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Things I Love: Instant Pot

February 3, 2016 by Energi Gal 8 Comments

Editor’s Note: It’s been a long time I’ve written a “Things I Like” article. You’ll have to wait a little longer, because this is a “Things I Love” article written by my wife. Any typos were likely introduced by my editing as I changed some sentence structure for clarity.

With two little kids, I don’t have room for many hobbies. I tried scrapbooking and gardening, but they were too much attention taken away from supervising the kids. I tried canning, but it was too much time in front of an open flame. I love concerts and Broadway shows, but they aren’t frugal and it’s hard to find the time (kids). Then I met Instant Pot… and I might have just found my hobby.

Instant Pot is a 7-in-1 electric pressure cooker, slow cooker, rice cooker, saute/browner, yogurt maker, steamer & warmer. Lazy Man bought it this Christmas on a Slickdeal and presented it as a “family gift.” I did not want another appliance collecting dust on the shelf (I see you ice cream maker), so I decided to give it a whirl… and a new day dawned.

Using Instant Pot

With Instant Pot, you can make a restaurant quality dinner in less than 20 minutes. As Special Agent Oso might say, “Three Special Steps… that’s all you need…”:

  1. Place the meat and oil/ butter in saute mode until brown.
  2. Add the spices and vegetables
  3. Put Instant Pot on pressure cook for 15 minutes

The food never comes out under-cooked or burnt. The meat is so tender you can cut with a butter knife. Thanks to Instant Pot’s automatic shut off, I am able to go give my 2 year old a bath and not have to worry about the food burning.

Lazy Man found this guy on YouTube using an Instant Pot competitor to make buffalo wings. It’s worth watching just for former WWE wrestler Gene Snitsky’s performance:

His pressure cooker looked like an Instant Pot, so I gave it another whirl.

Well, I was just as excited about buffalo wings as Gene was! They weren’t crisp, but they had infused spice and the meat fell off the bone. I could not stop slurping them down!

The dinners are full of flavor and low carb. I ended up drinking the broth of my Thai red curry like it was a 2008 Zinfandel!

Cleanup is awesome as well, no burnt bottom , cleans up with a little water, a drop of Dawn and a Scrub Daddy! Like 2 minutes!

If I had anything negative to say the sauce does come out too liquidy. I add some cornstarch to thicken it up. (Well the dinners were low-carb.)

Let the Culinary Safari Begin

My first meal was from the Instant Pot cook book, but I found that the internet was full of recipes. I soon learned that any meal that simmers can be “Instant-Potted.” In the last two weeks I have made, Thai, Italian, Indian, Chinese and Russian.

I look forward to Hungarian goulash and Mongolian beef. Thanks to my new hobby of being on a culinary safari with Instant Pot.

Everyday, I ask myself, “What am I going to make next?” I’m running our of countries.

Editor’s Final Thoughts

I thought I’d finish up with some final thoughts from my own perspective.

  • While some of this may sound like a paid advertisement for Instant Pot, it is not. Maybe some of the excitement from my wife is a novelty that will lessen over time. I’ve experienced this to some degree with SodaStream and Fitbit – both great products that are simply less exciting after years of use. In the interest of full disclosure though, I will get a small commission from Amazon if you buy an Instant Pot using one of the links above.
  • I haven’t learned how to use Instant Pot yet. I work from home which usually gives me enough time to plan something with the slow-cooker. It’s easier for me to make dinner at 10AM than it is to make it at 4PM or 5PM when the kids are home from day care.
  • For some reason, I thought it was called “Instapot”, but it seems that it is clearly “Instant Pot” and the vast majority of the public gets it right. I’m sticking to my guns, “Instapot” is a much better name.
  • The Special Agent Oso was my editing. With the kids, we have a fair amount of kids programming going on and Agent Oso’s “Three Special Steps” is a key pattern to accomplishing any task in the show.
  • I do the “family gift” thing a lot. Am I alone in this? It’s a way to recognize that something isn’t exactly fun or exciting for either of us, but it may improve our lives. I saw a deeply discounted Black Friday deal on something that had nearly 6000 glowing reviews from fans. I made a judgment call and the gamble paid off.
  • I’ve read that you can crisp the wings by broiling them a few minutes afterward. They are great without doing that, so I’m not sure it is worth the extra work, so I’ll leave it as a reader exercise.
  • I’ve been blogging for ten years and even my wife wrote “Lazyman” (one word, lowercase “m”) before I edited this. Are people getting this from the logo?
  • It looks like I’m making ice cream in February. Little does my wife know that I’ve been looking up avocado ice cream recipes since it clearly gives Tom Brady super powers. Aldi has avocados on sale this week. Game on.

Filed Under: Smart Purchases, Spending Tagged With: Instant Pot

Potluck Dinners – Tacky or Frugal?

January 26, 2007 by Energi Gal 8 Comments

Energi Gal here with another post for Lazy Man…

The holidays have come and gone. During the season the topic of potluck dinners came to discussion. If you host a potluck dinner, are you tacky or financially smart? Growing up, my mother always told me that potluck dinners were tacky. If you invite people over you are responsible for all the food, appetizers, wine, beer, soda, dinner, and dessert. My mom would spend up to $500.00 to have people over! I think that is a lot of work and an awful lot of money. When I was in high school, I wanted to have some friends over and asked everyone to bring something. My mother screamed at me to high heaven! I was in high school with minimal college savings due to my parents spending. Why can’t everyone contribute to a good time? Now that I am working and trying to save for a wedding and for a house in a high cost of living area, I think again, “Why can’t everyone contribute?” None of our friends are broke, and even if they were, they could afford a 99 cents bag of chips. I see so many positives about a potluck dinner: people bring what they like, people bring their special recipe, and LESS WORK for the hostess (Lazy Man likes less work).

What does everyone else think?

Filed Under: Frugal

The Evils of Emotional Spending

December 12, 2006 by Energi Gal 7 Comments

I am gracious that Lazy Man (and yes he is indeed lazy!) clued me into his blogging world and has allowed me to post about some experiences I have with saving for retirement. Basically, I have none. My parents did not teach my sister and I anything regarding saving (my mom actually cleaned my sister’s and mine bank accounts when we were kids to pay her lawyer) and we always strapped for cash. Looking back, I know why.

While I was in college, my grandmother pulled me aside and told me she gave my parents $1,000 when I was born to start a nest egg for me. They spent it – all they ever did was spend. All I remember is them fighting over money. They made many mistakes regarding making ends meet. I think the root of it all was this phenomenon I call “emotional spending” – buying something and not thinking of the consequences. They were using your emotions to buy everything. My parents did this all the time. My dad bought a boat and actually has had three that I know of so far. He has to hide it from my mom because part of their divorce agreement was he would sell it. My Mom just spends her money on unnecessary nicknacks and it adds up. She buys a slew of gifts for all these people, their kids, and their pets. She actually borrowed $6,000 from her retirement so 50 of her friends can attend my wedding. She is always trying to keep up with the Joneses. If these Joneses were real friends, they would not care. My mom is always buying gifts for her nieces. I tried to tell her to not give them anymore gifts unless it was Christmas, Easter, or their birthday. Would they die if they didn’t get a gift on a random Tuesday?

So to wrap up my first blog post, does anyone have anything to share about emotional spending?

Filed Under: Spending

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