Intantpot pressure cooker- kitchen gadget disease

Yep, another edition of kitchen gadget disease. I own 3 stovetop pressure cookers and love them. Decided over the holiday break to put together a pressure cooker cookbook and get my sister an Instantpot pressure cooker for her birthday. Of course, I had to pick one up for myself to try recipes to make sure they would work well given the conversion needed typically for electric cookers. Dang, I love this thing! In fact, now if I had to choose only 1 out of my beloved 4- this would be the winner. Yes, takes a little longer than my stovetop models and has less capacity than my biggest, but the set it and forget option totally compensates. My family has been well-fed now for 3 weeks running. Probably a record for me! If you have not checked out pressure cookers they are super awesome for our diets given you use minimal to no fat in the cooking process and it is fast. Geeked out so much I joined the Facebook group!

I picked one up when they were on sale at Thanksgiving and I agree, it's great.  I've been using it a lot during this crazy two-week term.  I also bought some great pressure cooker cookbooks, since I can always use an excuse to buy more cookbooks.  

I am seriously kicking myself in the a$$ for not taking advantage of the Black Friday pricing. Ended up paying full price on Amazon. Doesn't matter though- worth every penny and then some! I just picked up "The Big Pressure Cooker Cookbook" that has 500 recipes and gives times for both stovetop and electric- it is now my new favorite cookbook. Tough to do too, since Lorna Sass is a queen!

I have actually never used a pressure cooker in my entire life. What type of stuff do you cook in it? Meat?

I've been cooking a lot of things that you'd normally make in a slow cooker.  But I can start it an hour or two before dinner instead of in the morning.  

I've made some large roasts, a fish curry, stock, a risotto, chili.. maybe a few other things that I've forgotten.  

Lol, "an hour or two". If I can't eat it in under 30 minutes, and usually under 20 I have no interest!! Yogurt is the exception- that is worth the wait. 

I've made some pretty big things in there :)  Of course, then there was the fish curry which required me to set the thing for 1 minute.  Heh.  

OOOHHHHHHHH Sparkle! You really must consider trying this given your new mama status! You can cook damn near anything.

• Full 1 pot meals (think potroast with potatoe and veggies, meatloaft, etc.) Super easy clean-up!!!
• Desserts (cheesecake, breadpudding, lemon curd, etc.)
• Pasta anything
• fish, poultry, beef, pork- it is all terrific in it!
• greek yogurt (so much better and so much cheaper!)
• steelcut oatmeal, breakfast hashes, casseroles, etc.

I am a workaholic mom, which is what drove me to a pressure cooker. No exaggeration- I can walk in the door and in 15 minutes flat (this includes prepping the onions and such AND setting the table)  I can have a meal like beef stroganoff or "unstuffed" cabbage rolls on the table. Soups are my personal favorite- even those long simmering varieties like potatoe cheese or the goulash soup (see the current thread) are very fast.  The favorite of my girls is hands down macaroni and cheese. I used to make it only a couple of times a year because I DETEST stirring a pot for an hour straight. Pressure coooker- dump in a few ingredients, a few minutes later take the lid off, stir in the cheese and it turns out better then my original homemade version. The thing is genius, saves energy, and I could just go on and on! Cooking time is about 1/3 of conventional methods. 

If you consider it there are two types- stovetop versus electric. Stovetop advantages is speed- it will take less time to bring to pressure and less time at pressure. I would say for my typical type of meal it runs about 15 minutes faster. You can also get much larger sizes, which is great for large families. I used to have 5 teenagers to feed, so a 10 quart capacity was important. Electric though is far more convenient. You just program it and it will beep when it is done, and automatically switch to warm if you can't get to it. It has preset programs so rice, for example, comes out perfect with a push of a button. It also replaces a slow cooker and yogurt maker.  With a stovetop once it reaches pressure you have to go and adjust the heat level, tough at times to differentiate between high and low pressure, and you have to time it so you know when to get up and turn off the heat. That doesn't seem like a big deal, but being able to just load the electric and walk away is positively wonderful! Avoid any model with aluminum pans or non-stick coating. The stainless steel ones are a ton better. 

Ohhhhh man that sounds amazing!! And an electric one that will switch off if I'm feeding a baby would be absolutely magical. Off to Amazon I go!

If you go for Instantpot be careful to look at the different models. The bluetooth isn't worth it IMHO, and you want a 6 quart- the 4 and 5 quart models are too small to feed a growing family. The model that is 7 and 1 is worth the little extra, as it is the yogurt maker function that you are getting- and you will want to try that for sure!