Food Fun Family

Cafe Rio Sweet Pork Salad Copycat Recipe

Lolli — Mon, 30 Dec 2013 19:00:07 +0000

I was introduced to Cafe Rio a few years ago when visiting my mom in Utah. I don’t believe I’ve ever met a person who has gone to Cafe Rio who doesn’t absolutely love their sweet pork. I was determined a few months ago to find a copycat recipe that satisfied my Cafe Rio cravings at home, and although I admit there’s still something extra special about eating this meal at Cafe Rio, this recipe definitely delivers. Cafe Rio copycat recipes abound on the internet…my version is based on this amazing recipe found at Favorite Family Recipes (they have a ton of incredible copycat recipes, by the way).

Cafe Rio Sweet Pork Salad Copycat Recipe

Author: Better in Bulk

Ingredients

2 pound pork loin roast
3 cans Coke (apparently, Diet Coke doesn't work, but I've used Coke Zero and didn't have any complaints)
¼ cup brown sugar
⅛ teaspoon garlic salt
¼ cup water
1 can diced green chilies, undrained
⅔ cup red enchilada sauce (I made my own, but any can will work)
1 cup brown sugar
Salad:
Shredded lettuce
Guacamole
Rice I like Cilantro Lime Rice)
Shredded cheese
Cilantro dressing (I use Trader Joe's Cilantro Salad dressing or the copycat recipe listed below)
Pico de Gallo (or chopped tomatoes)
Black beans
Tortilla strips or crushed tortilla chips
1 large flour tortilla per salad

Instructions

Place the pork, ¼ cup brown sugar and one can of Coke in a heavy duty ziploc bag to marinate. Marinate in the fridge for several hours or overnight.
Drain marinade and discard. Put pork, ½ can of Coke, water, and garlic salt in crock pot and cook on high for about 3-4 hours or on low for 8 hours. Remove pork from crock pot and drain liquid. Shred pork.
In a medium bowl, mix 1 can Coke, green chilies, enchilada sauce and 1 cup brown sugar. Add additional Coke if needed.
Put shredded pork and sauce in crock pot and cook on low for 2 hours. Add meat to salad, burritos, tacos, etc.

Once the meat is complete, I like to create a salad by melting some shredded cheese on a large flour tortilla, topping it with hot rice and beans, shredded lettuce, guacamole, pico de gallo, tortilla strips, and cilantro dressing (I have been raving over this creamy tomatillo dressing that I got years ago). Of course, the pork also tastes excellent on burritos and tacos.

Now let’s see what you’ve been cooking!

I’m teaming up once again with From Val’s Kitchen and This Mama Loves for our weekly recipe linky. Please post the direct link to your recipe (not your blog URL) and the name of your recipe below. Then be sure to visit again next Monday for a new recipe and another chance to link up!

Nutter Butter Copycat Cookies Recipe

Lolli — Tue, 03 Sep 2013 03:12:43 +0000

Nutter Butters (for those of us who eat peanut butter, at least) are pretty close to cookie perfection, but they always seemed to me to be one of those “perfection like this only comes in a package” kinds of treats. I never dreamed of being able to make homemade nutter butters that rivaled the store bought variety.

(Just saying that – that a pre-packaged cookie could ever rival a homemade cookie – seems sacrilegious….but on with the recipe).

I know you want this recipe just for the peanut buttery frosting-filling. You won’t be disappointed. But these cookies, with or without the peanut buttery filling, are to-die-for good.

Nutter Butters Copycat Cookies Recipe

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Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

8 mins

Total time

28 mins

Author: Lolli

Ingredients

1 cup salted sweet cream butter, softened
1 cup peanut butter (creamy, not crunchy)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
Additional granulated sugar for rolling dough
Peanut butter frosting-filling:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter
4 cups powdered sugar
2-3 Tbsp milk

Instructions

In a large bowl, beat butter, peanut putter, and sugars with a hand mixer until mixed. Add eggs and vanilla and continue to beat until light and fluffy (it only take a minute!).
Add flour, baking soda and baking powder and mix with your beaters on low until a soft dough forms. Cover with plastic wrap or place dough in a plastic bag and chill in the refrigerator for 30-60 minutes.
Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
Using a rounded Tablespoon or melon scoop, measure out the same amount of dough for each cookie (this makes matching the cookie sandwich halves so much easier). Roll measured dough into balls and roll them in a small bowl full of sugar. Place each ball on a cookie sheet, leaving a 1-2 inch space between each cookie. Using a fork, gently press cookies down, creating a criss cross pattern.
Variation: For "peanut-shaped" cookies, roll dough into a log, about an inch and a half long by ¾ inch wide. Use a fork to create two criss cross patterns (one for each side of the peanut). Pinch in the middle of each cookie gently with your fingers before baking.
Bake cookies, one sheet at a time, for 7-8 minutes. Remove from oven and let cookies cool on the sheet for a few minutes before removing to a cooling rack.
Once cookies have cooled completely, place a spoon-full of the peanut buttery filling on the bottom of one cookie, spread gently with your fingers, and use another cookie to create a sandwich.
Store in a covered container.

