Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana

(This picture doesn't look very appetizing but I promise it's really yummy)

I know, another restaurant recipe but without some of these recipes I would be eating out a lot more. Instead I can save the money and make it myself. This is another recipe I make all the time. I'm not a salad person and so whenever we go to Olive Garden I get this soup. I fell in love with it the first time I had it and Matt loves it to.

Zuppa Toscana (or as I call it Sausage/Potato Soup)

• 1 lb. ground Italian sausage
• 1 1/2 t. crushed red peppers (Italian sausage already has quite a few red pepper flakes in it and so I only add 1/2 t. or else it gets a little too spicy for me)
• 1 lg. white diced onion (I like quick and I hate chopping onions so I have one of the food storage sized cans of dried onions and they work great. I use 1/3 c. of dried onions)
• 4 T. bacon pieces (I buy the big bag of real bacon pieces at costco, they work great in mashed potatoes too)
  
• 2 tsp garlic puree (love this stuff!)
• 10 c. water
• 5 cubes of chicken bouillon (I use 6 but I'm not sure it makes that big of a difference)
• 1 c. heavy cream
• 1 lb sliced Russet potatoes, or about 3 large potatoes (I usually have smaller potatoes so I use about 5 or 6)
• 1/4 of a bunch of kale (green leafy stuff that I don't add because again, not a salad person but you can find it in the Wal-mart produce section and it is only .50)

1. Sautee sausage and crushed red peppers in pot. Drain excess fat and set aside in a bowl.
2. In the same pan you cooked the sausage in, sautee bacon, onions and garlic for approximately 15 minutes or until the onions are soft. (Since I use dry onions I sautee for about 2 min.)
3. Mix together the chicken bouillon and water, then add it to the onions, bacon and garlic. Cook until boiling.
4. Slice the potatoes into 1/4 inch slices and add to the pot. Cook until soft about 30 minutes.
5. Add heavy cream and cook until thoroughly heated.
6. Stir in the sausage.
7. Add kale just before serving.

Swirled Cheesecake Nibbles

These are so good! They're my go-to dessert because they're so quick and easy to make. I've already made them twice this week alone.

Swirled Cheesecake Nibbles

• 36 vanilla wafers
• 10 oz pkg Nestles Swirled white and choc morsels
• 2 pkgs (8 oz ea) cream cheese, room temp. (now I like these because they're quick and I don't always have time to wait for the cream cheese to come room temp. and so I cheat and put it in the microwave for about 30 seconds just to soften it up)
  
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Place 36 2-inch foil bake cups on baking sheet(s) with sides. Place one vanilla wafer, flat side down, on bottom of each cup. Place 5 to 6 morsels on top of each wafer.

Beat cream cheese, sugar and flour in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla extract; beat well. Spoon heaping tablespoon cream cheese mixture into each bake cup.

Bake 15 to 17 minutes or until just set and not browned. Remove from oven to wire rack. While still warm, top cheesecake with more morsels. Morsels will soften but retain their shape. Cool completely. Cover and refrigerate.

Now I had stockpiled these wonderful 2-inch foil baking cups about a year ago because they were only available at Smith's at the time. Well I just ran out earlier this week and come to find out no one carries them anymore. The only place to buy them is online. If you're interested here is the link. I make them enough that it was worth buying a stockpile and they're in the mail as we speak. You can buy the 2 1/2-inch baking cups that are available everywhere but the recipe will only make 20 instead of 30 cheesecakes and the cookies won't fill the bottom of the cup. I just love how perfect the cookies fit inside the 2-inch cups and I can feed more people but don't worry about buying the 2 1/2-inch cups. They'll work fine.

So this is what the 2 1/2-inch cups look like with the cookie and chocolate chips.

Make sure you scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally to make sure you don't get lumps. Cheesecake batter loves to stick to the side of the bowl and get lumpy.

Now you fill the cups with the batter and bake. After baking place 3 morsels on top of each cheesecake and refrigerate. I promise you'll love them, as long as you like cheesecake of course.

Cafe Rio Sweet Pork

Last night for dinner we recreated one of our favorite dishes from Cafe Rio, the Pork Barbacoa Burrito. We have been recreating their burritos for quite sometime now but we always use steak because we haven't had the recipe for the pork. There are many versions of this copycat recipe but most of them include coke, pepsi or sprite but this version doesn't and it's very easy to make.

Sweet Pork

• 1 pork boneless pork loin (mine was 4lbs) (you can even use chicken breasts)
• 1 can jalapeno salsa; El Pato brand, can add 2 cans if you like more on the spicy side than the sweet side (see picture; it's in the latino section at Wal-mart)
• 2 c. brown sugar
• 1 T. cumin
• 1 t. pepper
• 1 T. garlic salt

Place all of the ingredients in a slow cooker and cook on high for 6-8 hours. After 4 hours cut the roast into 3-4 sections and let it cook for another hour. After one hour you can begin to shred the pork in the slow cooker (I used 2 forks). It will still be tough and so you just want to start to break it up. You'll still have large pieces of pork. Keep coming back every hour or so and you can break it down even more. I did this about 3 times and after the 7 hour mark hit the pork was moist enough it just kind of fell apart. Depending how much juice you have you can leave the lid off at the end to thicken the sauce. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed. I didn't measure the cumin, pepper and garlic salt so I'm just estimating on the amounts. Add however much tastes good to you.

*Now, I'm sure you could leave the pork alone for the full 6-8 hours and it would pull apart and taste the same but I couldn't resist playing a little, and I told myself I needed to keep testing it to make sure it was tasting just like Cafe Rio's pork. Pathetic I know but I'm home all day and after smelling it for 4 hours I couldn't help myself. And the longer you cook it the better it tastes. Some pork loin recipes you cook for 16 hours!Now there are also recipes for the rice which are more complicated than I think needs be. We always just cook up rice, we use brown (trying to eat healthy) and then add cilantro and lime juice after it's cooked. No, I won't be giving you a recipe for beans (although you can find some) because I think it's worth the $0.59 for a can of pinto beans and Wal-mart has some that are "Ranch Style" which add a little more flavor. As far as the green sauce goes (see picture) we, okay I don't actually eat it at Cafe Rio or at home, but Matt and my extended family all prefer the Herdez Salsa Verde. Just use the kind you like the best. Now you just assemble the burrito. Add a little cheese, or a lot if you're me and microwave or bake or broil. It's that easy and it tastes very close to Cafe Rio. Oh, and the leftover pork freezes just be sure to put the sauce with it.