Thursday, June 28, 2012

Copy Cat Jose Pepper's Cheese Crisp Salad with Tomatillo Ranch dressing

This is my absolute favorite thing to get a Jose Pepper's! A salad at a Mexican restaurant, you ask? Yes, I know it's weird! But it has all my delicious favorites rolled into one amazing salad!

BEHOLD...

Shear deliciousness :)


















Here's what you'll need for the salad:
(This is for 1 serving)

-1/4 cup shredded monterrey jack cheese
-1 large flour tortilla

-1/2 cup of Spanish rice. I made my own (recipe below), but you can use any kind of pre-made brand, if you don't have time to cook a batch.
-1/2 cup Romaine lettuce
-2 oz Chili Lime marinaded chicken strips from Trader Joe's (or any other kind you like)
-1/4 cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed
-1/4 cup pico de gallo. I made my own (recipe below), but you can use any prepared brand
-1/4 feta cheese

1. Pre-heat your oven to 375
2. Place your tortilla in a cereal bowl and top with cheese. Bake for 5-7 minutes, or until tortilla is golden brown. This creates the "bowl" for your salad.
3. While tortilla bowl is cooking, heat chicken and black beans in a medium sized pan on medium-high heat. Only until warm.
4. Assemble your salad. Mine was as follows: rice, lettuce, chicken/bean mixture, pico, and cheese.

Let's talk dressing! I went the easy route and used a pre-made salsa verde and bottled ranch and mixed them together. But there are lots of recipes out there to make your own from scratch.

Spanish brown rice
-2 cups uncooked Minute brown rice
-1 3/4 cups water
-1 can summer corn
-2 tablespoons Spanish Garden's taco seasoning
-1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
-1/4 tablespoon chili powder
-1/4 tablespoon salt

Mix all ingredients and bake at 375 for about 30 minutes, or until rice is tender

Homemade Pico De Gallo
-1 large, ripe tomato
-1 medium white onion
-1/4 cup cilantro
-1 lime
-salt
-garlic powder

1. Chop onion into chucks, add to food processor with cilantro. Pulse until onion is minced
2. Dice tomato into bite-sized chucks
3. In a bowl, combine tomato, onion and cilantro.
4. Squeeze lime juice over ingredients and season with garlic powder and salt to taste.

Friday, June 8, 2012

Festa Italiana!



Jen and I enjoying some delicious frozen Bellinis!


Last weekend was Unico's annual Italian Festival in Zona Rosa. Every year it seems to get bigger and bigger with more things to see and do! This year, we took Casey and Jennifer; as they had never been. I think this quote sums up their experience..."Now I know what it feels like to be in New Jersey!"

I think they had fun... They said it was "people watching" at it's best!

"Cartoon" Lori and Jen :)

Nail Madness 2


Next week we are headed to Jamaica for our friends', Bryan and Ann's, wedding. Well, you can't go to the beach without a proper mani/pedi!

I mulled over tons of my Pinterest findings, finally settling on white with silver and gold glitter. The picture above is the inspiration from Pinterest, the bottom is my actual foot :)