Pressure cooking supports my fitness goals

amy19355

Hi there!

I’m using the popular electric pressure cooker for fast and simple large batches of staple foods that are frozen and used to pack daily lunch bags for the office. I make foods that I like to eat.

Foods that are quick to eat satisfy my particular lifestyle. I had to get off the prepared-by-others-for-a-price train, for both budgetary and dietary reasons!!

Budget wise, I had made the switch to batch meal prep and cut food costs by 1/3 or more. Diet wise, well here too I find it is a key component in support of my nutrition goals.

MFP nutrition tracking is really useful to seeing patterns (better, worse) that drive my culinary creativity without slipping off the balanced eating track.

In my freezer, using reusable mason jars, I freeze up measured portions of meat with beans, or with rice and some sauce, and with today’s technology, 10 pounds of raw meat parts are turned around from package to freezer in about 2 hours.

Beans are a staple in my diet, and the pressure cooker is fast (25 min) with beans that have soaked overnight. No stirring needed while cooking. They freeze well.

Sweet potatoes are ready to eat in 15 mins, skins just fall off the pieces.

Steel cut oats with dried apricots for infused (and measurable) sweetness: 20 minutes, I make a big bowlful and nuke a cupful at a time over a few days.

Eggs - don’t laugh. A dozen eggs perfectly hard boiled, ez peel, in 7-8 minutes. A fave grab and go bite for me.

On my list - making yogurt from milk from grass fed cows; the pressure cooker has other capabilities (a 7-in-1 device).

Nearly every day, I visit my grocery store and walk all the aisles. (750 steps). I’ll pick up some fresh fruit and veggies for just a day or two and to supplement the frozen prepared meals already in my daily lunch bag. I usually pack 1000-1200 calories so I can eat an early dinner at the office instead of later when I’m home.

If anyone is hesitating about whether or not a pressure cooker is right for them, I hope this helps illustrate some of its abilities. I have recently added a 6qt size to accompany the 3qt model I started with last year!

Good fitness to us all!
Amy

MelanieCN77

There are a bunch of threads about the Instant Pot and one specifically about yoghurt active in the last few days.

kshama2001

Glad it's working for you. I'm not sold

Please don't take the following as a dig on you. I'm happy it's working for you. This is why the idea doesn't appeal to me:

• Easy-peel hard boiled eggs only take a few minutes more using the hot start method: https://www.seriouseats.com/2014/05/the-secrets-to-peeling-hard-boiled-eggs.html
• I cook beans overnight in my slow cooker. No soaking required.
• Sweet potatoes only take 10 minutes more. I'm not standing around watching the pot during those 10 minutes; I'm doing other things.

I had a conversation about InstaPot with a coworker. She doesn't want to spend the extra time cooking hard boiled eggs. I don't get it. I start the eggs, and do something else, like make my veggie smoothie. By the time that's done and cleaned up, the eggs are done too.

I guess if I had a tiny kitchen and needed to limit equipment, I'd consider it. While I do love to experiment with new recipes, I wouldn't want to have to relearn how to make all my staples though. I perfected stovetop rice years ago and am sticking with it. (I don't see the need for rice cookers either.)

https://www.cookscountry.com/equipment_reviews/1854-multicookers-electric-pressure-cookers

...When we tested the Instant Pot and other multicookers last year, we weren’t impressed. While they promise to replace a slew of appliances—a pressure cooker, a slow cooker, a rice cooker, and more—we found that they don’t stack up against said equipment and require lots of recipe rejiggering to get food that isn’t egregiously under- or overcooked. But the appeal is undeniable: One appliance to buy, store, and understand versus multiple. So we went back into the test kitchen and spent a year studying multicookers and developing recipes dialed in to their specific functionality for our forthcoming cookbook, Multicooker Perfection (April 2018).

...After weeks of testing with recipes developed specifically for multicookers, we found that we liked these machines much more than before. They aren’t as good as the individual products they promise to replace; a stovetop pressure cooker will cook faster (though these electric models are more hands-off, so this point is debatable), a skillet is still quicker and easier to work in, a slow cooker will cook your food more gently and evenly, and a rice cooker or stovetop rice-cooking method will give you more discrete grains. But if you want just one machine to do all of the above, a multicooker is a good option—if you buy the right one.

The best model we tested was the Fagor LUX LCD Multicooker ($199.95), an upgraded version of our old winner, the Fagor LUX Multicooker ($169.95).

MelanieCN77

I love my IP but it's not necessary or practical to break it out for everything. It's super valuable for me in the sense that I can decide pretty late in the day I want stew or something and make it happen and produce a slow cooked tasting dish. Also I can make chili on the stovetop but it's completely hands off in the IP. Stuff like that.

aokoye

kshama2001 wrote: »

Glad it's working for you. I'm not sold

I have an Instant Pot but I am no way an evangelist. I also only use the pressure cooker function and I see no point in making rice for it when I could use my perfectly capable rice cooker (which probably does a better job honestly). Basically I only bought it because it's an electric pressure cooker. I don't eat yogurt so that's not enticing, I don't eat hard boiled eggs, I find the idea of cooking something in a pressure cooker that I could cook on the stove or in the oven just as quickly mind boggling, etc. I do mainly cook beans in which has been useful for me, though unexpected.

I do use it more than I use some appliances, but of the appliances I have, this is the one that I'd most quickly do away with if I had to (well ok, the toaster is actually at the top of that list but that's a fraction of the cost). The only reason my slow cooker isn't tied is because I feel comfortable leaving the house with it on low.

The "omg the IP is the best thing ever" does bug me to a small degree but most of the time I either ignore it or see if people end up posting recipes that sound good.

Francl27

I like the IP because it's convenient for things like stew, rice (I don't have a rice cooker), veggies, and yes, I make hardboiled eggs in it (I just set it on 2 minutes and walk away for 15-20 minutes). I love making mashed potatoes in it (no need to drain), and it's nice for meatballs too. Pulled pork was great from frozen as well in less than 3 hours. Also awesome for risotto.

I absolutely don't understand why people make EVERYTHING in it. Everyone raves about ribs in it and even after being grilled or broiled, it's still nowhere near as good as the local bbq joint. And why in the world would I make lasagna in it when I can just pop it in the oven without having to make a sling or whatnot to get it out... And baked potatoes in the IP? Not even close to baked potatoes. I rarely do meat unless it's pulled pork or stew. Mine doesn't have the yogurt option.

For what it's worth, I never cared for the crockpot either. But the IP would be nice if you're camping (and have outlets, obviously) or don't have access to an oven.

About beans... still not sure about that one. No need to pre-soak, but I thought that the point of pre-soaking was to get rid of the stuff that makes you fart...