unbaked pie crusts

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. In a pot, combine chicken, carrots, peas, and celery. Add enough chicken broth to cover and boil for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and drain (reserving 1 3/4 cup chicken broth for the filling) and set aside.

In a saucepan over medium heat, cook onions in butter until soft and translucent. Stir in flour, salt, pepper, and celery seed. Slowly stir in chicken broth and milk. Simmer over medium-low heat until thick. Remove from heat and combine with the chicken, carrots, peas, and celery mixture. Here you can add more chicken broth if you like depending on how runny you want your filling.

Place one of the unbaked pie crusts in the bottom of a pie dish. (I poke holes into the crust and bake for 5 minutes so the bottom crust doesn't get soggy.) Place the chicken filling in bottom crust. Cover with top crust, seal edges, and cut away excess dough. Make several slits in the top to allow steam to escape.

Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas

These are the best chicken enchiladas ever! I found it on The Girl Who Ate Everything blog. She originally found it on The Sister's Cafe. I first made it before I had this blog and I noticed a friend of mine also tried it and loved it. The kids always eat it all and seem happy when I make it! Perhaps I will make this one for my freezer group!

Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas
by the Sister's Cafe


4 Tablespoons honey (the original recipe calls for 6, but I thought it was too sweet)
5 Tablespoons lime juice
1 Tablespoon chili powder (less for a milder version)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 pound chicken, cooked and shredded (I used more chicken so that the enchiladas were more full)
8-10 flour tortillas
1 pound monterrey jack cheese, shredded (I also used some cheddar)
16 ounces green enchilada sauce
1/2 cup heavy cream (the original recipe called for 1 cup, but it makes it too rich)


Mix the honey (spray your measuring spoon with cooking spray before measuring out the honey - then it doesn't stick to the spoon), lime juice, chili powder, and garlic together and toss with the shredded chicken. Let it marinate for at least 1/2 hour (or place it all together in a ziploc bag and let it sit in the fridge a few hours). Pour about 1/2 cup of enchilada sauce ont eh bottom of a 9x13 baking pan. Fill flour tortillas with chicken, cheese, and a little enchilada sauce, saving about 1 cup of cheese to sprinkle on top of the enchiladas. Roll the enchilada and place in the baking pan. Mix the remaining enchilada sauce with the cream and leftover marinade. Pour sauce on top (and in between) of the enchiladas and sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until brown and crispy on top.


Can serve with sour cream, pico de gallo, rice and black beans.

Panko Parmesan Crusted Chicken

This is a family favorite! The panko is a japanese bread crumb. Instead of being round crumbs, they are a different shape - kind of like a rice shape. I saw this recipe on Quick Fix Meals with Robin Miller. She serves this with a Wasabi Tomato Sauce, but that's just not our thing - so I don't make that. This is definitely YUMMY and I make it quite a bit!!

Panko Parmesan Crusted Chicken

by Robin Miller

Cooking spray

6 boneless skinless chicken breast halves

Salt

Black Pepper

1 cup flour

2 eggs, lightly beaten (I use 3 egg whites)

1 cup panko crumbs (you can use plain bread crumbs)

1 cup grated parmesan

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Season both sides of chicken with salt and black pepper. Place flour in a shallow dish. Place eggs in a separate shallow dish. Combine panko crumbs and parmesan in a third shallow dish. Dip chicken first in flour, then in the egg, and then in the panko crumb mixture, covering both sides of the chicken. Transfer the chicken to a sprayed baking sheet. (I line a baking sheet with foil and then place baking racks on top of it. I spray the racks before placing the chicken on top of them. I do this so that my chicken isn't "soggy-ish" on the bottom and stays as crisp as the top.) Spray the surface of the chicken with the cooking spray. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until chicken is golden brown and cooked through. Remove from oven.

Glazed Mini Meatloaves

I saw this recipe on my friend Stacy's food blog. She originally found it on My Kitchen Cafe. I really haven't been a fan of meatloaf. I decided to try this last night and my family loved it. I will definitely make this again. The only thing different that I would do is double the glaze. The glaze is really good and I think I will make more for the leftovers. I did make a little more than the recipe since we have 6 people in the family. If I don't want leftovers, I will make the recipe. If Gary eats the rest of them, then next time I'll do like I did this time.

