Mama M's Cucina

Build your salad in the following order.
1. Large Flour Tortillas - Sprinkle some cheddar cheese on top and cook until the cheese is melted.
2. Spanish Rice - See recipe below or use a mix or your own
3. Black Beans - See recipe below
4. Pork
5. Romaine Lettuce - Cut into large squares
6. Pico de Gallo - See recipe below
7. Guacamole
8. Lime Wedges
9. Grated Cotija cheese (The market was closed today so I'm going with cheddar)
10. Cilantro sprigs
11. Crispy Tortilla Strips - Cut up some corn tortillas and quickly fry.
12. Creamy Tomatillo Dressing - See recipe below

Cilantro Lime Rice
3 c water
3 c rice
3 chicken bouillon cubes
1 tsp salt
¼ cup lime juice
1/2 small onion
2 cloves garlic
1/2 bunch cilantro, remove large stems
1 small can green chiles

Place water, rice, bouillon, and salt in pot. Bring to boil. Place lime juice, onion, garlic, cilantro and green chilies in a blender and puree. Stir into rice. Simmer, covered, for about 25 minutes.


Black Beans
1 can black beans, rinsed
2 Tbl finely mined onion
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp ground cumin
1 cup tomato juice
3 Tbl chopped Fresh Cilantro
1 tsp salt
Fry onion, garlic and cumin in a small amount of olive oil. Add beans, tomato juice, cilantro and salt and heat through.

Cafe Rio Pork Barbacoa
Pork Roast: Put it in a crock pot with a little water and cook until very tender (about 8 hours on low).

Shred pork and add:
1 can enchilada sauce
2 cloves minced garlic
1 small can diced green chilies
1 can Coke (not diet coke)
1 cup brown sugar
salt to taste

Cook for one more hour.


Pico de Gallo
4 ripe Tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped white onion
1 jalapeno, minced (remove the seeds and veins if you don’t like a lot of heat)
1/4 cup cilantro, finely chopped
lime juice, to taste
salt, to taste
Mix everything together.


Creamy Tomatillo Dressing
1 package Ranch Buttermilk Dressing mix
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 cup Mayonnaise (You can use 1/2 Mayo and 1/2 sour cream)
3 fresh tomatillos
1 cup fresh cilantro
2 cloves garlic
¼ tsp cayenne pepper

Put everything in a blender and puree.
Refrigerate for a couple of hour. If you need to add more buttermilk to thin it out or sour cream to make it thicker.

Last week's Dorito salad was fantastic.  As soon as I get the recipe for it I will post it here. 

Here's this week's menu
Monday:  Chicken Parmesan, pasta, salad and garlic bread
Tuesday: Cafe Rio Pork Salads (see next post for recipe)
Wednesday: Hamburger gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans and desert.
Thursday: TBA (I'll post as soon as I get it)

Looks like a great week with yummy food!

If you've read my other blog you may have read that I am in a dinner exchange group with 3 friends.  I cook dinner on Tuesday and get dinner delivered to us on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. We're going into our 6th week of doing it and we all absolutely love it.  It can get a little stressful on the night I cook but it is so nice to have dinner brought in the other nights.

Here is this weeks menu

Monday: Pork Chops, AuGratin Potatoes, Veggie
Tuesday: Hobo Dinners and dessert (We do dessert once a week)
Wednesday: Colorful Kielbasa and Dorito Salad
Thursday: Poppy Seed Chicken

I wanted to share one of our favorite crockpot recipes.  I made this for dinner last night and my kids love it and it's super easy. Although probably not so waist friendly.

Crockpot Italian Chicken

3-4 Chicken Breasts (I use frozen)
2 Cans of Cream of Chicken Soup
1 Envelope of Italian Seasoning (The powder kind in an envelope)
1 Block of Cream Cheese
Green Onions

Put all ingredients in the crockpot on low and cook for 8 hours.  Some people don't put the cream cheese in until the last hour of crockpot cooking.  I put it in from the start and never had a problem.

Serve over or mix in with hot pasta.

Yummy!

I'm so excited to start my new blog.  I was inspired by all of the other recipe/meal planning blogs I've seen. I hope you'll enjoy what I share on here!