I love the fun (and impressive) peanut-shaped nutter butters, but the round nutter butter cookies taste just as good and take much less time to prepare – I recommend keeping the cookies round!

When I made these cookies again today, I cut the filling recipe in half and left the other half of the cookies as normal peanut butter cookies…which got eaten before I was done cooling the rest for the nutter butter copycat cookie sandwiches!

I found this recipe on Cookie and Cups…an absolutely amazing place for satisfying my sweet tooth!

Grilled Honey Sesame Salmon

Lolli — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 22:13:54 +0000

I’m not a huge seafood lover, but I really love salmon. Love it.

My kids have not grown up eating much fish (in fact, they usually complain at the mention of seafood…) but for some reason they can tolerate salmon. I decided to try out a new salmon recipe recently, and it was a huge hit.

5.0 from 2 reviews

Grilled Honey Sesame Salmon

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

25 mins

Author: Lolli

Serves: 4

Ingredients

¾ cup honey
⅓ cup soy sauce
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup pineapple juice
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon paprika
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
Sesame seeds, dry toasted
4 salmon fillets

Instructions

Combine all ingredients, except salmon and sesame seeds, in a medium bowl.
Pour about half of the sauce over the salmon and marinate for about 15 minutes.
Heat the remaining sauce over medium/low heat, stirring occasionally, until sauce boils, then simmer uncovered for 15 minutes or until sauce thickens.
Preheat grill to medium heat. Sprinkle salmon filets with salt and pepper.
Grill for 4 to 6 minutes per side or until done. Brush salmon with sauce and let sit for a few minutes. Sprinkle salmon filets with toasted sesame seeds and green onions.
Serve salmon with honey sesame sauce and hot rice and a vegetable.

Notes

I doubled the amount of sauce and cooked a few more salmon filets. I also grilled my salmon in my grill/griddler (which is just about the best kitchen tool I own. I use it all the time!)

This recipe is a modified version (found on many sites all over the internet) of an Applebee’s copycat recipe for their Honey Grilled Salmon. I added sesame oil and seeds and marinated the salmon for a short time before grilling to change the recipe up a bit. Enjoy!

Chicken and Avocado Soup

Lolli — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 17:27:59 +0000

There is an abundance of avocados in my kitchen right now.

It’s a good problem to have.

I have been searching for new recipes to try that use avocados before they are too ripe to enjoy. It’s been an amazingly delicious week.

When searching for avocado recipes, I found that avocados tend to be used in salads, sandwiches, salsas and soups. And guacamole, of course. I decided to try one of the soup recipes that sounded especially tasty….and it blew all of us away.

5.0 from 2 reviews

Chicken and Avocado Soup

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

35 mins

This soup starts out with a basic, spicy chicken and vegetable soup base, but is easily customized with fun and tasty add-ins.

Author: Lolli

Recipe type: soup

Ingredients

2 Tbps extra virgin olive oil
½ large onion, diced
3 medium carrots, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 jalapeno, seeded (add more or less to adjust the spiciness)
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
8 cups chicken broth
2 teaspoons sea salt
1 tsp lime juice
1 lb cooked, diced chicken
freshly ground black pepper to taste
Add-ins:
chopped tomato
avocados, peeled and cut into chunks or guacamole
chopped cilantro
shredded cheese
sour cream
tortilla chips
corn salsa

Instructions

In a large pot, heat the oil on medium. Add the chopped onion, carrots, celery and jalapeno. Sauté about 5 minutes, or until onions are tender. Add garlic and cumin and cook for 1 minute.
Add the chicken broth, chicken, lime juice, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer until carrots are tender, about 5 minutes.
To serve, ladle soup into individual bowls and add cheese, sour cream, avocados or guacamole, tomatoes, fresh cilantro, and/or tortilla chips to your taste.

Notes

Note: I seasoned my chicken with a dry garlic and wine seasoning and then grilled it. You can cook your chicken any way you'd like or use a rotisserie chicken for a quick soup.

Note: I added a nice-sized scoop of Corn Salsa to my soup, the recipe to which I recently posted.

The funny thing is….the soup didn’t look overly impressive when we ladled it into the bowls, but the flavors were incredible. It wasn’t until AFTER we had finished the soup and I looked back over the recipe that I discovered that it was originally a Cafe Rio copycat recipe. I made several changes to the recipe I found on PamelaSalzman.com so I’m not sure if this even resembles the Cafe Rio soup any longer. Really…who cares? It was incredible, and I will be making this again and again just how it is, even if it’s not a perfect Cafe Rio copycat.