I thought I’d continue my Instant Pot or Instapot thoughts. So far I’m finding that the instapot is not:
Going to help me lose weight…I feel people start cooking healthier foods with the Instapot (?)…I will say Indian cuisine calls for coconut milk etc etc and though delicious it IS high in fat.
Going to save time. Most of the recipes say “25 minutes” but fail to account for things like a) I don’t chop like a chef, b) we have three children and two dogs, c) I forgot where the garam masala is and d) the instapot takes time to pressurize and depressurize…so I plan on an hour for each meal.
What the Instapot does allow for:
Hands off while cooking amazingness. I can be present while someone needs a book read, a diaper change, a face washed, a crayon wall drawing rescued…etc.
Cooking frozen meats to cooked deliciousness without having to thaw the meat out
Cooking two meals on a Sunday in a reasonable amount of time so that I can heat up Monday’s dinner but then cook Tuesday’s dinner the day prior.
The Instapot is not the Coke 0 of cooking. High fat is still high fat…
Ok fine, George was at work for 24 hours and I will admit I was going to have Kraft Mac-n-Cheese for dinner with frozen veggies of Sweetpea’s choice. This was after one of those stereotypical evenings that are supposed to break you down. I dumped Elle’s milk for the next day on the counter, dropped two eggs out of the fridge (I wasn’t even using eggs…how did that even happen?)…and now Elle’s screaming (shrieking?) for more food was starting to really get to me. So it was crisis mode. I needed meat now. Just because I have an instapot pressure cooker does not mean that I have seventeen hours to chop, grind, prep for the perfect dinner. I need dinner NOW!!!!!!
Someone is DETERMINED
Chicken NOW by me
Two large chicken breasts
1/2 – 3/4 cup barbecue sauce (you can make your own if you’d like!)
20 oz can of chopped pineapples with juice (do fresh if you can…I couldn’t today!)
Place chicken in the pot
Pour in BBQ sauce
Dump pineapples, pineapple juice in and stir
Press the poultry function (it will say 15 minutes but it takes another 15 minutes to pressurize up…so it’s not completely instant but while it was cooking bananas, rice, green beans were eaten)
De-pressurize naturally or vent (be careful!)…I vented
Check internal temp of the chicken (yup I threw in frozen chicken this time and it was perfect temperature wise)
If you have a minute more, you can make a sauce out of the pineapple/BBQ sauce mixture that cooked under pressure.
Either use the Instapot saute function(with the lid off) or place about 1 cup of the liquid in a stovetop pot. Separately, stir 1-2 Tablespoons of cornstarch in a small cup with another 1/4 cup of the liquid to dissolve the cornstarch. Pour the cornstarch mixture in with the 1 cup you put in the pot (or left in the Instapot) and stir on medium heat. Cook until you have the right consistency. (Add more cornstarch if you want a thicker sauce or add more liquid to thin it). These days I have been serving dinner with rice and veggies as well.
I’ve had some additional free time in my schedule of late due to some changes around our daily routine. Since we have additional “free” time — we’ve had more time for activities! Some of our activities include using tongs, pouring, and cooking.
Our Work Station
Using lentils, which from my reading are not poisonous raw but can cause some tummy upset, we played in our “kitchen.”
Pouring Goodness
Yes. Later on, we decided lentils belong on the floor…
Ok, fine. I like to cook. This past week or so, I made the decision to go anti-paperless. I made a binder for the house divided into tasks, menus, trips/vacations/and other such goals….only to realize having something written in the …written form apparently helps me get things done.
With that being said, I pulled out this month’s Food Network Magazine and Cooking Light and began cutting out recipes for my newly created binder. After selecting 10 menus, I put them into my pretty plastic page covers and smiled. Such organizational pretty-ness.
Anyhow, I keep feeling that recipes that say “40 minutes to complete” lie. They never take 40 minutes. Maybe that’s because I keep adding onto the meal??? Anyhow…this one went fast and was definitely delicious.
Mediterranean Cornish Hens — The Food Network
I didn’t have Israeli couscous but the regular couscous were great! I roasted the zucchini to add flavor to the couscous but everything else was exactly as written: Food Network Magazine: Mediterranean Cornish Hens.
Mama Thyme 