Kayla K's Thrifty Ways

Today I thought I’d be a little adventureous and try something new. Steamed Chicken and Veggie Potsticker Dumplings from Sandra’s Easy Cooking sounded interesting… and they were. They were very tedious to make and they melted into a gooey lump in the pressure cooker. But they were also delicious! I will give these another try, but just for reference sake I steamed these for 10 minutes.  In the future I will cook them a little less and roll the wrappers thinner.

On November 17, 2012 I married the love of my life and met a new love: My pressure cooker! To spread the love I’m using my pressure cooker every day and sharing the recipes on my blog.

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This 15 Bean and Barley Stew was an excellent meal for Derby Thursday. I used a packaged 15-bean mix, diced tomatoes with green chilis, and jarred minced garlic for convenience. I dumped everything in my pressure cooker, ran around like a mad woman getting ready for practice, and pulled the pressure cooker off the burner on my way out the door.  I was welcomed home from practice with this hearty stew waiting.

I hesitate to call it a stew because it is so thick. You could add more broth or water if you choose.

On November 17, 2012 I married the love of my life and met a new love: My pressure cooker! To spread the love I’m using my pressure cooker every day and sharing the recipes on my blog.

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Oh. My. Goodness.  My husband has never inhaled vegetarian food so fast as when I served these lentil enchiladas tonight. And then he went back for seconds. He didn’t even have time to wonder if they had hamburger or not.

On November 17, 2012 I married the love of my life and met a new love: My pressure cooker! To spread the love I’m using my pressure cooker every day and sharing the recipes on my blog.

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My sister Kelli doesn’t know it yet, but these are her favorite beans. The beans tasted like they have simmered all day with a ham bone, but they are vegetarian. And therefore less expensive.

I followed the recipe from FatFree Vegan Kitchen and used their quick-soak method.  I will continue to do that in my future bean dishes because the resulting beans have a much better texture.

I’m always so impressed at how much food two cups of beans makes! I will be enjoying this dish for a few days.

On November 17, 2012 I married the love of my life and met a new love: My pressure cooker! To spread the love I’m using my pressure cooker every day and sharing the recipes on my blog.

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These cabbage rolls were FANTASTIC although much too time-consuming for a derby practice night.  I got to bed late after snapping a quick picture and tossing the rolls in the fridge but enjoyed them immensely for breakfast.

You can find the recipe I followed at Fast Cooking. The only change I made was substituting ground turkey for the pork, beef, and veal.  I also used my own sauerkraut, of course.

I will definitely make more cabbage rolls in the future.  I read somewhere that freezing and thawing cabbage softens the leaves for rolling.  Hmmm…

On November 17, 2012 I married the love of my life and met a new love: My pressure cooker! To spread the love I’m using my pressure cooker every day and sharing the recipes on my blog.

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Today’s recipe comes courtesy of Hip Pressure Cooking. As always the recipe was fantastic with detailed instructions and step-by-step pictures. The only change I made was substituting cream cheese for the ricotta. I had to cook the cake for 5 extra minutes for a total of 25 minutes.

The cake was delicious, as promised. Although at 25 minutes it was not more efficient than just baking a cake. In the future I think this recipe would be great to try with peaches.

On November 17, 2012 I married the love of my life and met a new love: My pressure cooker! To spread the love I’m using my pressure cooker every day and sharing the recipes on my blog.

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You may have noticed an influx of potato recipes on the blog. That may have something to do with the five-pound bags of potatoes on sale for $.75 this week. This morning I made German Potato Salad with a fried egg.

I followed the recipe almost exactly except that I fried the bacon in a cast iron skillet.  I am convinced that the spouts on either side of my skillet are specifically made for saving bacon grease. Am I the only person in the world who still saves bacon grease? I used a tablespoon for the dressing and poured the rest in my jar. The shine left in the skillet was just enough to cook my eggs.

Aren’t they beautiful? My mom brought me three dozen eggs when she visited me two weeks ago and they still look this fresh. Eggs from her hens taste so much better than anything I can buy in a store. I’m really excited for the new Co-op in Dubuque to open so I can source more local fresh foods like this.

On November 17, 2012 I married the love of my life and met a new love: My pressure cooker! To spread the love I’m using my pressure cooker every day and sharing the recipes on my blog.

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Spencer and I are still catching up on leftovers so I took some time tonight to prep my breakfasts for next week.  I am imitating Trader Joe’s frozen steel cut oatmeal pucks.  They are single-serve packages of oatmeal that you microwave for just three minutes.  Even a pressure cooker can’t make steel cut oats that quickly.

Do not do what I did.  My standard oatmeal recipe is 1 C oats to 3 C water for 6 minutes with natural release.  I thought I would just double the recipe because I wanted five servings… right? Wrong! After using my pressure cooker at least 81 times, this is the closest it came to exploding.  Be sure to never fill your cooker more than 1/3 of the way full when making foam-producing foods like steel cut oats and pasta. I have learned my lesson.

So after my pressure cooker overflowed into a sticky oatmeal-y mess, I just simmered what was remaining until the oats were cooked.  It took nearly 15 minutes! I forget how awesome my pressure cooker is sometimes.

When the oatmeal was done I portioned it into 5 servings.  A giant muffin pan would be nice for this but my sturdy drinking glasses did just fine.

I added a dollop each of peanut butter and jam with a pinch of salt.  I was so surprised to find a jar of Triple Berry in my cupboard.  I had so much fun making that jam.  It’s delicious and now I’m sad all over again that it’s gone.

After all of the “pucks” have frozen I will put them in a freezer container. Then I will have the slow cooked goodness of steel cut oats in the convenience of a single serve packet.

On November 17, 2012 I married the love of my life and met a new love: My pressure cooker! To spread the love I’m using my pressure cooker every day and sharing the recipes on my blog.

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Spencer and I have not done a good job at eating up all of our pressure cooker recipes.  I have implemented a few strategies to counteract this.  First, Spencer has started to take leftovers for work instead of his usual ham sandwich. I started eating leftovers for breakfast at home. Then, instead of leaving leftovers in the refrigerator to rot, I have started freezing them.  But with a new recipe being prepared every day my freezer is filling up.

Last night I took a frozen quart of lentil chili from my freezer and plunked it in my my pressure cooker.  I scrubbed 4 potatoes, poked a few holes in them, and dropped them in the pressure cooker. I locked the lid in place, brought it to full pressure, and cooked it for 12 minutes before letting the pressure drop naturally.

Twelve minutes in the pressure cooker was enough time to melt and heat the lentil chili.  The melted chili provided enough liquid to “bake” the potatoes.

I love chili and baked potatoes! Remember back in the day when I made them in the microwave with canned chili and Velveeta cheese? This homemade version is sooooo much better.

On November 17, 2012 I married the love of my life and met a new love: My pressure cooker! To spread the love I’m using my pressure cooker every day and sharing the recipes on my blog.

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