Under Pressure...What am I going to make for dinner?

I'm not much of a meal planner. I tend to cook what I'm hungry for. Oh I do ask my family what they would like, but all I ever hear is, "I don't care, whatever you want." Ok... My friend Kim always had her meals planned in advance. We were neighbors when our kids were just toddlers and I spent a lot of time at her house since she ran a home daycare and I only worked a couple of days a week to stay home with my kids.
Kim would always have her meal plan up on her fridge, and she would stick to it faithfully every week. I admired her for that. I couldn't do that because "what if I wasn't hungry for such-and-such on such-and such a day?" But sometimes, even I don't know what I want, and whoops! Before you know it, the kids are home from school, and I have nothing. Nada. Zilch. Now what?
Well, thanks to my mom for her awesome gift giving, because Christmas 2011 she saved me with giving me a pressure cooker! It has truly been my lack of meal-planning lifesaver! I can make a stew, soup, roast, chicken, and ribs taste like I have been slaving all day! Pressure cooking seals in the moisture, so everything you make is fall-off-the-bone tender and tastes like you slow-cooked the goodness in all day long. It is, what I like to call...my Miracle Worker!
I highly recommend you get one if you don't have one. You can even throw in a frozen chicken, and in 45 minutes to one hour, you have the most tender, juicy chicken you can imagine.  The first recipe I tried in my pressure cooker, is a soup that I have made several times since. It is SO good, and tastes like you simmered it all day. This soup pressure cooks for...drumroll please......6 minutes! Yes, that's it! 6 minutes to the most flavorful soup you will ever have.

Chicken and Potato Gnocci Dumpling Soup

1/3 cup butter
1 lb of chicken tenders or breasts, cubed
1 small onion, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
2 stalks celery, diced small
16 oz  potato gnocci dumplings
4  cups Chicken broth ( I used 6 cups, to make more broth)

Here is a picture of my pressure cooker. This one is nice because it's digital, has a browning feature, and slow-cooking feature.

1. Heat butter in pressure cooker until melted.

2. Coat chicken cubes with flour, add chicken, onion, celery, and carrot to pressure cooker and saute' until lightly browned

Cover with remaining ingredients, lock pressure cooker.

Set pressure to high 15psi(pressure per square inch), and set timer for 6 minutes. When finished, let steam release gradually on it's own, or quick release it by turning the release valve. ( Be careful if doing this, as steam will shoot out from valve and could burn you if touched.)

When you remove the lid, be prepared for the best tasting soup ever...Seriously.It's.That.Good.

This recipe originally calls for adding heavy cream after pressure cooking to make it a creamy soup, but it is so good, you don't need it. But, it definitely could be added. Even if you don't have a pressure cooker, this is a great recipe. Try it! You'll like it...I promise! 

Another great recipe I like to make in this wonder machine is Braised Beef Short Ribs. In 30 minutes I have fall-off-the-bone tenderness in a packed-with-flavor braising sauce that goes perfect over a side of whipped potatoes! Oh the comfort of it all...in just a fraction of time!

Braised Beef Short Ribs

3-4 lbs Beef Short Ribs

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 large carrot, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

2 cups beef broth

1/2-3/4 cup red wine

1-2 Tbsp. tomato paste

1 tsp. thyme

salt, pepper to taste

1.  Season the ribs with salt and pepper and brown in small abount of olive oil.  Brown well.

After browning, remove from pan, add a little more oil, and add aromatics. (garlic,onion, carrot, celery, and thyme) and saute' for a couple of minutes.

While this is sauteing, combine liquid ingredients together.

Pour the yummy braising liquid over the onions, carrots, etc. and stir to release the bits of goodness at the bottom of the pan..

Let simmer for a few minutes.

Add short ribs to pressure cooker, and pour braising liquid and veggies over ribs. Lock down the lid of the cooker, and set on high pressure 15psi for 30 minutes. Once pressure cooking is finished, allow pressure to release slowly automatically, or release yourself, again being careful to not touch steam.
When you lift the lid, you won't even believe how tender the meat is, and the wonderful aroma of the braising sauce.
Whip up some mashed potatoes, and you have a meal that should have cooked all day long, finished in 30 mintutes!!

Of course you don't need a pressure cooker to make this recipe, you could just as easily put it in the oven, for about 3 hours at 325, but who wants to do that when you can get the same results in less than half the time?? :)

With this meal, I made a simple wedge salad, with tomatoes and goat cheese and a homemade vinaigrette. My mother-in-law gave me some flavored balsamic vinegar's for Christmas this year and I'm having fun using them in different recipes. This dressing was made using Cranberry-Pear balsamic.

Simple salad, with a little unexpected punch!

Cranberry-Pear Balsamic Vinaigrette:

1/2 cup Olive Oil

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar-I used Cranberry Pear

1 Tbsp dijon mustard

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Whisk or add to jar and shake to incorporate!

