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.
When you get home with basil, tempeh, spaghetti squash and realize the basil was supposed to be spinach…you know you’re probably going to have an interesting dinner. It just so happened that in my failure to READ the recipe…I made the dish slightly amazing if I might say. I just tried to burn it first.
1 (2.5-pound) spaghetti squash, halved lengthwise and seeded
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 (25-ounce) jar pasta sauce
2 cups small broccoli florets (1 bag of frozen broccoli cooked)
1 cup packed baby spinach a handful of fresh basil
Preheat oven to 375°F.
In a medium bowl, gently toss together tempeh, tamari soy sauce, mirin honey and garlic; set aside to let marinate for 30 minutes.
As I let the spaghetti squash cook, I put the tempeh in this container and turned it every so often for 30 minutes
Meanwhile, arrange squash halves, cut sides down (I would do that if I had a larger baking dish), in a large baking dish. Pour 1/2 cup water into dish and bake until just tender, 30 to 45 minutes. Remove from oven, turn over squash and set aside to let cool slightly.
I don’t recommend living life with 3 pots. Go go moving!
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Drain tempeh, then add it to the skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, 7 to 8 minutes; transfer to a plate and keep warm.
Don’t burn it! … I was close
Meanwhile, heat pasta sauce in a medium pot over medium heat until hot throughout then add broccoli and cook until just tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in spinach and remove pot from the heat.
Using a fork, scrape strands of spaghetti squash onto a serving platter. Spoon hot pasta sauce and broccoli over squash, top with tempeh and serve.
It was DELICIOUS! Thanks Whole Foods. I think the basil did add a lot of flavor. I would make it with basil and forgo the spinach.
On one of those amazing weekdays where I got home early, I decided to make “Swiss Enchiladas.” The actual recipe is extremely simple and had I thawed the meat entirely the night prior, or not dumped the entire half gallon of milk on the floor (my fault…not Sweetpea’s…thankfully I had over ordered milk this last round)…etc etc…it might have taken maybe an hour to make. For me this past time…it was more like 2 hours (2.5 hrs?). That being said I definitely did not take a picture :).
Just a picture of Sweetpea helping! I’m a huge fan of getting her involved!
This one is one of my go to recipes. If you like a little kick to it use Rotel, if you don’t want a peppery kick don’t add green chili’s and use plain old chopped tomatoes. When I make it ‘more bland’ I add in pepper to the milk mixture. Anyway, I really like this one.
1 1/2 cups chopped onion (I don’t always include this one)
2 cups chopped roasted skinless, boneless chicken breast (about 2 breasts)
2 garlic cloves, minced (I don’t always include this one either)
2 (4.5-ounce) cans diced green chilies, undrained (I use one can with one can of Rotel)
1 (14.5-ounce) can petite diced tomatoes, undrained
2 cups 2% reduced-fat milk
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 (8-inch) fat-free flour tortillas
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded Swiss cheese, divided (I cheat and use pre sliced swiss and just cut up strips)
With my modifications it boils down to:
0. Preheat the oven to 350
1. Chop up chicken and cook until done
2. Add in 1 4.5 oz can of green chilies and 1 14.5 oz can of original Rotel (cook for about 7 minutes)
3. Put in separate bowl
4. Pour 2 c milk in a pan with 2 T of flour (mix the flour with about 1/4 c of this milk so it’s not clumpy). Cook together until it thickens (about 5 minutes).
5. Arrange in your chicken mixture in the burritos in 9×9 glass pan or 9×13 pan (I add in cheese to each enchilada).
6. Pour milk mixture over everything and put four slices of swiss cheese on top
7. Cook for 25 minutes at 350’F
So not every week is aligned perfectly (HA AT ALL). Sometimes I simply don’t want to cook. Sometimes we go to the park or the zoo or well that thing called life happens…
My-in-a-pinch-I’ll-walk-the-dogs-while-it-cooks kind of dinners are as follows:
1. “Chicken Parmigiana”
3 Chicken Breasts (about 1.5 lbs)
Lime or Lemon Juice
Bread Crumbs
Pasta Sauce
Sliced sandwich cheese (like white cheddar or whatever you are feeling)
The recipe boils down to bread chicken, sear, put in pan with cheese and pasta sauce, stick in oven.
