Who needs to eat out anymore when you can find the recipe for pretty much ANYTHING online on Pinterest. Lets face it, I haven’t bought a single cookbook since my Pinterest invitation came.
And it is very simple to find a knock off Cafe Rio recipe. I for one am a HUGE fan of Cafe Rio, and when I found this recipe, I ran out and bought every single item needed. Then I continued to eat it for both lunch and dinner…..for almost a week! No, I don’t have a problem, I swear!
But then I realized that 1- The pork can be used for much more than just the salad (more on that coming soon). 2- I don’t need all of the ingredients I ran out to buy the first time, and it will still taste just as yummy.
So I thought I would share my cheat version of all the recipes you’ve seen out there.
Cafe Rio Sweet Pork Salad
(original recipes found at Favorite Family Recipes)
Pork Roast
1 cup Dr Pepper
1 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 onion
I usually get about 4 lb Pork Picnic Roast. It takes about 3 hours on high + 2 hours on low to cook in a slow cooker. Then I can freeze the leftovers for later use!
All you need to do is throw your Pork Roast into the slow cooker, rub it with the brown sugar, and then pour the Dr. Pepper over the top. Slice up the onion and lay over the top of the roast. You will want the onion slices to be fairly large so you can get them back out of the cooker and not mixed in with the meat.
After the meat is cooked fully, remove it from the slow cooker and trim off excess fat. Here you can either shred it by hand, or take the easy way out-
If you have a Kitchenaid mixer, all you need to do is throw the meat in the bowl, put the batter mixer on, and turn the power on a medium speed! This will shred the meat for you!!!!! Thank you again Pinterest for that tip
That’s it for the pork. It is so sweet and flavorful. Even the Little Man spent the evening munching on the meat.
Lime Rice (Sean HATES cilantro, so we just use lime)
1 cup water
1 can chicken broth
1 tsp fresh lime juice
1 cup rice
1 Tbl sugar
1 Tbl fresh lime juice
Combine the water, chicken broth, 1 tsp lime juice and rice into a pot. Bring it to a boil, then reduce to a medium low heat. Put a lid on and let it simmer for 15 minutes.
Once the rice is cooked, combine the 1 Tbl sugar and 1 Tbl lime juice. Poor over the top of the rice and fluff with a fork.
Yup, it’s that easy!
Now you are ready for your salad (or burrito, if you are my husband and hate salads!)
Heat a tortilla on the stove and melt some cheddar cheese on one side. Plate it with rice, lettuce, meat, fresh tomatoes, and Tortilla strips. Then top it with your favorite ranch dressing (yes, I’m too lazy to make my own).
This is such a yummy salad. I am slowly coming to terms with my cafe rio obsession love and I appreciate the opportunity to make it for less than buying it.
Stay tuned for another YUMMY recipe where I use the rest of the Pulled Pork. Let’s face it, you’re not gonna eat all 4 lbs of pork on a salad!
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