I hope I have inspired you this week to think about getting a pressure cooker! If you already have one I hope you will enjoy these flavorful recipes!

If you read my blog from last week, you will remember we have started a Gratitude jar in our house. We are writing something we are grateful for on a slip of paper, and putting it into the jar. When the jar is full, we will all sit down and read them. I have to say, it has been a hit at our house! The jar is getting filled up, and it looks like everyone has much to be grateful for..

  I will leave you with something that just makes me happy....my birds! My husband, Erik, bought me 2 new feeders for Christmas, and I love them, because they are so close to our window and no squirrel can get to them! It is simple joys in life like just watching the birds that can make my day a little brighter...

Here's to time-saving pressure cooking, great recipes, gratitude, and the simple joys...Hope you all have a great week and thanks again for reading and supporting me and my efforts...such as they are! lol! :)

~Kerry :)

New Year's Resolutions...Here We Go Again!

I try not to make any New Year's resolutions, as it seems to just put more stress on me, and I end up failing because my expectations of myself are too high. But this year, I decided to TRY and I stress the word TRY to set some reasonable goals:

1. To work out more.. Just do it! And I have an advantage that I work the night shift and can do this AT WORK! How many people can say that about their job?

2. Eat less sugar. Sugar is my downfall...Since I quit smoking 13 years ago, I always say I just quit smoking and started eating, but sweets seem to be my frenemy..

3. Cut down on my Diet Pepsi habit...this might take awhile, but I will TRY.

4. Get some good sleep...Since I now work nights, I don't get as much sleep as I should. I have to remember that I need 8 hours! I tend to want to stay up and do things when I should be sleeping..

5. Give up some of the housework to the kids... While my kids always have done some chores, I tend to do everything myself to just get it done, and spare the drama.  Now, if they want to use their ipad, watch tv, or go snowmobiling they have to do a chore first. They have been good about things so far, but how many days into the new year are we? Haha!

Those are just a small list of things I would like to accomplish this year. I have many more, but have to start with a few as I will get too overwhelmed..

One thing I  always try to keep up is organization. Keeping my house organized and clutter-free seems to keep my mind clutter-free also. I noticed my system for medicines in our house was not working. I had them in 3 canvas bins since I don't have a medicine chest. (Does anyone have one anymore?) When the kids would need a Band-Aid, or Tylenol, or anything, they would have to go searching through the bins. I thought I had things pretty much together as far as all the cough syrups together, first aid things near each other, etc. but I guess the kids didn't get that memo! I also noticed that everything in the linen closet pretty much looked like a bomb went off, so it was time to take some organizing action. Here is a "before" pic of the linen closet:

Upper level linen closet ~ what a mess!

Talk about a total mess! And I like to think I'm organized!!! Well, I did it though. Figured out a plan that would work so the kids wouldn't mess up the medicines, and hopefully not touch anything on any of the other shelves since they have their own linen closet near their own bathroom! Here is the result of the re-organized closet and medicine "chest."

Ahhhh....organized!

What I did was two things I saw on Pinterest, one of my favorite sites for hints and tips on organizing, recipes, decorating, wish lists, just about anything! The first was the medicine "chest" shelves. Each drawer is labeled with what it's contents are for, such as, First aid: Band-Aids, triple antibiotic cream, etc. Then one for stomach ailments I labeled "digestive" which the kids got a good laugh at. Aches/pains with Tylenol, Ibuprofen and such and so on.

Each drawer is labeled!

As I went through all the medicine bins, I noticed I had multiple things that I must have bought thinking I didn't have them because I couldn't "see them," so this will be a welcome change. One thing I found I had a lot of was Q-tips, and Cotton pads, so I put them in some really cool(Vintage item of the week alert!) vintage mason jars that my sister gave me for Christmas. I think they are perfect for holding these items!

Vintage mason jars hold Q-tips and other toiletry items

My other project, was the sheets, and duvets. Another tip I found on Pinterest was to fold up your sheets, put one of the pillow cases on top, and then put them into the other pillowcase. Then it's all one package, and very organized. I took it a little step further by adding a dryer sheet in each package to retain the fresh smell.

Sheets and duvets folded and put into pillow sheet or sham

I then organized the blankets and other things on each shelf. In the bins that I had the medicines in, I put miscellaneous items such as pet care items, hair and nail care, and so on and labeled each bin accordingly. It took a little time to go through everything, and label it all, but it is so worth it, and one thing I had been meaning to do checked off my list!
Another room that HAD to get re-organized was my pantry. Some of my readers will remember it from a picture I posted on Facebook this Fall, but since then, my family seems to think this room is the "junk" room where they can just put something they don't want to actually put away. It had to be addressed. So another organizing mission took place. This pantry is wonderful, and I recommend if you don't have one, make one. This room actually used to be our office, but I needed a pantry, so my husband Erik obliged..thankfully! It holds all of my canned goods that I canned over the Summer and Fall, any overstock items I may have, the kids snacks, and all of my kitchen appliances that I don't use on a daily basis. It is so worth not having to look for this or that. I know just where everything is..

re-organized pantry

shelves are perfect for kitchen appliances

I try to keep the kids snacks well-stocked

Off subject, but anyone else receive the "Soda Stream" for Christmas? My mom bought this for the kids and they love to make their own soda pop!