I set out 2 plates. I squirt some lemon juice in one plate. I pour some bread crumbs on the second plate. Then I dip a chicken breast in the lemon juice then I plop it down in the bread crumbs on both sides. Sear in a hot pan for 1-2 minutes per side. Repeat for each chicken breast. Put breaded chicken breast (no the breadcrumbs never stay on perfectly but whatever) in 9×9 glass pan (or whatever you have). Put one piece of cheese on each breast. Cover with an adequate amount of pasta sauce. I like Rao’s pasta sauce. I probably use about a half bottle. Cook at 400 for about 30 minutes (I’m a big internal temperature person…so I check the internal temperature according to my chart). By request I also make pasta. And if I have more time I make Bruschetta and a caprese salad.
I am a sucker for Buffalo Mozzarella
2. Pork Whatever-It’s-Supposed-To-Be
Thin cut pork chops
Lime or Lemon Juice
Bread crumbs
Wine reduction (if you have time)
Pretty much do the same thing as above minus the oven part. Dip in juice..cover in crumbs. Cook in pan until done on each side. Throw in a bag of microwavable veggie in the microwave. Make a salad if I’m feeling ambitious. I try to focus on veggies at dinner. We usually don’t have a side of rice or quinoa or whatnot. Oh the wine is just … after the pork has cooked…throw in a 1/2 c of red wine and scrape up the flecks of pork/bread crumbs into the wine and maybe add some corn starch if I want it to be thickish.
3. Lasagna
No boil lasagna noodles
ricotta or cottage cheese
pasta sauce
1 lb ground beef
Cook ground beef until thoroughly cooked. Drain out fat. This last time I added in white wine to cook in the beef after removing the fat and added in Portobello mushrooms until they were cooked. Layer pasta sauce, lasagna noodles, beef, cheese repeat. Cook according to directions which were something like 25 minutes at 400.
I like the stick in oven for 30 minutes option after working for max ten minutes.
While I was making pumpkin pancakes this morning (BECAUSE IT’S AUTUMN!!!!!), I thought I’d throw together a slow cooker recipe.
They were delicious…
Yes, I love cooking with my daughter. She and I threw (literally) together our pumpkin pancakes this morning. I love that she wants to “help”. Anytime I’m in the kitchen, she’s asking to “heeaaallllllllllllpppp?” I love learning play!! I try to say yes! Get right in and up here. Cleaning up can easily happen and I can always make the recipe again if it all ends on the floor. http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pumpkin-Pancakes/ (I did add about an extra 1/2-3/4 c milk to thin them down…as George said…not a fan of pancake bricks…I’ll take the pancake version).
Anyhow, while the pancakes were cooking (on very very low) we put together the spices and juices in the slow cooker while we defrosted the chicken in the microwave (on the defrost function). 8 minutes later I put the chicken in the slow cooker and turned it on for 6.5 hours.
1 1/2 pounds boneless and skinless chicken breasts or thighs
3/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup lime juice
4 t prechopped garlic
1 tablespoon chili powder I used cayenne (I’m apparently out of chili powder)
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
The recipe went on to say broil it and crisp it up but if you don’t have time…don’t!
My latest find has been: grab and go breakfasts. When I read the Food Network’s article on “Fun & Fast Frittata Combos” I thought I’d give it a shot. A frittata, I found, boils down to: veggie, protein, cheese, egg. Pretty much in that order.
Since I can’t find the specific recipe online, this is what I did:
0. Prep eggs. Stir 8 eggs in a bowl with about 1/3 c milk. Set aside.
1. Choose a veggie (I chose a bag of spinach…the ENTIRE thing). Saute in oven friendly pot (I used our cast iron pot). Set aside in a bowl.
