A few weeks ago, I started seeing lots of my friends posting about their new Instant Pot, the latest and coolest thing.
Honestly, I had no interest in even looking it up or learning anything about it. I have my Slowcooker ( so i thought) I know all about Pressure cookers, it really is nothing new, they existed years ago. Even the latest and real cool thing from my friends in Germany Vorwerk Thermomix didn’t excite me that much, especially at that price !! Just the thought of learning how to use a new kitchen gadget got me unmotivated.
Normally that isn’t me. I get excited about new things pretty quick, but life has been incredibly busy. Homeschooling, establishing our new home and homeschool groups, reading tons of books, blogging, gardening, cooking.. the list is very long and the days are incredibly short. Then I even got sick. And well guess what..the day I was up and running the kitchen again, my hubby confessed to me that our Slowcooker broke. He could have probably fixed, but at that point 10 years plus.. nah it would not have been worth it.
And yes, I love my Slowcooker. It is a life saver, especially with homeschooling, I am sure you know what I am talking about. So of course at that point I mentioned the InstantPot to my husband and after brief research he was excited and convinced to just spend the extra bit of money on one of those to replace the old Slowcooker. The new InstantPots are Slowcookers, pressure cookers and so much more all at once. You can even make yogurt in them !
So, fast forward a week and I am now the proud new owner of an InstantPot.
After a bit more research I started getting really excited, especially the feature of time saving. It seems you can create just about any dish in an incredible short amount of time. I started pinning tons of recipes on Pinterest, and also ordered a little cookbook along with the pot itself. It was perfect time to add a few new recipes to the monthly meal planning.
Then last weekend I wanted to try it out for the very first time. But, again Sunday was so busy I almost wanted to skip it and just cook something normal quick. You know spaghettie and sauce.. or order pizza.. or just microwave some soup lol. Luckily I had discovered one really easy recipe, and I had everything at home. Spaghetti and meat sauce, seemed easy enough.
I started browing the meat, together with some onions. Added some spices, some liquid and mushrooms and tomatoes. Sealed the whole thing… and away it vent…
After less than 15 minutes…it was done.. finished..and it smelled wonderful !
I barely had enough time to get my water ready to have the pasta boiled in time !The sauce was really incredibly and very flavorful. I am not big on making my own pasta sauche, ever. It always seems to take a lot of time and unless you let it simmer for hours, it won’t have that deep flavor I love. This sauce was really pretty amazing and everyone loved it !
Granted there is a learning curve and after talking to a few other moms, the pressure thing seems to be of big concern and it scared the heck out of me too at the beginning ( I only wanted to try it while hubby was home lol). But guess what, I already used it a second time. Tueday is now offically fish day at our house ( I try to go grocery shopping the same day and buy fresh fish then, eliminates having to freeze it and unfreeze it ).
What helps allot is the little cheat sheet that is also provided with the instructions.
This time I wanted roasted potaoes with the fish. I love potaoes but they seem to take forever, peeling, cutting, cooking etc… So I reached for the Instapot… I sauteed the Potatoes, added some spices, added a cup of broth… that’s it… and again 12 minutes later, they were done and tasted incredibly awesome ! Unfortunately both times that I have gotten to try it now, I had no time to take another picture. But I promise to add some soon 😉
So in the end, I guess I am glad that my old Slowcooker gave up 🙂
Beyond the books Homeschool 