Cafe Rio Recipes

Since Aaron and I are Cafe Rio fans I decided to try and make some of the stuff at home. We tried these salad recipes out yesterday and although they aren't spot on, they come very close. This was our Sunday dinner yesterday and I didn't even hear one complaint about them from anyone which is amazing. We of course altered just Daniel's so he could eat it, but everything was good.

Cafe Rio Chicken:
1 small bottle of Kraft Zesty Italian Dressing
1 T Chili Powder
1 T Cumin
3 Cloves of Garlic
5 lbs of Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast
Cook altogether in a crock pot for four hours, shred and then cook for an additional hour.

Cafe Rio Rice:
3 cups water
4 tsp chicken bouillon
4 tsp minced garlic
1/2 bunch cilantro
1 can green chilies
1 T butter
1/2 onion
3 cups rice
Combine ingredients and simmer for 30 minutes or until rice is tender.

Cafe Rio Dressing:
1 pkg of Buttermilk Ranch Dressing made according to directions
2 Tomatillos
1/2 bunch Cilantro
1 Clove Garlic
Juice of 1 Lime
1 Jalapeno
Mix all ingredients in blender until smooth and refrigerate.

Pinto Beans:
2 Large Cans of Pinto Beans rinsed
1/2 onion
1 T cumin
Simmer all ingredients for 30 minutes.

Now to layer up. Sprinkle Cheese on top of a tortilla and broil until melted and bubbly. Then add a scoop of beans, a scoop of rice, a scoop of chicken and sprinkle more cheese on top. Then add a handful of lettuce (we used Romaine) and enjoy.

While I was getting all this together I had a spare minute and finally bottled my bushel of pears that were getting overly ripe. Here they will sit on my counter until I get tired of looking at them and finally put them away. However, no one is allowed to open a jar for at least a month or so because--I may not be good at a lot of things so I keep the bottles around so I can look at them and say I did that.