Well, this week was one for the books, thank goodness for my Instant Pot! Our first Shelter-in-Place order. Our first week of remote learning/home schooling for the fourth grader and a terrible attempt to keep my energetic 4-year old busy and not in front of the TV 75% of the day. All while carrying a full-time workload and couple of solo days while my amazing husband was serving the community he works for. Thanks COVID-19, but, bite me.
On the bright side, I got the chance to whip-up some great meals this week and naturally I relied on my Instant Pot! I love this thing. I used it three times for three TOTALLY different things. Ribs – Soup – Bread.
The Best Ribs!
All it took was one time. One 35 minute experience for me to know that I will never again spend 2 hours baking ribs low and slow in the oven. At this point, I’d only be willing to invest that kind of time if we had a smoker, but until that day, this is my go-to.
I’m tellin’ ya, in 35ish minutes you have legit, fall-off-the-bone baby back’s that everyone will love! Nat made her fist batch of homemade cornbread too and the rest was history!
Directions:
- De-membrane 1-2 racks of pork baby back ribs (depending on your IP size and number of ppl you’re feeding). One rack works for our family, but only leaves a few leftover ribs. If you have never de-membraned your ribs, it’s a must! It’s a little tricky to get the hang of the first couple of times, but you’ll be SO glad you took a couple of extra minutes to prep your rack.
- Season the ribs with your favorite BBQ spice blend, or simply go for salt and pepper. (I rotate between these two: Red Rocks Hickory Smoke and Georgia Boys BBQ Rub).
- Depending on the size of your IP, either cut the rack in half or leave whole. I’ve done it both ways and neither way can fail.
- Add 1/2 cup of water to the IP pot.
- Place ribs in the pot. No trivet is needed.
- Seal the lid and set your IP to high pressure for 22 minutes.
- In the last few minutes of pressure cooking, pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees.
- You can do either quick or natural release once the ribs are done cooking. I usually go for quick release because they smell amazing and nobody wants to wait.
- Place the ribs on a baking sheet, season them again with your spice blend or slather on some sauce. Whichever way your family prefers.
- Bake for 5 minutes more and enjoy!
Loaded Potato Instant Pot Soup
My sister tried this recipe a couple weeks ago and since I ended up with what was, I’m pretty sure, a 50# bag of potatoes from Sam’s Club, I decided to give it a go for a quick lunch mid-week. And when I say quick, I mean, I decided 40 minutes before Brian had to leave for work to whip this up.
I definitely cut it close, but he stuck around a few extra minutes to fill up his Yeti thermos and hit the road! It makes a ton, and I would suggest this full recipe in the 8 quart Instant Pot, but you may want to go 2-3 less potatoes if you’re making it in the 6 quart.
We used this recipe from Belle of the Kitchen. She also has a video you can check out in the article for the quick and easy steps to pull this together. Hope you love it!
No-Knead Everything Bread
Until this week, I’ve only made homemade bread in my Instant Pot one time. It was awesome in every way. From being able to make it in a matter of hours vs. overnight like usual. To having the same taste and texture as artisan breads I’ve made in the past. The first time I made a delish rosemary-olive oil loaf, that my family devoured it in less than 24 hours.
This time around, I wanted to test out my tried-and-true no-knead artisan bread in the Instant Pot to see if I had beginners luck, or if making bread it in the IP is as wonderful as I hoped.
I have a dedicated post to this IP Everything Bread, it’s that fantastic! All I can say is, you’ll actually use your yogurt setting. 😉
Well, I’m happy to report, I have found yet another, amazing time saving recipe! This go around, it was topped with Everything seasoning!
All-in-all my friends, an amazing week with tasty time saving meals! I’d love to know your favorite Instant Pot recipes!
xo, Tiff