Honey and Maple Syrup Pork Chops with Sweet Potatoes in the Instant Pot

This was seriously one of the easiest and tastiest pork chops I have ever made and eaten! I did some research when trying to figure out the right cooking time. For 1 lb of boneless pork chops, I cooked them on high pressure for only 3 minutes and did natural release for 15 minutes. You might wonder if there's enough liquid in this recipe for it to work. I can assure you, there is plenty. In fact, once it was done and I removed the lid, there was excess liquid. These pork chops were moist and delicious! My family loved these sweet pork chops!

Honey and Maple Syrup Pork Chops with Sweet Potatoes in the Instant Pot

1-2 lbs boneless pork chops. Salt and pepper both sides of pork chops. Sauté pork chops in some olive oil.

Then add the following on top of the chops.

1/4 to 1/2 cup honey
2-3 Tbs maple syrup
1/4 cup raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar
2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger
 

I topped the chops with two peeled sweet potatoes with a drizzle of olive oil (or spray them with olive oil spray) and salt on top.

Cook on high pressure for 3 minutes and slow release for 15 minutes. It's very important you let it slow release and don't over cook them. These came out perfectly! I added sliced apples as another side and the whole meal turned out fantastic! 

Salisbury Steak in the Instant Pot

This recipe is so easy and very delicious! Enjoy!

Salisbury Steak in the Instant Pot 

Ingredients

4-6 hamburger patties (I used organic grass-fed patties)
1 onion, sliced
12 ounces of sliced mushrooms
1.5 cups beef broth
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 Tbs butter
olive oil
steak seasoning
2 Tbs flour
1 Tbs minced garlic, optional

Directions

- Brown the onions and mushrooms in olive oil in the Instant Pot for a few minutes, add garlic, salt, and pepper to taste, and continue browning until the mushrooms have shrunk in size and the onions are caramelized. Remove from IP.

- Season both sizes of the hamburger patties with steak seasoning. Brown the hamburger patties in batches. 

- Add the hamburger patties back to the Instant Pot, cover with the onions and mushrooms, add the beef broth.

- Cook at high pressure for 10 minutes.

- You can do slow or quick release, doesn't matter too much. Remove the steaks, onions, and mushrooms. Turn the IP to sautee.  Add 2 Tbs of flour, a little at a time while you whisk it. Add 1 Tbs butter and continue whisking until the sauce thickens. Add salt and pepper to taste in your gravy. 

- Pour sauce over steaks and enjoy!

Instant Pot Beef Bourguignon Recipe

Instant Pot Beef Bourguignon

I made a delicious Beef Bourguignon in my Instant Pot! It was hard to find an easy to follow recipe online. So I wanted to share how I made it in my Instant Pot. The Instant Pot is great! I highly recommend getting one. If you don't have one you can make this Beef Bourguignon in a pressure cooker on your stove.

 
Instant Pot Beef Bourguignon
serves 4

Ingredients:

1 lb beef stew, organic if you can get it
1/2 pound bacon cut up in 1 inch pieces
5-6 carrots cut in large chunks
12 pearl onions
1/2 cup beef broth
1 cup red wine
2-4 red potatoes, halved or quartered depending on size
1 package of mushrooms
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt
1 tsp fresh or dried thyme
2 cloves of garlic minced

Directions:

Saute bacon in the Instant Pot until cooked through. Remove from pan and add stew meat. Brown stew meat in the bacon grease. Add onions to the pan to brown for a few minutes. Then add everything else to the pan. Close led and cook on high pressure for 40 minutes. Do a quick release. Remove everything but the juices from the pan. Cover with foil and make a rue. Turn the pot off and then on saute. Add 1-2 Tbs of butter to the liquid. In a small bowl add about 1/4 cup of the liquid from the pan, add 1 Tbs of flour and mix well with a fork until well combined. Then add to the pan. Stir and boil until the liquid thickens. Pour rue over your dish and enjoy! If you don't have time to make a rue, it's still really good with just the pan juices on it!

Everything but the potatoes and spices

Bacon, yum! I put the whole package in to cook at once and saved some for breakfast.

Stew meat

Everything is in the pot ready to go!

 

All done!

Put in a dish and cover with foil while you make the rue

Instant Pot Creme Brulee Recipe

For my 12th anniversary my awesome husband bought me an Instant Pot IP Duo! My new kitchen helper is a 7-in-1 multi-functional cooker. It does a lot of amazing things! As I experiment cooking with my new friend, I'll share them with you from time to time. 

I made my first dessert in the Instant Pot. I actually made three things yesterday, 8 grain cereal, creme brulee, and a delicious roast. My Instant Pot Creme Brulee using the Pressure Cooker turned out great. It was super easy and only took about 25 minutes total. 5 minutes to prepare, 10 minutes in the pressure cooker, about 10 minutes while the valve slowly released the pressure. You'll need to let it cool down and put in the refrigerator for at least two hours before eating. 

Instant Pot Creme Brulee Recipe

Ingredients:

4 egg yokes

1 pint of heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup of sugar

1 tsp vanilla 

4 ramekins 

Directions:

Mix the egg yokes, heavy whipping cream, sugar, and vanilla together in a medium bowl. Pour the mixture evenly among the four ramekins. Put foil on the top of each ramekin.  Put the little rack that came with your IP at the bottom of the bowl. Pour 2 cups of water in the instant pot. Place the ramekins in the instant pot, you can stack them if needed. Close the led and the make sure the valve is closed. Set the pressure on high for 10 minutes. Let it slow release for 10-15 minutes. Carefully remove the ramekins. Confirm the the creme brulee is set. Set out for about 15 minutes to cool some. Then put in the fridge for 2+ hours. Sprinkle with sugar and torch the sugar if you like. 

