Copy Cat

Rigby Sue, Min's cousin

This is really about copy cat recipes, not about cats but I needed a picture and this sweetie is one pretty little cat!

Thursday night for supper I made copy cat Cafe Rio recipes.  Fabulous.  Cafe Rio is a small chain here and they might also be in Colorado.  Great food and it's usually hard to find a table at lunchtime.

Our salads bowls were assembled like this:  broken tortilla chips,  shredded cheese, warm rice, warm beans, warm chicken, lettuce, dressing,  then topped with a few more broken tortilla chips.  Oh. My.

Cafe Rio Chicken  - from life in the lofthouse

2 pounds boneless, skinless Chicken Breasts

1/2 cup Zesty Italian Dressing

1/2 Tablespoon minced Garlic

1 ( 1 oz ) packet Ranch Dressing Mix (mixed with 1/2 cup of water)

1/2 Tablespoon Chili Powder

1/2 Tablespoon ground Cumin

Place all ingredients in a crock pot. Cover with lid. Cook on High 3 hours OR on Low for 5 hours.

Shred chicken with fork and serve in salads, burritos, tacos…     Yields: 6 servings

 Creamy Lime-Cilantro Ranch Dressing - from Our Best Bites

     1 pkg (1oz) Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix (ignore directions on the packet)
     1C mayo
     1/2 C buttermilk (or milk works, too)
     1 lime
     2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
     1/2 C roughly chopped cilantro
     1/2 C green salsa (La Victoria Mild)
     hot sauce, if desired

Place milk, mayo, and ranch mix in a blender. Juice the lime in there too, you should get about 2T juice. Toss in the garlic, cilantro and green salsa. Blend.  Add hot sauce to taste. Make several hours ahead of time to allow it to thicken.

Cilantro Lime Rice – from One Good Thing by Jillee

1 cup uncooked rice

1 T oil

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp fresh squeezed lime juice

2 cups chicken broth

1 T fresh squeezed lime juice

2 tsp sugar

3 T fresh chopped cilantro

In a saucepan combine rice, butter, garlic, 1 tsp. lime, chicken broth and water. Bring to a boil. Cover and cook on low 15 minutes, until rice is tender. Remove from heat. In a bowl combine lime juice, sugar and chopped cilantro. Pour over hot cooked rice and mix in as you fluff the rice.

Cafe Rio Style Black Beans - adapted from delish.com
2-15 oz cans black beans, (drain one can, don't drain the other)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons cumin
3 tablespoons olive oil
1-11.5 oz can tomato juice
salt ( kosher or sea salt) and pepper to taste
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

In a non stick pan, cook garlic, cumin and olive oil over medium heat until fragrance is released, about one minute. Be careful not to burn garlic.  Add beans, cook down for about 5 minutes until some of the liquid from the beans is absorbed and evaporated. Add can of tomato juice and seasoning to taste.  Stir in chopped cilantro when ready to serve.

Yield: 8 servings

I am not a cilantro fan but I followed the recipes and added what they asked for.  It was all good. Very good.