It's not just a craze - it's a religion.

Recently, a link to this post was shared in the mom's group I'm part of. That group is where I first heard of the Instant Pot.

http://www.cbc.ca/comedy/i-am-your-god-now-by-instant-pot-1.4362460

We're definitely spreading the gospel. Consider this my contribution.

Enjoy!

The latest craze...an Instant Pot

If you haven't heard about the miraculous abilities of electric pressure cookers, you've probably been avoiding Facebook or Pinterest for the past 6-12 months at least. I'm in a Facebook mom's group, and a while back someone alerted me to the amazing thing that is called an Instant Pot. They claimed it could cook things in a fraction of the time, was super easy to use, would wash your car, do your laundry, and make your kid eat his/her vegetables. We even have a running file of all of our "mom approved" Instant Pot recipes.

Okay, the last few items were a stretch, but once I gave in and bought my Instant Pot (on Amazon's Prime Day discount), I have become obsessed as well. (Side note, they go on sale probably once a quarter, and they're seemingly always a Prime Day feature.)

And get this...the craze is spanning generations - my mother just bought one and is already enjoying experimenting with recipes.

So what IS an Instant Pot?

If you have visions of a pressure cooker squealing, shaking, and basically looking like it's going to explode on your mother's stove, get those images out of your head. This thing is state-of-the-art. (There's even one model that has a remote control, which I think is ridiculous, but #liveyourlife #youdoyou.) If you picture food coming out all one flavor/color like can sometimes happen in a slow cooker, you can also throw that concern out with the trash. I have liked, if not loved, every thing I've made in mine.

If you're concerned that it's another thing for you to learn, that's a fair concern, but one easily allayed. Yes, you need to learn how to adjust a couple things, and there are tips for how to choose the best pressure release method, but honestly, once you get those 2-3 things down (and they're not hard), you're golden.

If you're saying, "but I love my slow cooker," that's fair too. But guess what? This thing can also be a slow cooker. We haven't gotten rid of our slow cooker yet, and my husband has cooked a roast in it since we bought the Instant Pot, but I'm thinking I might need to convert him to using it instead of our slow cooker. Or not. Who knows.

And, yes, I know people who have two Instant Pots (one 8qt and one 6qt) AND a slow cooker. They're really that fabulous. Here's the one that I purchased. You can saute, slow cook, pressure cook, and more all in this one device.

So what do you make in your Instant Pot?

I'll share the recipes I'm using in future posts, but right now I've got a pretty solid rotation of items I'm cooking which include chicken (from frozen!) burrito bowls with rice and beans, spaghetti squash with meat sauce, beans (black, pinto, and soon chickpeas), salmon (from frozen!) with rice and green beans, and hard boiled eggs.

There are also a lot of cheesecake recipes out there, amazing-looking mac and cheese recipes, soups, breakfast porridge, and more. I have a feeling since we're hosting Thanksgiving this year, we'll be trying out some recipes before serving them to the whole crew.

Hold on. Hard-boiled eggs? Really? I mean, come on, they're not that hard to make on the stove.

I hear you. And you're right, but despite trying every hack in the book, I could still never get them to peel consistently. I really only like the whites of a hard-boiled egg, so when peeling them takes a chunk out of what I'm peeling it for, it's frustrating.

Hard boiling eggs in the Instant Pot has produced effortless peeling every single time. I didn't add vinegar to the water (no point, it's steaming them), I didn't have to use old eggs (another hack I've tried, which seemed...well...interesting), etc. I just put in a cup of water, added the steaming rack (that came with my Instant Pot), put a dozen eggs on the rack, pressed Manual, and set it for 12 minutes.

You're right, with the time it takes to come up to high pressure, the time it takes to cook, and the time it takes to cool (yes, you still need to put them in ice water afterwards to stop the cooking), it is not a time saver. But it takes no longer than the traditional method I had been using, so that's a wash. What is seriously the best part is the peeling. I'm thinking it's because of the steaming, but the shells come off easily in one or two pieces. It's amazing.

Okay, I'm intrigued.

So maybe you're on the fence, despite my glowing review. I get it. It took a while before I decided to buy one. So take your time, check out some of my future posts to see results and recipes, and then decide, is it worth it to you to make space in your pantry so you can cook dinner from dry rice, frozen green beans and frozen salmon fillets in about 30 mins with extremely limited prep time?

