{Instant Pot} Spaghetti Squash

Jana here with another easy, healthy Instant Pot recipe!  If you aren't familiar with what an Instant Pot is, we have a basic tutorial here. I was SO happy with how the spaghetti squash turned out. The one I cooked was about 4 pounds, and the cook time may vary a few minutes if the squash you are cooking is larger or smaller. The squash easily came out in these 'noodles' with a fork once it was done. We prefer to eat spaghetti squash slightly al dente (with a small amount of crunch), so if you want yours to be completely soft, you might increase the cook time by a few minutes. There are many options for what to eat with this. You can do spaghetti sauce, or pesto. I made a homemade pesto (recipe coming soon!), and we added mushrooms and smoked brisket. A healthy, delicious dinner that we all enjoyed!


{Instant Pot} Spaghetti Squash

1 spaghetti squash (3.5 to 4 pounds*)
1 cup water or broth

1. Pour 1 cup of water in the Instant Pot, then place the trivet in.

2. If the spaghetti squash you have will fit whole, you can poke a few holes in one side of the squash, and place the whole squash on the trivet to cook. If it is too big (or just as another option), you can cut the squash in half, scoop out the seeds/inside, and place both halves on the trivet.

3. Close the lid, and cook on Manual mode for 15 minutes. Use QR (quick release - release the steam and open) once it has finished cooking. Check the squash to make sure it easily flakes out with a fork. If you aren't satisfied with this, you can let it cook for another 2-3 minutes on Manual mode.
Enjoy!

*If your squash is smaller than 3.5-4 pounds, I would suggest decreasing the cook time to 10 minutes. Squash can become watery and mushy if it is overcooked.

Sauteed Bacon & Fresh Spinach

Becca here with one of my family's favorite side dishes.  In fact, when I made this again a few nights ago, I had almost everyone asking for seconds, and it was all gone, even though I had used a full pound of fresh spinach!  I really think even two pounds of fresh spinach wouldn't have had any leftovers either!  This is a super quick and simple recipe, with just two ingredients, bacon and spinach.  It really is delicious though, and a great way to get a lot of veggies in really easily.  Don't let the two full packs of bacon in the photo scare you away, I just use half of one pack, but wanted to picture my two favorite bacons.  I always use either the Oscar Mayer "Natural" one without nitrates, or Farmland Naturally Hickory Smoked "Double Smoked" (my very favorite, but it does have nitrates, etc., and the Oscar Mayer is almost as good, though more expensive).  I like to go ahead and cut up, and then freeze, the other half of the package of bacon, so that it's ready to go next time I have a full tub of spinach to use!

Sauteed Bacon & Fresh Spinach

1/2 of a 12-16 ounce package of your favorite bacon
16 ounce package of spinach (I always use this Taylor Farms Organic Baby Spinach from Sam's Club)

I use kitchen shears to quickly cut several slices of bacon at once into small, bite sized pieces.  Add them to a large pot.

Stirring occasionally, cook the bacon on medium-high (I usually do 6.0 on my stovetop that has a range from 1-10) until it is browned and crispy.

Immediately start adding big handfuls of the spinach, until all 16 ounces have been added.  It will seem like a ton of spinach, but will quickly cook down.

Cook for an additional five minutes, gently stirring occasionally, until the spinach is bright green, and wilted.  Serve immediately.

Be careful not to overcook, you don't want it to be dark green and mushy!!

{Instant Pot} Super Tender, Chuck Roast

Becca here with an easy and pretty foolproof way to make a roast that is incredibly tender.  It literally is falling apart, and can be cut with a spoon!  One of the best parts is that I started with a completely frozen solid chuck roast mid-afternoon, and it was ready and waiting for us at dinner time.  I also like to add my own seasonings, because it is a lot less expensive than the seasoning packets I see a lot of recipes calling for, and also avoids a lot of the yucky additives we try to avoid.  My roast here was from Aldi, I try to go once a month or so to stock-up on some items that I can buy for significantly less there, chuck roast being one of them, at $2.99 a pound.  I use (and love) Walmart Grocery Pickup, and Sam's Club Pickup for most of my main shopping.  We do try to eat organic as much as possible, but grass fed, organic beef is not a good, feasible option for our family.  Let me know how your family liked this recipe!  My husband said that it was "better than candy", and all of my kids ate it well, even the one with some texture/sensory issues that can make meats tricky!

{Instant Pot} Super Tender, Chuck Roast - From Frozen!!!

1 Frozen Chuck Roast, about 3 pounds
1 Tablespoon coconut or olive oil
1 cup water
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoons granulated garlic powder
3 teaspoons Pink Himalayan or "Real Salt" Salt

Turn Instant Pot to the Saute setting, and add the Tablespoon of oil.

Add the frozen chuck roast.  Try to get it to rest flat on the bottom.  If it won't, do the best you can.  Mine was at an angle at first, as you can see.  Rotate the roast a few times, until you have as much of it browned as you can get, about 10-15 minutes total saute time.

Pour in the 1 cup of water.

Add the seasonings (black pepper, onion powder, granulated garlic powder, and salt), sprinkling each one evenly onto the top of the roast.

