The Mighty Mouse of the kitchen.

Do you remember when Mighty Mouse would suddenly show up with his cape flying and say "Here I am to save the day!" ?

Well I do and tonight my Instant Pot made me think of good old Might Mouse.  It was a busy day, I had no plans for dinner and I really hate when that happens.  Another thing I hate is when I have food in the fridge that needs to be used before it goes bad and I have no idea what to do with it.

Tonight I grabbed some of the things I had in the fridge and headed over to my Instant Pot.

I had some fresh broccoli, pasta, assorted cheeses, sour cream, cream cheese and my husband's favorite - those Little Smokies sausages.

 I put the Little Smokies in the pot a covered them with pasta to about 1/2 way up the pot.  Then I covered it all with water until you could just see the water almost to the top of the pasta. I closed the pot and set manual pressure for 3 minutes.

While the pot was cooking I chopped and grated the cheese.  I had some Swiss, Cheddar, Velveeta and Colby. 

I stopped when I grated a little more than cheese!

After 3 minutes were up and the pot was done I let it natural release for about 3 more minutes.  Then I manually released the pressure.  I added all the cheese and slowly mixed it in.  It was very thick so then I mixed Sour Cream and some Cream Cheese to loosen it up a bit.

It turned out thick and yummy and cheesy with those awesome Little Smokies mixed it.  The entire meal took about 20 minutes.

So I feel like my Instant Pot really is like Might Mouse.  I can almost here it call out....
 
"Here I am to save the day!"

Chicken Curry in 15 minutes!

This is my favorite brand of curry.

 When we lived in Japan we used to have something they called Vermont Curry.  It was a mild curry that was perfect with chicken.  One time I was at my friend Masayo's house and she was making Vermont Curry for us to have for dinner.  I noticed the box she was using and realized that what I thought was some kind of secret, super special yummy curry was something I had seen in American grocery stores.  This comes in three flavors, there is a green box, a red box and this orange box.  I don't know what the other ones taste like because I have only ever used this brand. 
Anyway, you can see that I followed the directions and put 2 1/2 cups of water in the pot.  Then I broke the curry pieces up and dropped them in.   I used two leftover chicken breasts, a couple carrots, 4 or 5 small potatoes and a couple stalks of celery.  I chopped them up and dropped them in too.

I closed up my Instant Pot and set it on manual for 4 minutes.  Before I started on the curry I had already put rice in my little mini pot.  Rice in the Instant Pot comes out perfect every time.  One big secret is to rinse the rice really good before you put it in the pot.  White rice is a 1:1 ratio of rice to water.  I also put a little drop of butter in there too.  That helps with foaming.  When it's done just fluff it with a fork and there ya go...perfect rice!

After the Curry cooked for 4 minutes I released pressure and all I had to do was stir it around a bit to mix it all together.  Here's the finished meal.  Delicious!  Chicken Curry over rice. 

Terrific Beef and Broccoli in my Instant Pot - So good!

Tonight I made a super easy and super yummy Beef and Broccoli dinner.  It's probably pretty much the same as most Beef and Broccoli recipes you'll find for the Instant Pot but this is how I did it.

 The first tip I have is to cook the broccoli first then add it to the finished beef mixture. The reason I do that is because I like it to keep from getting too soft. 
So, here I have it in a steamer in the Instant Pot and I'll steam it for 2 minutes.  You can see from the photo on the right the finished broccoli keeps nice color.


 I also cook rice while early.  I like to cook it in my Mini Pot because it will keep it warm until everything else is ready.  I really love using the electric pressure cooker to make rice because it turns out perfect.

 Prepping all the ingredients makes things so easy.  This recipe calls for ...