2. Cook protein. (I chose mild Italian sausage). Cook until done. Turn off the heat.
3. Evenly distribute protein and veggie in pot. Add cheese (I chose Feta).
4. Pour eggs over protein, veggie and cheese.
5. Cook over medium heat for 5-6 minutes (or until the eggs are partially set…essentially so that only the top 1/4″ of the egg mixture is the only thing moving when you gently move the pot)
– During this time, turn on your broiler to high.
6. Broil for 5″ from heat for 2-3 minutes or until browned and almost set.
I made this for George when I went on work travel. He had breakfast for the week!
Other combinations:
1. Feta, green onions, asparagus
2. 3 plum tomatoes (seeded and sliced thinly), 1/2 c fresh basil, 2 ounces crumbled goat cheese
3. Kale, 4 oz turkey italian sausage, 1/2 c chopped red pepper, 1 ounce feta cheese
4. Spinach, 2 cloves minced garlic, cooked bacon (or proscuitto) 1/4 c carmelized onions, 1 T chives, 2 ounces shredded Gruyere cheese
I will be the first to admit, the grill has been the most intimidating thing in our postage sized backyard (think small and divide by 42). So when George was working his typical late day, I marched out to the grill determined to make dinner (or burn/blow something up). We’ve only had the grill for three years and I’ve never used it. Somehow that became George’s domain and not something I do. Whatever, roles happen in marriage so when he had asked me why I don’t try…I kept thinking…Yeah. Why don’t I? So…
Perhaps, I should step back for a second. Fish: I have traditionally failed at cooking fish (from a salt lick — it said add salt!!, to overly fishy nastiness)…Salmon has been categorized in my brain as…hmmm…FISH. So therefore, again, out of the picture (insert George talking about Omega-3s and how healthy they are…Omega 3 article). So fine. I will make take a detour.
Farm Raised or Wild Caught.
1. Which Salmon Should I Buy
– I chose Sockeye Wild Caught…it’s classified as fishy but with a cedar plank from Whole Foods (or Amazon.com)…it’s positively DELICIOUS (I promise). So if you purchase farm raised, I’d REALLY recommend the plank…it absolves all sorts of (fishy tasting) sins. I tend to think the wild caught, though more pricey, tastes better. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_xleu84BJU…I kind of love Alton Brown)
Wild caught is about $15/lb here. So maybe that’s a bit much. Sometimes I feel farm is better than none at all?
How I did it:
1. Purchase Fish (debone if necessary…which means pulling out little one inch tines with your fingers..lots of hand washing involved…some butchers remove them for you)
2. Soak Cedar Plank in water (the soaking part is key to fire prevention)
3. Put fish skin side down on plank and let it come to room temperature
3a. Chop up veggies, arrange on foil, lightly sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper
3b. Put up baby in a safe place
4. Set up your grill according to directions
5. Put some foil down, put your veggies on the foil on the grill and start
6. Cook until internal temperature is 130-145’F (I live by an internal thermometer…I use the regular one I use for all other meat in the kitchen)
7. Take fish and veggies off grill
8. Let fish set for a few minutes after it comes off the grill
9. Serve with a nice glass of wine
Admittedly, I was nervous about using the grill for the first time so I read: .
At the end of the day, it was surprisingly easy, quick despite my long post.
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.
I had grand plans of making 5 slow cooker recipes this week. That was until I accidentally strained the beans out of the pot into the sink…etc…etc…So we had two slow cooker menus, the standby pasta dinner, and a quick chicken dinner (quick-ish = 45 minutes).
As my mother would say, both recipes were “Banner Batches.” I liked the soup so much I had it for lunch twice in addition to dinner on Tuesday. Okay, that could have been influenced by the fact that my lunch planning was slightly lacking. Friday’s lunch was “buy your own” … whoops.
Notes: Some people on the http://www.howsweeteats.com website commented that this was flavorless or flat, but to me it was perfect. I loved it and so did George.
Notes: I think I woke up twice during the night as this one was cooking. It smelled AMAZING. The jerk seasoning added a lot of flavor. I thought I might skip making the salsa…the mango salsa really made this dinner amazing.
Mama Thyme 