Add the Instant Pot lid (make sure saute is turned off!), and push the meat button, then the + button I'm pointing to in the bottom right photo, until the pressure time reaches 90 minutes. The Instant Pot will automatically switch to the warm setting and keep the roast nice and warm and tender, so it's ready when you are ready to eat!

I have also made gravy using the liquid remaining in the Instant Pot, and it was really flavorful and delicious!

{Instant Pot} "Baked" Sweet Potatoes

Becca here, with a quick "Instant Pot" pressure cooker recipe/tutorial.  I have been an avid Instant Pot user for seven years now, and am actually on my second Instant Pot, after an unfortunate incident with the lid being left too close to our gas stove, and melting.  When we had a major water leak at our home, requiring my family of myself, my husband, and our five kids, to live in a hotel for exactly sixty nights, my Instant Pot is the one kitchen thing I brought with me, and enabled us to eat somewhat normally some of the time, while living in a hotel!  I'm super excited that they have become really popular lately, and recipes are showing up all over, so I thought I would add some of my favorites to the mix now that it's something many more people have in their kitchens!

One thing that I commonly use mine for is to make perfect "baked" sweet potatoes.  To get great results, with non-mushy sweet potatoes, you'll want to get out the steam rack that came with your instant pot.  It looks like this, once placed into the bottom of the stainless steel pot insert (which I have two of, and often use each of them every day!).  You want to make sure that it is feet side down.  Pour in 1 cup of water.  The water will not be touching the bottom of the steam rack.

Insert sweet potatoes.  It is okay to stack them up, as long as the lid will fit on without touching them.  I can generally fit about five pounds of sweet potatoes in mine at one time.   I have a larger than typical family, so this is two meals worth for us.  We usually eat them 'baked' the first meal, and then I put the leftover ones into a square casserole dish with a bit of maple syrup, cinnamon, and sprinkled with pecans and coconut oil on top, for an oven-ready side dish for another meal.

You want to cook the potatoes for 30 minutes at high pressure.  You may do that by pushing either one of two buttons.  Either the Bean/Chili button I'm pointing to here, OR

the "Soup" button I'm pointing to here.  You could also manually set the pot to high pressure for 30 minutes, but I'm not sure when you would go to the extra trouble when either of these buttons work perfectly with preset settings!

The Instant Pot will pause for a moment, and then switch to the screen reading "On".  This means that it is heating up, and building up pressure.  This will take several minutes.

When the Instant Pot has reached the correct temperature and pressure settings, it will start counting down the remaining time "at pressure".  I think this is confusing to people sometimes, because a 30 minute setting actually takes quite a bit longer, allowing for the Instant Pot to heat up and reach pressure, and then naturally release pressure, unless you're in a hurry, and to a quick pressure release.  These are often abbreviated in Instant Pot Recipes/Groups as NRP (natural release pressure) and QPR (quick pressure release).  Natural pressure release simply means that you don't do anything at the end of the cooking time, and let the Instant Pot automatically switch to the "warm" setting, and open the pot to eat when you're ready.  Quick pressure release means that you move the valve on the top of the pot, to "open" to let the big burst of heat and pressure out, so that you can then safely remove the lid and eat, before the pot has naturally and slowly let the steam and pressure out itself.

At the end of the cooking time, the Instant Pot automatically switches to a "warm" setting, where the screen looks like this, and it counts up the warming minutes, or hours, if applicable, and slowly starts lowering the pressure.  Because it is an airtight and sealed environment, I have found that even something like rice can stay on the warm function for several hours without any loss of quality at all.

What are your Instant Pot questions or recipe requests?  Or favorite tips?  Let us know in the comments here, or on our Facebook Page!!

{Instant Pot} Cauliflower Rice

 *This is a great recipe to have children help you make!

Jana here with another really simple, and very versatile recipe you can make in your Instant Pot!  Many people are trying to cut carbs in their diet, and this recipe is an easy way to do just that. Using a head of cauliflower, you can make a rice substitute!  My family ate it this time as a type of 'rice bowl', along with mexican seasoned (DIY taco seasoning here) shredded pork, beans, lettuce, salsa, Greek yogurt (we substitute plain Greek yogurt for sour cream), etc.  Instead of shredded pork, you could also use shredded chicken, or ground beef. When the cauliflower rice is mixed in with all of these other ingredients, it truly was just as good (or better!) as rice would have been!  My children all enjoyed it a lot!

There are many other uses for cauliflower rice, as well. Most recipes where you would typically reach for rice, give the cauliflower rice a try!  Some ideas include: chicken curry, red beans and rice, or creamy chicken over rice.

{Instant Pot} Cauliflower Rice

1 head cauliflower
1 cup broth or water
salt and pepper

1. Place the trivet in the bottom of the IP, and pour the 1 cup of liquid into the bottom.

2. Cut the head of cauliflower into small florets, and set those on top of the trivet.

3. Secure the lid of the IP (making sure the valve is pointed towards the back- Sealing), and push Manual, Set the timer for 4 minutes.

4. Once it has reached pressure, and cooked the 4 minutes, most the pressure valve to Venting, to do a quick pressure release.

5. When the pressure is released, carefully open the lid, and remove the florets. Put them in a bowl, and use a fork to cut them into rice like pellets. Season with salt and pepper.

Enjoy! If you make this recipe, leave a comment and let us know!