Glazed Mini Meatloaves
found on My Kitchen Cafe
adapted from The Best 30-Minute Recipes
Recipe makes 4-5 mini meatloaves


Meatloaves:
17-20 saltine crackers, crushed fine
1/4 cup whole milk (I used 2% because I didn't want to buy whole for this recipe)
1/3 cup minced fresh parsley (I used 3 Tbsp of dried)
3 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 large egg
1 1/2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 1/2 lbs ground meat
2 tsp oil


Glaze: (I will double the next time)
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
4 tsp cider vinegar (I used white wine vinegar - thought I had the cider but didn't)


Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 425 degrees. Stir cracker crumbs, milk, parsley, Worcestershire sauce, egg, mustard, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper together in a large bowl. Add ground meat and combine until uniform. Shape mixture into oval loaves. Heat oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat until the oil is rippling. Add meatloaves (without letting them touch sides) and brown well on one side, 3-5 minutes. Carefully flip loaves over and tidy up the edges using a spatula (I didn't need to do this - mine held their shape). Brown on this side for another 2-3 minutes. Meanwhile, mix glaze ingredients together until smooth. Transfer mini meatloaves to a foil-lined baking pan and spoon the glaze over the top of each meatloaf. Bake for 18-20 minutes (mine took about 30 minutes since I had more on the pan) or until the center of the loaf registers 160 degrees on an instant read thermometer (or cut one open and see if it's done). Enjoy!

Oven Baked Pasta

I found this recipe on the blog My Kitchen Cafe. I changed a few things to make it more enjoyable for my family. (I added ground beef and used more cheese.) The family loved it and a few of them even got up to get seconds. That's always a plus!

Oven Baked Pasta (Originally Baked Ziti)
by My Kitchen Cafe adapted from Cook's Illustrated

1 lb ground meat
16 oz cottage cheese
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups grated parmesan cheese
1 lb pasta (preferably ziti or penne; I used bowtie since it's all I had)
2 tablespoons olive oil
5 garlic cloves, finely minced (about 5 teaspoons)
1 (28-oz) can tomato sauce
1 (14.5-oz) can crushed tomatoes (my kids don't like chunks!)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried basil (if fresh is used, add it to the sauce at the end after it's taken off the heat)
1 teaspoon salt
Black pepper
3/4 teaspoon cornstarch
1 cup heavy cream (if you substitute it with whole milk, increase the cornstarch to 2 teaspoons and the cooking time by 1 to 2 minutes)
8 oz. mozzarella cheese, grated or cut into 1/4-inch cubes (my family likes cheese so I added more)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a skillet, brown the ground meat; remove meat from pan. In a medium bowl, whisk the cottage cheese, eggs and 1 cup of the parmesan cheese together; set aside. Bring 4 quarts of water to boil in a large pot over high heat. Stir in 1 tablespoon salt and pasta; cook, stirring occasionally until pasta begins to soften but is not yet cooked through (the pasta will finish cooking in the oven.) Drain pasta and leave in colander. Do not wash the pot.

While the pasta is cooking, heat oil and garlic, in the skillet used to brown the meat, over medium heat until the garlic is fragrant but not browned, about 2 minutes. Stir in the tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes, basil and oregano; simmer until thickened, about 10 minutes. Take it off the heat (this is where you would add the fresh basil) and season with salt and pepper to taste. Add the browned ground meat.

Stir cornstarch into heavy cream and transfer mixture to the now empty pasta pot. Set the pot over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and cook until thickened, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove pot from heat and add cottage cheese mixture, 1 cup tomato sauce mixture, and 3/4 cup mozzarella, then stir to combine. Add pasta and stir to coat thoroughly with sauce.

Transfer mixture to a 9x13-inch baking dish and spread remaining tomato sauce evenly over pasta. Sprinkle remaining mozzarella and parmesan cheeses over the top. Cover the baking dish with foil that has been lightly sprayed with cooking spray and bake for 30 minutes.

Remove foil and continue to cook until the cheese is bubbling and beginning to brown, about 30 minutes longer. Cool for 10 minutes. Serve.