my instant pot is my most used kitchen appliance (behind the coffee pot, of course, which gets exercise multiple times a day.) i want to tell you why and share a couple of my favorite instant pot recipes! i bought my first pressure cooker from aldi for $40, and it lasted for a year of about five uses a week before giving up on me. and this, friends, is why we always keep our warranty information. i reached out to the company that made it, and since they didn't manufacture the pressure cooker anymore at that point, they gave me a full refund! so i basically used it for free for a year, during which it saved us probably hundreds of dollars. with my $40 refund in hand, i turned around and bought an instant pot duo from facebook marketplace for $35. i'm gonna call that a thrifty mama win. here are some ways my instant pot saves me... money: 1. we never buy canned beans anymore. beans and rice is a staple in our house, and even at aldi, canned beans are 50-90 cents each. instead, every week or two, i buy a two-pound bag of dried black beans from aldi for about $2.50. i cook them about a pound at a time with some water, salt, and a little oil in my pressure cooker for 40 minutes on high pressure, and we just use what we need throughout the week. 2. no more, "oh, i forgot to thaw the chicken," excuse. dinner goes from frozen to table in half an hour or less, which keeps us from running to chick-fil-a if it's getting later and i haven't started cooking yet. 3. it's super easy to whip up a "use it up" soup in the instant pot. you know--those veggies in the fridge that are about to turn, those potatoes that are slightly soft, half a jar of spaghetti sauce, etc. i just put everything in the instant pot with some broth and seasonings, set it for about 10 minutes, and hope for the best. those groceries don't go to waste, and i have lunch prepped for the whole week. 4. if i find a whole chicken on clearance at the grocery store, i'll come home and put it in the instant pot with some salt, pepper, and water in the bottom (under the rack). it comes out falling off the bone. i finish the legs and wings with lemon pepper or cajun seasoning in the oven or on the stove, shred the breast for tacos and/or chicken salad, and freeze the stock for making soup or rice. i've heard you can save the bones and make bone broth in the instant pot, as well, but i haven't tried that yet. time: 1. since this is a "set it and forget it" appliance, i can get other stuff done while dinner is cooking, no stirring or checking necessary. 2. using the pot-in-pot method, i can cook multiple things at once. my favorite way to do this is to put black beans, chopped onion and pepper, sliced sausage (usually kielbasa or andouille), tony's seasoning, and a little water in the bottom of the pot, then set the rack on top of that. in a small stainless steel bowl, i mix rice, water, a little salt, and a splash of oil and set it on top of the rack. seal up the instant pot, and set it for 10 minutes on high pressure. quick release, et voila, everything is done at once! 3. although we don't use bottles to feed asa very often, i have used my instant pot to sanitize his bottles and my pump parts! there are lots of videos on youtube that show you how to do this, like *this one*. it keeps you from having to stand at the stove while boiling these things, and there's no risk of accidentally melting all the bottles to the bottom of a pot on the stove. before we go, here's one more of my favorite things to cook in the instant pot: chicken wings. yum. y'know how when you try to make chicken wings at home, you can never get them totally cooked but also crispy on the outside without burning them? here's the solution to that problem. 1. add a cup of water to the bottom of the instant pot. 2. dump in a bag of frozen chicken wings. yep. dump em all in. 3. cook for 15 minutes at high pressure. 4. take them out, toss them with a little bit of oil and your favorite seasoning (mine is lemon pepper.) if you're going to need another batch, go ahead and toss more wings in the instant pot now. 5. finish them on a pan or in a cast iron skillet in the oven at 400 degrees until they're crispy. 6. turn on college football and dig in. contains affiliate links
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