I’VE BEEN COOKING WITH MY NEW COOKBOOKS, MAKING ALMOND MILK, AND LEARNING TO USE THE INSTAPOT!
I hope you all don’t mind but I’m breaking away from sharing Christmas décor today and doing a different type of post. If you follow me in Instagram you’ve already head some of what I’m posting today.
It all boils down to I’ve been in a cooking and eating rut. I don’t know about you but I tend to make the same meals over and over again until I’m sick to death of them and when that happens I tend to eat junk.
To get back on track again I knew I’d need to find some new Paleo cookbooks to sift over and find some easy to make dinner recipes. For me I like an actual recipe book, I know most things can be found on the internet but I like t0 thumb through the book, read all the extra tidbits, and drool over the pretty picture.
I found the book “Against All Grain” and new I had to have it and after seeing the author Danielle Walker had published three other cookbooks I added them to my Amazon order as well. I won’t go into detail about the books, you can order them or go to her site, and read more about her journey.
What I do love is the recipes are easy to follow, most ingredients I already have, and the meals are simple and not time consuming. So that’s a BIG win for me!
I found the recipe for homemade Almond Milk in the first cookbook on the top of my pile and said to myself, “Why have I never made my own?” After reading how easy it was I made a batch and have another one soaking right now. I can’t believe how delicious it is and by making my own I’m avoiding all the additives the store bought stuff has in it. After drinking homemade I’ll never buy it from a store again.
Also my favorite crockpot didn’t seem to get as hot as it used to so rather than buy a new one I decided to upgrade to an Instapot. It can be used like a crockpot or a pressure cooker. So far I’ve made Thai beef in it, sautéed veggies, and make homemade bone broth with it. It’s a little intimidating to use but I’m getting the hang of it and know I’ll use it often.
Right now the Instapot is sitting out on my kitchen counter, which I hate. I like my counters clutter free from appliances. This darn thing is huge and not very attractive. So after Christmas it’s on my list to clean the pantry and find a spot to store it in there along with the rest of my countertop appliances. One thing leads to another and right now I’m not in the mood to be ripping apart the pantry so close to Christmas; I have enough things to do without making more work for myself.
If you use an Instapot tell me in the comments below what’s your favorite thing to make in it.
I make vegetable soup with stew meat ini it. It’s delicious.
Nancy, I can’t wait to do more with mine. Right now everyone but me is out of state working so I haven’t given it a real effort yet.
Dawn, Debbie Doo’s has a blog that she cooks with the instapot and has a lot of different food ideas using the instapot! Hope you enjoy yours. I do not have one.
Jeanie I’ll have to pop over there, I haven’t been in forever. Thanks for the reminder.
I love cooking dried beans, vegetable beef soup, roast with vegetables, bone broth and cubed steak in one of my Instant Pot pressure cookers. I have a 3 quart Instant Pot I use for sides and it is fabulous to have the main course in a larger pot with a side in the smaller one. I have found them useful for meal prep as well. Cooking chicken breasts to shred and freeze or brown ground beef to freeze for other meals is priceless!
Tabitha, thank you for all the great ideas. When you do a roast do you put the veggies in at the same time you do the meat? I haven’t figured that part out yet.
I love my Instant Pot too and now have an 8 qt. and 6 qt. My fav things to make are hard boiled (steamed) eggs. The shells fall off like magic. I also cook chicken, spaghetti, saute veges and BBQ ribs.
My favorite things to make in the Instant Pot are short ribs and beef stew. Hope to get those recipes on the blog soon.
Jane I can’t wait to try ribs in ours. We have beef ribs in the freezer I’ll just have to find them.