Category: Electric Pressure Cooker

Instant Pot Tacos

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You may noticed I’ve been on a taco kick lately. Youngest and I enjoy our tacos. Now that I’ve figured out the yummiest taco meat, I make it at least once a week.

During my weekly meal prep, I made extra of the taco meat and froze it in my Souper cubes. Yes, I got some of them and absolutely love them. This way the taco meat is ready to go if I want to eat nachos or just don’t feel like cooking.

What do I need for the recipe?

  • ground beef – I know ground beef prices are expensive. Sometimes the family packs are cheaper. Get one of those, double or triple the recipe, and then freeze for later.
  • taco seasoning – Homemade or store bought – My favorite is from a local place.
  • onion, optional – You could also add some diced up bell peppers in the taco meat.
  • salsa or fire roasted salsa style tomatoes – I found fire roasted salsa style tomatoes at my local grocery store. They add a certain flavor to the taco meat. If your store doesn’t have that type of tomatoes substitute salsa.
  • Tortillas – Flour, corn, or hard taco shells – It doesn’t matter.
  • Your favorite toppings: Cilantro, sour cream, lettuce, shredded cabbage, black beans or re-fried beans, jalapenos, tomato, cheese

Other uses for the taco meat

  • Nachos – The meat would be delicious on nachos. Yum!
  • Taco salad – Add some French, Catalina, or ranch dressing on top. Or you could skip the dressing and use salsa instead.
  • Taco fries – Doesn’t that sound delicious? Or is it just me?
  • Walking tacos – Fritos, taco meat, cheese, lettuce, and tomatoes.

The Recipe

As always, click on the image for a printable version of the recipe.

Bramble Beans in the Instant Pot

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SIMILAR Recipes

Last week, I put bramble beans on our menu but didn’t have time to meal prep. So when it came time to cook the recipe, I had to change up how I was going to cook the meal. I decided to make it in my Instant Pot instead of the crockpot. It was easy to do.

So what do you serve with the bramble beans?

A simple side dish would be either a salad or frozen/ canned veggies warmed up.

Roasted veggies

Cornbread, biscuits, or rolls – Simple and delicious

Applesauce or baked apples

Similar Recipes

Sloppy Joes (Crockpot)

Sloppy Joes

Philly Cheesesteak Sloppy Joes

Sloppy Joe French fries

Beenie Weenies

Bramble Beans

Stars of the recipe:

  • 2 – 15 oz. cans of pork and beans
  • 1 – 15 oz. can of kidney beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 lb. hamburger, browned
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 1 c. ketchup
  • 2 Tbsp. mustard
  • 2 Tbsp. vinegar
  • 4 Tbsp. brown sugar

Steps:

  1. Turn on the Instant Pot to sauté.
  2. Place the hamburger and diced onion in the Instant Pot. Cook until the onion is transparent and the hamburger is no longer pink.
  3. Add the remaining ingredients.
  4. Manual set the Instant Pot to 15 minutes. (Make sure you have the vent is closed.)
  5. Quick release the vent once it is cooked.
  6. Enjoy!

Note: You may need to add about a quarter cup of water since you are using the Instant Pot.

Monterrey Chicken Foil Packets (GF)

Note: You need an Electric Pressure Cooker to make this recipe.

Monterrey Chicken Foil Packets

Stars of the recipe:
  • 1 lb. boneless and skinless chicken thighs
  • 1/2 c. barbecue sauce
  • 1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese
  • 1/2 c. bacon bits or 2 or 3 bacon slices cooked and crumbled
Steps:
  1. Cut the foil into 12-inch by 12-inch squares. You’ll need 4 squares.
  2. Lay a piece of chicken in the middle of the foil.
  3. Sprinkle each piece of chicken with cheddar cheese and bacon.
  4. Pour barbecue sauce over the chicken, cheese, and bacon.
  5. Wrap the foil around the chicken so that it is sealed.
  6. Pour a cup of water into the electric pressure cooker. Carefully place the trivet on top of the water. Gingerly add the foil packets.
  7. Manually set the electric pressure to 35 minutes on high. Place the lid on it making sure the vent is set to seal.
  8. Once cooked, allow to naturally release for 10 minutes and then open the seal so that it can finish releasing the pressure.
  9. Remove the lid and take the packets out of the pressure cooker carefully.
  10. Enjoy with extra cheese on the chicken.

Stay kind!

Have a magical day,
Traci

Pressure Cooker Spaghetti (DF)

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The boys do not like when Hubby makes pasta dishes because he doesn’t always drain the pasta. He’ll rather use a slotted spoon to get out the pasta. Needless to say, it becomes very mushy.

So whenever we do have any pasta dishes, I’m the only one who cooks or if he cooks the pasta, he needs to be reminded to drain the pasta. I know us bugging him drives him crazy.

Making the spaghetti in the pressure cooker eliminates the need to drain the pasta because all of it is made in one pot.

Youngest is not always the best eater. He doesn’t always eat a lot of food at meals. When he ate 2 servings of the spaghetti, I knew this recipe was a keeper.

Hubby doesn’t always want to eat leftovers even though I plan for them during the week. He actually volunteered to eat the leftovers the next day. This also told me that this recipe was a keeper.