Before they were cooked

Ready for the fridge!

Crunchy Body Swap!

Everything from the Body Swap!

What happens when you get 25 crunchy moms together for a swap? You get some pretty awesome stuff! I like participating in swaps and have attended several over the past few years: toddler busy bag swap 1, toddler busy bag swap 2, 4 and 5 year old busy bag swap,  a toy exchange, and even a science bag swap, although I never got around to blogging about it. I have not, however, participated in a body swap before. The rules were only 25 women could participate. If you get more than that, it ends up costing everyone a lot more time and money. Sadly, someone wasn't able to make it the last minute. So we each ended up with 24 things, which is still great! The way it worked was that everyone posted in the group what they were going to make and made 25 of them. Then we all got together and swapped items and went home with some pretty cool natural body stuff! We met at a park so we could all bring our kids and they could play while we swapped natural products with one another. I'll post links to what is some of the products. 

Here's what I got and made!

Natural Hair Detangler/leave in conditioner - this is what I made

Hot/Cold Rice Pad

Organic Caffeine Eye Serum

Shower Discs

Black Head Remover Scrub

Organic Massage Oil

Grapefruit Bath Salts

Detox Bath Salts

Lavender Bath Fizz

Bug Spray

Bug Bite Salve

Whipped Organic Beeswax Lotion

Headband

Wild Orange Deodorant Spray

Himalayan Sea Salt Body Spray

Coffee Scrub

Honey Facial Mask

Orange/Brown Sugar Honey Scrub

Make Up Remover

All Purpose Salve

Dry Shampoo

Citrus Chocolate Bentonite Mask

Milk and Clay Mask Mix

Invigorating Citrus Shower Discs Recipe

Invigorating Citrus Shower Discs - These smell lovely!

Ingredients:

- 1 cup baking soda  
- 1 heaping tbsp corn starch 
- 1/3 cup water
- Essential oils of your choice
- Foil lined muffin liners

Directions:


Mix baking soda and corn starch. Slowing add and stir in water. Pour into foil lined muffin liners. (They will stick to the paper ones). Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or let sit and dry on counters for at least 18 hrs. 

Remove from muffin liners. After they are completely cooled and dry add 8-10 drops essential oils per shower disc. Enjoy!

How to use: Set on shower floor and as it melts, enjoy the aroma. Each disc lasts 1-2 showers.

Ingredients: baking soda, corn starch, water, bergamot EO, Orange EO, and Citrus Bliss EO Blend.

I got this as part of the Crunchy Body Swap!

Natural Hair Detangler

For the Crunchy Body Swap, I made Natural Hair Detangler. My costs added up when I realized I didn't order enough spray bottles online and had to hunt for half of them locally at 2-3 times the cost! Besides that, the actual product I made turned out great. It uses three simple ingredients, although I modified a few of them for people who were sensitive to lavender. I got the original recipe here. 

Natural Hair Detangler 

1.5 teaspoons Organic Apple Cider Vinegar
5 drops of lavender essential oil (or lemon essential oil)

distilled water

2 oz spray bottles (although half of mine were 3 oz, so I added a little extra essential oil and ACV)

Directions:

Add the apple cider vinegar and essential oil to the spray bottle. Let set for about 10 minutes, then add distilled water. Shake before use. Use on tangled hair! Lavender essential oil is safe for all ages, lemon is safe for children 2 and up.

Green Chef Delievery Review

I finally decided to try and home delivery meal service. The first one I am trying is Green Chef. The food is 100% organic, delivered right to your door, and mostly already prepped for you. All you have to do is follow the simple recipes and dinner is ready! Overall, we really enjoyed this past week's box of dinners. I love that it's all fresh and the simplicity of it all. Even though it still takes about 30-40 minutes to prepare. It would take longer if everything wasn't already ready and prepared for you. They truly are gourmet meals. We are doing the two servings and add extra sides or meat for the kids. The main con of this is the price. We got a promotional price of $9 for three organic dinners this week. After this week it will cost $82 per week for three meals. It's not the most economical but about the same or a little cheaper than going out to eat. Also it's all organic so I know we're not getting all of the GMOs and pesticides in the food.

I think we'll try this for a month or so and see if we continue to like it. I love not having to think about three dinners each week.

Here's what we made this past weekend.

Thursday: Summer Vegetables Soup with Lemon-Basil Pistou

Friday: Chicken Sausage and Mushroom Skewers, Roasted Carrots and Potatoes (rather than peppers), and Baked Beans

Saturday: Spice-Crusted Steak and Tabbouleh

Here's what the box looked and how it was packaged. It comes with freezer packs so you don't have to be home when it's delivered. 

Thursday: Summer Vegetables Soup with Lemon-Basil Pistou

Friday: Chicken Sausage and Mushroom Skewers, Roasted Carrots and Potatoes (rather than peppers), and Baked Beans

Caden loved helping make the skewers!

Here's how it came

I added organic carrots and potatoes (forgot to take a picture of the potatoes and added extra sausage)

Saturday: Spice-Crusted Steak and Tabbouleh 

This was our favorite!