If you know anything at all about me you’ll know that cooking never was my thing.
In fact, in the first 23 years of my marriage, my husband cooked dinner. A few years ago we had some life changes and part of that change was me taking over the cooking. I still didn’t like it, didn’t enjoy it at all. Then Santa (Me) bought me an InstaPot for Christmas and things changed.
I’ve talked about my love for my InstaPot on Facebook so much that friends often tag me and ask for my recipes when they finally buy one of their own. As a postpartum doula, I’ve also found that the InstaPot can be a wonderful tool for new families. Nutritious meals can be time-consuming and who has time for that when learning to breastfeed and working on minimal sleep?
InstaPot to the rescue.
The other huge perk for me for cooking with the Instapot is that it allows me to do all my weekly shopping in one shot, vs running to the store a couple of times a week. Sure, I could plan better, but because all the meals I like to make in my InstaPot can be made all at once, it helps me to not forget ingredients when shopping.
I’m also over the moon with the fact that I can spend less than 10 minutes in meal prep, throw it all in the pot and when it beeps diner is ready. With the speed of the InstaPot in making meals, I can often fire up the InstaPot when my husband lets me know he’s leaving work and have a hot, healthy and delicious meal on the table by the time he’s home.
I’ve included links to 5 of my favorite recipes below. I’ll also list any modifications I make to the recipe as well.
#1: Pressure Cooker Quick Chili
- This was one of the first things I made in my InstaPot. It immediately became a favorite because it tasted like my departed father-in-law’s Christmas chili.
- My Modifications:
- I add 2-3 cups of chicken broth and since we don’t use the beans I add two pounds of ground beef or ground sirloin to make it thick, rich and meaty.
#2: Life-Changing InstaPot Beef Stew
- This one is super yummy and you can change it up by adding other veggies if you’d like. It also reminds me of my mother-in-law’s veggie soup with barley.
- My Modifications:
- I don’t like tapioca so I like to use substitute barley. I just pour some in, until it looks right.
#3: Angie’s Quick Meatball Subs
- No link for this one, it’s all mine.
- 1 – 28 ounce of tomato sauce
- Various herbs and spices – seriously some of this some of that, oregano, onion, garlic, etc
- 1 bag frozen meatballs
- Add everything to the InstaPot and stir together
- Set InstaPot to Manual for 8-12 minutes
- 8 minutes results in a more firm meatball
- 12 minutes breaks the meatball down a bit more and that’s how we prefer them
- Serve on your favorite sub bread
#4: Sunday Pot Roast
- This is another favorite for my family and we don’t mind eating it any day of the week.
- My Modifications:
- I use chuck tender roast, it shreds beautifully
- I don’t use onion soup mix – instead, I use various spices & minced garlic
- Saute the onion after searing the meat and then deglaze with the beef broth
#5 White Bean Soup
- This is the recipe I started with but I made quite a few modifications to it to suit my family’s likes.
- This is also one of our favorites and one my husband will actually request.
- My Modifications:
- I omit:
- Tomato
- Water
- Mint
- Paprika
- I use low sodium veggie stock
- I prefer a thicker soup, so I like to blend a drained can of low sodium great northern beans and add it in place of some of the veggie broth
- I omit:
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