What you need for the recipe
  1. spaghetti noodles
  2. ground beef
  3. jar of spaghetti sauce
  4. water
  5. Italian seasoning
  6. optional: diced onions

Pressure Cooker Spaghetti

Pressure Cooker Spaghetti

  • Servings: 5
  • Difficulty: extremely easy
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Ingredients

  • 0.5 pound of spaghetti noodles
  • 0.5 pound of ground beef
  • 1 (26 oz.) jar of spaghetti sauce
  • 1 (26 oz.) jar full of water plus about 2 to 3 Tbsp. more of water
  • 1 small or 1/2 large onion, diced – optional
  • 1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil – optional

Directions

  1. Set your electric pressure cooker to saute.
  2. If you are going to add onions to your spaghetti, add the oil and then the onions. Cook the onions for 4 to 5 minutes or until translucent. Remove from the pot.
  3. Add the ground beef to the pot. Cook until no longer pink. Make sure you break up the ground beef so the pieces are equal pieces. (About 5 minutes) Drain the fat from the ground beef.
  4. Add the spaghetti sauce, water, Italian seasoning, and onions, if using them. Stir.
  5. Add the spaghetti noddles. (Break them in half.) Make sure the noodles are covered with sauce and water. Add a little more water, if needed.
  6. Set the pressure cooker to manual 8 minutes. Put the lid on the pressure cooker making sure the valve is set to seal.
  7. When it’s done cooking, quick release the valve.
  8. Stir the spaghetti.
  9. Enjoy with Parmesan cheese, if desired.

Notes:

  1. You can use ground turkey instead of ground beef.
  2. If you want to make it vegetarian, you can use the beefless beef from Trader Joe’s. Just start with step 4 unless you are adding the onions.

Stay kind!

Have a magical day,
Traci

Poached Chicken in the Instant Pot (GF, W30, DF)

As I stated in my Menu Planning blog post, I’m part of the launch party for Eat at Home’s newest cookbook.  (For more information about the cookbook, click here.)

Tonight Hubby and the boys are going to have the Memphis BBQ Chicken Tacos before heading to either work or our town’s block party.  The recipe calls for cooked chicken.  I used my Instant Pot to poach the chicken.

Since our area has a heat advisory, it was nice not having to warm up the kitchen in order to poach the chicken.

I used fresh chicken breasts today but you can use frozen chicken breasts instead.

What is needed for this recipe:

  • chicken breast or thighs, fresh or frozen
  • water or chicken broth
  • seasoning:  21 Seasoning Salute, Trader Joe’s seasoning salt, Everything but the bagel seasoning, or salt and pepper
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Poached Chicken

  • Difficulty: very easy
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Ingredients

  • 1 lb. chicken breasts or thights
  • 1 c. water or chicken broth
  • 1/2 Tbsp. to 1 Tbsp. seasoning (See What is needed for this recipe for ideas)

Directions

  1. Place chicken breasts in Instant Pot.
  2. Sprinkle with seasoning.
  3. Pour water or broth over the chicken.
  4. Manually set the Instant Pot for 10 minutes or 12 minutes.  (10 minutes for fresh, 12 minutes for frozen)
  5. Once cooked, allow the pressure to naturally release.
  6. Shred with forks or use your Kitchen Aid.
  7. Enjoy in your favorite recipe.

Have a magical day,
Traci

Mom, What’s For Dinner? – January 8, 2018 & Pressure Cooker Steel Oats

Last week was crazy.  I only worked twice during the week.  We had below freezing temps.  Extremely below freezing temps.  The wind chill on a couple of the days registered -20 or so below.

Continue reading “Mom, What’s For Dinner? – January 8, 2018 & Pressure Cooker Steel Oats”

Pressure Cooker Applesauce (GF, DF, and Paleo) – Blog Post #6

The Wee One loves this applesauce. He had two bowlfuls at our Sunday dinner.

It take a little time to prep the apples but it’s worth it when you smell the delicious aromas of cooking apples with cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice.

I used gala apples, golden delicious, and Macintosh apples at different time.  Each one was delicious as applesauce.

Instead of refined sugar, I used coconut sugar which has a lower glycemic index than white sugar.  (35 instead of 60 so your blood sugar won’t spike as easily.)

Since I’ve been loving pumpkin spice lately, I use pumpkin spice instead of cinnamon.  You can use either spice.

Cooked down apples
The applesauce

To make it Whole 30 friendly, omit the sugar.  Remember only eat a little bit of fruit while on the Whole 30 because you don’t want to feed your sugar dragon.

Pressure Cooker Applesauce

  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Ingredients

– 2 to 4 pounds apples:  peeled, cored, and sliced

– ¼ c. water

– ¼ c. sugar

– 2 tsp. Cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice

 

Directions

  1. Prepare the apples.  Add to the pressure cooker.
  2. Pour the water over the apple.  Sprinkle the sugar and spice over the apples.  
  3. Put the lid on the pressure cooker.
  4. Manually set the pressure cooker to 5 minutes.
  5. When the apples are finished cooking, allow the pressure cooker to naturally release pressure for 20 minutes.
  6. After the pressure cooker’s pressure has been released, open the lid and place the apples in the blender.
  7. Blend until smooth.  (About a minute)
  8. Enjoy cold or warm!

Happy eating,
Traci

Porcupine Balls with Gravy (Pressure Cooking)

Happy 6 year anniversary of this blog!

Hubby’s Favorite

My mother-in-law used to make Hubby porcupine balls when he was growing up.  So these are his favorite meal.  Continue reading “Porcupine Balls with Gravy (Pressure Cooking)”

Pressure Cooker Hard Boiled Eggs

As I have said previously, there are a few items that I cannot cook to save my life.  Hard boiled eggs are one of those items.

I’ve shared my technique for making them in the oven.  This is my technique for making the hard boiled eggs in my pressure cooker.

Continue reading “Pressure Cooker Hard Boiled Eggs”

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