 1 small onion chopped
 3 cloves of crushed garlic (I used 1 1/2 tsp minced from a jar)
1 to 1 1/2 lb beef cut into chunks
3 tbsp. sesame oil
3 tbsp. olive oil
1/3 C soy sauce
1/4 C beef broth
1/2 C brown sugar
1 lb broccoli1
2 tbsp. corn starch
2 tbsp. water

Add both oils to pot on the saute setting.  Saute the onion and garlic until translucent. Add the beef and brown slightly.  It will cook in the process so you don't have to brown very much.  Then add the soy, beef broth and brown sugar.  Close the pot and cook on manual for 10 minutes.  When it's finished quick release the pressure.  While the pressure is releasing mix the corn starch and water. Add the broccoli and mix it in.  Then put the top back on for about 5 minutes or until the broccoli is hot. Then add the corn starch mixture to the pot and stir until it's thickened.


 OH MY GOODNESS!  It smells wonderful and look how yummy it looks in the pot!

Serve it over the hot rice for a delicious meal.






I hope you try this and I hope you love it.  If you have any tips or ideas for this recipe let me know!

Late night thinking....

So here I sit at 1:50 a.m.  There's no real reason for me to be up I just can't sleep.  It's ok though because it's quiet and I can work on my 2leelou Preserves things without any distractions.  I have been looking at lots of recipes to make in my Instant Pot.  I just can't decide because everything looks so yummy!

I am also gathering information to put together a workshop.  On Jan 20th I will be doing a workshop called "Your Convenient Kitchen".  It's the perfect workshop for after the Holidays.  Lots of people will get new Instant Pots and other kitchen things and this workshop will help everyone get the full benefit of those new goodies. 

We will talk about lots of things, not just Instant Pots.  For instance, there are lots of things you can do with a slow cooker or even a rice cooker.  Did you know you can cook a main course in a rice cooker?  It's not just for cooking rice.  You can even make custards and cakes in them! 

Then of course, which appliance uses the least amount of energy?  Which one retains the most nutrients?  See, these are the things that really surprise people.  And when you know more you can get more use out of an appliance. 

I'm really excited to do this workshop.  It's so much fun to stand in front of a group of people and watch their faces when you teach them something that totally blows their minds.  I love it.

It actually happens a lot in the Dehydration workshop. When I explain how to dehydrate cooked pasta and then the participants see it they are amazed. 

Anyway, having the workshop in January will really help get 2018 off to a good start.  2017 has not been my favorite year by any means and I'll be so glad to have a new year.  And to get 2018 off to a great start I hope you all get some new fun kitchen goodies for the Holidays and learn all the fun ways to use them!

I'm a Pot Head now!

So here's the deal.....I LOVE MY INSTANT POT!

I have been looking at so many delicious looking recipes I can't wait to try them.  I had a recipe I wanted to make for dinner tonight but then I realized I had leftovers I needed to use up first.

Reheating leftovers?  Oh yes the Instant Pot will do that perfectly!  It's very simple.

I put the pork and BBQ sauce in a Pyrex bowl and covered it with foil.  I created a foil strip that could help lift the bowl out of the pot when it's hot.  I put in one cup of water and the trivet in the pot and sat the bowl with the leftovers in the pot.

This is the Pot in Pot method.

I used the 'Steam' function and sat it for 5 minutes.  While that was reheating I had some fresh zucchini that I sliced and put in my little pot on the low pressure setting for 3 minutes.  Of course I had water and the trivet in there too.

Everything from start to finish was about 20 minutes and it came out perfectly.

So there ya go, the perfect way to reheat leftovers!

I'm going Instant Pot crazy!

I have had an electric pressure cooker for years.  I also have three stove top pressure cookers.  So as you can imagine, I've done plenty of pressure cooking.  I started checking out the new features of the newer models of electric pressure cookers and I'm impressed.  My old one has no real features but High or Low pressure and time adjustment.  I actually got excited when I saw what the newer models can do.  Not only for the convenience of the features but for the fun I could have using them.

So, today I officially became an Instant Pot gal.  It was just time for an upgrade. My old one was very narrow at the base so I couldn't really do any cheese cakes etc.  Also the pot was not a full pot it was actually a very heavy insert that had a plug part that made contact when it was inserted into the body of the pot.  That part wasn't even submersible so it was kind of pain to clean up.

My new addition will take the place of my old pot on the counter.  Right next to my mini one.  Between the two of them I'll be making tons of fun and yummy things!