Cafe Rio at Home!

Since moving to Utah we have found a yummy little restaurant! The name is Cafe Rio and they have to die for Pork! We all love it, but the $45 price tag each time for a family of 4 is killing our budget. So what is a girl to do????? Find a fellow blogger that has cracked the recipe! And I found her!!!!! Her name is Erika and her blog is www.favfamilyrecipes.com. What a wonderful bog with lots of great recipes, but I love that she has cracked the Cafe Rio Secrets!

So here is what we came up with for dinner last night!

Green Chili Pork Burritos

So here is what you need to make these yummy Burritos:

Burrito sized Tortillas - can use whole wheat

Cilantro Lime Rice - see recipe below

Sweet Shredded Pork - see recipe below

Shredded Jack Cheese

Black Beans - I used Chili Beans and Cafe Rio gives the option of Pinto Beans too

Green Chile Enchiladas sauce or hot sauce

Make sure Pork is heated and Rice is Steamed. I used Canned Beans but you could make your own dried beans. (See Erikas blog for a great Black Bean Recipe. Click HERE)

On a Tortilla, sprinkle cheese, rice, beans and pork on top. Drizzle a little Green Chile Sauce and wrap tortilla (I fold sides in then fold bottom end up and roll over to the top). Place on a plate and cover with Green Chile Sauce and sprinkle with more cheese. Heat in Microwave for about 3 minutes. You could place in a cake pan and bake this for 15-20 minutes in a 350 oven, but I found it just as easy to microwave for 3 minutes on individual plates. Whatever your preference! Serve with chips and salsa or rice and beans and enjoy! Another Tip: If you have picky kids like I do, mash the beans up with a fork and place the meat on top of the beans and they will never know they are there!

Cilantro Lime Rice

http://www.favfamilyrecipes.com/2008/09/cafe-rio-cilantro-lime-rice-and-black.html

I made a few changes:

I did not have fresh Cilantro so I used dried and put it into the rice before I cooked it. I used a few more teaspoons of Lime, but I really like the lime flavor. I also did not have chicken brooth, so I instead used water and a chicken bullion cube. Lastly, I used my rice cooker instead of on the stove! NOTE: With a rice cooker you need to use less water/chicken brooth than the recipe calls for. It needs to be 1 part rice to 2 parts liquid. I used 1 cup rice to 1 cup water and 1 cup brooth for a total of 2 cups liquid. Came out great!

Sweet Pork

http://www.favfamilyrecipes.com/2008/09/cafe-rio-sweet-pork.html

I cannot wait to try this recipe, but for our meal last night, I used left over BBQ pork that we had a few nights ago. I added about 1/2 cup of brown sugar to the pork and heated it up. It was great.

BBQ Pork in the Crock Pot

Small Pork Shoulder or Butt Roast (I got mine at Walmart for about $6)

1 jar of honey BBQ sauce

1 tlbs fresh minced basil

1 tlbs minced garlic

1/2 yellow onion minced

Mix bbq sauce, basil, garlic and onion together. Place roast in Crock Pot and pour sauce over. Turn on low and cook at least 8 hours. To get melt in your mouth pork, you want to cook the meat until it is at least 190 degrees. That is when the fat breaks down and makes the meat tender. The meat is done when you take 2 forks and the meat will easily pull apart.

At this point we served the meat on homemade wheat rolls and with potato salad. We used about 1/2 of the meat for our family of 4. The other half of the meat was used for the yummy burritos above. We just added a little brown sugar to sweeten the meat up!

I hope you enjoy these recipes as much as we do! And thanks to Erika at Favorite Family Recipes for the Cafe Rio inspired recipes!