BBQ chicken salad

I was really excited to try this recipe. It is a perfect summer salad and so easy to put together. The best part is that I had everything on hand already. Just a warning, if you follow this recipe exactly it makes a lot... not that that is a bad thing!

Salad ingredients-
2 heads of hearts of romaine lettuce or 1 bag of hearts of romaine

2 c Monterey Jack cheese

1 c frozen young white corn

1 c black beans

4 green onions

2 ripe tomatoes

2 c tortilla strips

3 c chopped barbeque chicken (see recipe below)

Clean and shred lettuce. Chill. Dice tomatoes and onions, set aside. Combine frozen corn and black beans. Fold in Jack cheese and toss with lettuce, diced tomatoes and onions. Top with barbecue chicken and tortilla strips. Finish with Salsa Ranch dressing just before serving.

Barbecue Chicken Sauce ingredients-

1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

3 T mayo

1/4 cup ketchup

1/4 cup barbeque sauce

3 c shredded cooked chicken

Mix together everything except chicken, then fold in chicken and chill.

Salsa Ranch Dressing ingredients-

1 cup milk

1 T vinegar

1 c mayo

1 pkg Ranch Dressing Mix

1 cup salsa

Combine vinegar with milk. Fold in mayo and dry ranch mix. Add salsa and chill.

Pomegranate, Pineapple, Cool Whip Salad

We call this P.C.P. It is very yummy.

Mix pomegranate seeds, pineapple cut in chunks and cool whip together.
Eat it.
Yum.

The amount of seeds and pineapple is up to you. We have never used canned pineapple but I am sure it would taste good too.

I got this from my friend Michelle at Bountiful Baskets.

{Cafe Rio Pork Barbacoa Salad or Burrito}

{image from favorite family recipes blog}

We tried this for our Sunday dinner yesterday. It was a lot of prep work, but it was so worth it. I'm sure a lot of it can be done ahead of time and cut down on the amount time you have to put in right before serving the meal. It was really good and we have leftovers. There was a few different recipes that went into it so I will share all of them here.

First of all is the pork. I found this recipe here, although I've seen a recipe for this other places, what I really liked about this one was it's simplicity and there was no Coke or Dr. Pepper needed in the recipe. Make sure when you are buying your pork roast that you buy rib meat or shoulder in order for it to actually shred. I didn't know this but just got lucky that I did buy the right kind.

CAFE RIO PORK BARBACOA
2 ½ lbs. pork roast

⅓ cup water

1 clove garlic, minced {or ⅛ teaspoon garlic salt}

⅛ teaspoon salt

⅛ teaspoon pepper

1 cup canned green enchilada sauce {or salsa verde}

1 cup brown sugar

Put pork, water, garlic, salt and pepper in crock pot on high for 4 hours. After checking for doneness, drain and shred pork with two forks. Stir together green enchilada sauce and brown sugar, pour over pork and stir in.

Next is the cilantro lime rice, which I found here. She also gives a recipe for the black beans, but we just used plain black beans.

CILANTRO-LIME RICE

1 c. uncooked rice (long-grain, white rice)

1 tsp. butter or margarine

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp. freshly squeezed lime juice

1 can (15 oz) chicken broth

1 cup water

1 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lime juice

2 tsp. sugar

3 tablespoons 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 15-20 minutes, until rice is tender. Remove from heat. In a small bowl combine lime juice, sugar and cilantro. Pour over hot cooked rice and mix in as you fluff the rice.

Lastly, I made the Tomatillo Cilantro Ranch Dressing, which was also found here.

TOMATILLO CILANTRO RANCH DRESSING

3 large tomatillos

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup packed cilantro leaves

½ cup mayo

½ cup sour cream

1 envelope buttermilk ranch dressing mix

1 clove garlic

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

1 jalapeno {half it if you don't like the heat}

Remove Husks from tomatillos, wash, quarter and broil until soft, about 7 minutes. Combine everything in blender until smooth. Chill for at least one hour for flavors to blend.

We made salads/tacos with all of this plus lettuce, black beans, cheese, chopped tomatoes, and tortillas. We used the tortillas from Costco that you cook yourself and they were so good with this.

*We had tons of dressing left so we froze a portion of it for the next time we make this.

*The dressing could have been really spicy, but we only added a little of the jalapeno, so add it to taste.

*Anywhere that it said fresh lime juice I just used the reconstituted lime juice you can buy in the bottle and I didn't think it made a difference. Yeah, I'm lazy like that!

*If you want the full cafe rio copycat salad recipes go here. She has done the whole thing, but I didn't find her recipe until after I had started on the other ones.