Instant Pot - Is it WOrth It? (Spoiler- kind of). And if it is worth it, What should I make in it?8/21/2023 Is there really such a thing as kid-friendly, easy, minimal prep, healthy weekday meals? In general, I know my strengths and weaknesses in the kitchen. Strength - cleaning (all day, every day. I would eat off our kitchen floor because I wash it so much). Weakness - cooking (basically anything). I’ve tried so hard to get better at cooking for my family. Since I am very Type A, I wanted to get more organized around meal time. I like to plan my meals out for the week every weekend and get my groceries prepped and ready. Sunday morning is definitely grocery morning in the Smith household. Since COVID hit, we’ve been using the Fry’s Drive-Up/Pick-Up option. For those of you saying you like to pick out your own produce, I do too. I also like to pick out my own meat and check expiration dates on my yogurts before buying them. If given the option, I’d prefer a non-dented can as well. In reality though, the drive-up/pick-up option has saved us countless hours that I will throw out the occasional moldy strawberry or have to cook expiring meat before I planned to use it just for the peace of mind of having groceries and not having to drag two young children around the grocery store. The Fry’s Drive-Up option is great. I can schedule my groceries to be picked up during an hour time frame on Sunday morning. (Not my favorite drive-up option, but we’ll save that for another blog post.) In the spirit of getting more organized in the kitchen, I bought one of the magnetic meal planners for the front of the fridge. It helps keep me organized for the week. I also strategically schedule easier meals on days where we have after school activities. And like I said before, I might have to move around a few meals based upon the freshness of certain groceries. They have some really cute magnetic planners on Amazon. I got mine at TJ Maxx for a few dollars. Not only do I use it to plan out the meals, but as we run out of different items, it also acts as my running grocery list. So here’s the summary so far - I am not good in the kitchen, but am trying to be. I bought myself a planner to help get organized. Now the problem is that after a while, I get bored with the recipes. I think my family gets bored with the recipes. Let’s face it, there are only so many kid-friendly, easy, minimal prep, healthy weekday recipes, Furthermore, there are only so many non-crockpot versions of these. Yes, I have tried probably every crockpot recipe out there. That being said, we needed something new in our kitchen lives. Remember when the Instant Pot was the latest craze? I got mine on Black Friday with an extra-off coupon at Kohls. I was so excited to use it…until I wasn’t. My Instant Pot spent a lot of time gathering dust and many months of non-use. I was terrified of my Instant Pot. I had always heard how pressure cookers were really dangerous to cook with. We already know I’m not the best chef in the kitchen, so why are we trying to complicate things? The first time I tried to use my Instant Pot - not even sure what I was making - I was so afraid of the shooting air from the pressure release valve, that I threw my phone out of my hand and cracked the screen. It was like this semi-permanent reminder of how I shouldn’t experiment more in the kitchen. Naturally, the pot sat unused for a while after that. I don’t know how, but months later, there was a time period where I seemed to be confronted with unending, amazing success stories of the Instant Pot. Had I deemed it unusable too soon? Friends were talking about how easy it is to throw dinner in the instant pot and it’s done. Instant Pot chicken breast? No problem… Instant Pot pasta? Of course! (This is all them talking because I still hadn’t mustered up the courage to use my Instant Pot again). That is until one day, I decided to try a recipe. I worked up the courage to use the pot by watching YouTube videos of others pressure releasing their Instant Pots. I even Googled how safe Instant Pots were. My very best friend is not a chef either and she started telling me about a recipe she does in her instant pot that her daughter absolutely loves. She sent the link over to me. I worked up to it for a few weeks, but when I made it, it was like striking gold. My son even still calls it his favorite meal to this day years later. It’s part of our weekly rotation. My hatred against the Instant Pot started to diminish. After this amazing recipe though, I became a little overly confident in the Instant Pot and my cooking abilities with the Instant Pot. That is until I realized that like all cooking recipes, the Instant Pot has ones that are hit or miss. There are some that are going to be amazing, instant favorites like the chicken-pot-pie pasta recipe my friend shared with me. It’s also a little like all the trial and error I did with the crock pot. We had some *a lot* of misses there too. That being said, is the Instant Pot worth it? Maybe. We make some good recipes now in it. Is it my favorite kitchen tool? No. Does it have so many different functions that it can technically save some kitchen space and replace other appliances? Yes. Have I tried all these functions? Of course not. Here's the deal - if you invested in an Instant Pot like I did and need some easy recipes to try, I definitely recommend these ones. The Instant Pot isn't doing you any favors sitting on the counter or inside the cupboard or pantry. If you invested in the hype of the Instant Pot, then it is worth giving it a shot. Here are our family’s top uses for the Instant Pot (click the images to be redirected to the recipes): 1. Instant Pot - Pot Roast2. Chicken Pot-PieThis is it! This is the recipe that started it all. It was the one that got me trusting my ability to use a new appliance a little bit more. The recipe is SO EASY. I cannot emphasize that enough. Both my kids love it and I could probably make it in my sleep now, I've made it so many times! 3. Instant Pot SpaghettiIf you're wondering like I did if spaghetti can get easier, the answer is yes. Spaghetti can get much easier. It can be made in a single pot in a little amount of time. And it can be pretty darn tasty too! 4. Instant Pot RiceI was definitely late to the game to try the rice cooking function on my Instant Pot. I was about five minutes away from pushing "Buy" on my Amazon cart for a rice cooker, when I thought I had seen a post before about cooking rice in the Instant Pot. This has been a GAME CHANGER for us. We now can easily incorporate rice into our meals. The kids love rice with some vegetables and coconut aminos sauce for a quick and easy meal. So is the Instant Pot worth it? Maybe. It's definitely a large kitchen tool to store. It also usually comes at a hefty price point. However, for our family, once I found out HOW to use it and what recipes worked with my skill-set, it semi-quickly became a household staple for us. My next action item though is using the crock-pot function and attempting to get rid of my actual crock pot to save some space. (To be continued there!) I was SO NERVOUS to, what I assumed would be, wasting a roast on this recipe. However, the Instant Pot roast comes out more moist and tender than my regular roasts ever did. It IS a bit more prep than I would like with an Instant Pot, but it's mostly cutting and prepping vegetables which is really an added bonus to the recipe. It's a well-rounded dish overall.
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Lasagna Roll UpsWe love our pasta. Yes, we do. We love our pasta. How about you?
Seriously though...some days, I feel like all the kids eat is pasta, chicken nuggets, and hot dogs. Now I know why kids' menus lack lots of creative options. My husband is not a spaghetti fan. He's even less of a spaghetti fan when I make it with the protein packed pasta for my kids. So, I've been trying different pasta recipes to find ones that we love. I LOVE everything about this recipe except that it has "easy" in the title. It is a little bit more labor intensive than I would like, but you can definitely make it ahead of time if needed and the leftovers are just as delicious as the first time you cooked it! Here's the recipe site (Natasha's Kitchen): https://natashaskitchen.com/lasagna-roll-ups/ Here's the result: |