I had some peppers my in-laws gave to me before they headed to Florida for the winter that they knew they wouldn't use, so I decided to make stuffed peppers with them. This is usually something I make in the Fall, when my peppers are ready to harvest from our garden, but there were 6 beautiful colored peppers, so stuffed peppers it was. Here is my great recipe for them:

Stuffed Peppers
6 large green, or colored peppers
1 1/2 lbs lean ground beef ( I used venison, since we have it this year!)
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup celery
1/2 cup green pepper ( which seems redundant, but with the colored peppers, the green was really pretty.)
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups cooked rice

Creole Sauce (to spoon over the peppers)
1 large can whole, stewed, or diced tomatoes
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 tsp. basil
1/2 tsp salt, pepper
1 Tbsp sugar

You will also need:
1 Tbsp flour
1/4 cup water   (to make a slurry)

Cut the tops from the peppers, remove membranes and seeds. Chop onions, celery, and green pepper.

Cover peppers with boiling water in deep pot. Cook 10 minutes. Drain. Brown ground beef, onion, celery and green peppers in skillet. Add salt and pepper and rice.

Spoon mixture into peppers.

Place in baking dish. Combine ingredients for the Creole sauce into skillet, or saucepan and simmer for 10 minutes. Combine flour and water slurry and cook until mixture thickens.
Pour sauce over peppers. Cover and bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Uncover, and bake 15 minutes longer.
Enjoy!
My mom gave us some croissants from Europe for Christmas, and I made some to go with this meal. Oh  WOW they were divine! The butter from Europe is said to be the best around, and you could taste how wonderful it is in these croissants!

Another thing I was thinking about over Christmas is just how grateful are our children? I don't know how grateful for things kids can be these days when everything is handed to them, and believe me Erik and I are NO exception when it comes to giving our kids everything. But I want them to be grateful. I remember my mom telling me how grateful she was when she would receive an ORANGE in her Christmas stocking. An orange. WOW. We could never get away with giving something so simple to our kids in this world. It's keep up with this and keep up with that. Our kids so far have been very good kids, so we do reward them because of it. BUT I do want them to try to be grateful, so I started a Gratitude Jar. Each day, all of us will write on a piece of paper something they are grateful for and put it into the jar. Every month, or when it fills up, we will read each piece of paper. While it may not the answer to making our kids grateful, I hope it will make them think. At first, they laughed when I told them about it, but I told them it was a requirement. When I say something is a requirement, they know I mean business. I have even had "requirements" for certain movies, such as "The Rosa Parks Story" or when "Planet Earth" was on the Discovery channel every Sunday for about 6 weeks, it was one of my requirements. Things like this to make sure my kids know certain things about history, human empathy, or our world. Here are the kids writing something for our Gratitude Jar. I even got Ethan's friend Jake involved!

Hannah writes what she is grateful for today

Ethan putting his "grateful for" note in the jar

Ethan's friend Jake gets in the grateful spirit also!

Well, another week behind us. Another week to be grateful. I know I will be once the Packers beat the Vikings!!   :)  I hope you are inspired to get Energized, Organized, and be Grateful! Let's do this together!

With a grateful heart,
~Kerry

Happy New Year!!! ~ 2013!

Happy New Year! It's 2013! ~ Where did the last year take you? How are things different in your world now, than they were a year ago? Well, for me, as you know I have a new job! Other than that, still love being a mom, wife, chicken farmer, gardener, canner, and every thing else. Oh, except laundress. I don't like that job! lol!

With the weather being colder, it seems like all I make is soup, but I love soup! I made a great Venison-Vegetable soup the other night after everyone came in from snowmobiling...I just threw it together, So I hope you enjoy!

I started with 1 lb of venison and browned it.

Then added onion, carrots (still from my garden, folks!) and celery and added it to the pot with the venison.

I then added a jar of Stewed Tomatoes that I canned this fall. You could add a couple of cans of diced or stewed tomatoes, whichever you would like!

Next I added some beef broth, about 2 cups. and 2 cups of water. Make sure your beef broth is condensed. For extra flavor, I cheated and added some beefy-onion soup mix, as I wanted it to be extra "beefy" if you know what I mean!! haha.
Add a  little Worcestershire sauce, (a few drops will do) and really anything else you like in your soup! I added peas I had frozen from my garden, corn I had frozen, and some thyme and parsely! (Don't forget the salt and pepper!)

 

 

 

I baked a loaf of bread in my bread machine to go with it, and voila! Supper! How easy is that?

 

 

Venison-Vegetable soup with homemade bread