It was for me.

(Side note, I get nothing from Instant Pot for this post. I just love it that much!)

A reboot, perhaps

Lately, I've been missing a few things. And by lately, I mean the past 3-4 years. And by a few things, I really mean two in particular: 1) writing and 2) cooking.

This is not to say that I haven't been doing either. Writing, however, has been almost exclusively work emails and the like. Cooking has remained more creative, but my darling husband (an official addition since my last post in December 2012) also enjoys cooking, and, frankly, he has done the majority of the food purchasing and preparing. And then there was the other addition, our son, who arrived in 2015. Needless to say, my free time has dwindled with him at my knees.

But two things have changed in the last 10 months: I got a new job where I work from home every day, and I got an Instant Pot. These two things have allowed me some creativity and flexibility when cooking, which is, in turn, inspiring me to document it more. I never stopped taking pictures of our particularly successful meals, but as of right now, they just sit in my phone ... for posterity, I guess.

My husband will continue to cook, and I will continue to enjoy his endeavors. But I am hoping to write one post per month (keeping with my average pace from 2012), and if an extra one pops in here from time to time, that'd be great. For each post, there will be a new recipe that I have tried, whether original to me or modified from another cook. There will also be pictures and a "review" by me and/or my husband.

If our 2 year old dares to try it, I'll include his review as well. But unless it's strawberries, granola, or almond butter with honey on a banana, I'm not holding out much hope.

Food in pictures

If any of you actually read my blog with regularity, you haven't had much to read in the past...well...six months or so.  There are no excuses.  I just got busy. 

But I was still taking pictures of my food.  So here are some of the highlights.

Oven roasted veggies - zucchini, peppers, asparagus, and onions with Italian dressing.

 

A comfort breakfast - whole wheat toast, almond butter, honey, and banana slices.

Trout with carmelized onions and peppers.

Health bars: almond butter on the bottom, oats, craisins, pumpkin seeds,
sunflower seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds, pecans, dried apricots, and honey.

Quick post: Bellini in memoriam

This weekend is Memorial Day weekend.  And while we honor those who have given their lives for this country and our freedoms, I choose to celebrate my freedom with, well, a frozen bellini.

I don't like white wine.  Never have.  Don't know why.  But, I do like champagne.  In fact, I like her, in my opinion, tastier cousins, cava (from Spain) and prosecco (from Italy) a lot.

I'm sure you know this, but champagne actually has to come from the champagne region in France.  The French regulate their booze much like they do their language - strictly (is that a word?).  So, if there is a sparkling white wine out there that calls itself "champagne" but is made out on Long Island, NY, it's breaking French law.

I don't know about you, but I don't want to break French law.  I'd be afraid they'd remove all of my access to soft cheeses.  Oh, the manatee (as my fiance says)!

But in a drink like this, it doesn't really matter whether you're using a non-country-specific sparkling white wine, Cava, Prosecco, or even the real deal, Champagne.  You're whirring it up with frozen fruit, so let's be clear, the subtleties will be lost.  Don't spend a lot on whatever sparkling white wine you're going to put in this drink.

While we were shopping last night (yes, we lead a very exciting life, doing our grocery shopping on Saturday night), I decided a frozen bellini would be my drink of choice.  So, I bought a massive bag of frozen peaches.  I figured that if I don't use all of it for bellinis, I'd still be able to eat them thawed and with the Fage 0% greek yogurt that I frequently have for breakfast.  No product loss predicted.

I filled about 2/3 of my blender with frozen peaches and poured in about a cup of sparkling wine.  The blender didn't do much.  I poured in about another cup.  It started whirring around.  I tried different speeds, and I'm sure it's different for different blenders.  But the basics rule is that you need enough liquid to get things going. 

Once I got things going, I continued to pour in a little bit from time to time and stopped periodically to stir it around. At first it seemed a little heterogeneous in that there were the occasional chunk of frozen peach.  I liked it, but I felt like it needed a bit more whirring.  Sadly, I lost the chunks with my zealous blending, but the result was a lovely silky frozen drink as if made at a restaurant.

I poured it into a red wine glass and added a small shot of sparkling wine on top. Add straw.

I'm through glass #1.  I'm on to #2.  Tast-i-licious!