Week-Long Instant Pot Experiment
I Ate Out of My Instant Pot For 7 Days Straight — Here's What Happened
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As a person who loves to cook but doesn't have unlimited money to spend on ingredients or hours to dedicate to creating a three-course meal every night, my Instant Pot is my go-to kitchen appliance. It's perfect for people who don't typically meal plan for the entire week because you can cook a hearty meal — like beef stew, for example — in a hour, compared to eight in a traditional Crock-Pot.
In an effort to get a little more organised and stick to a budget in 2019, I decided to fully test my Instant Pot loyalty by only eating meals I made in it for an entire week. While there were definitely some bright spots in my little experiment, like everything tasting amazing, I also met a few challenges along the way. Read through to see what I've learned by going full-on Instant Pot for a week.
Sunday: Cooking Day
Not only is the Instant Pot a one-stop shop for cooking, but there are zillions of easy recipes — or hard, if you're into that — out there begging to be tried out, whether you want to keep it healthy or are just trying to keep your kiddos fed. Here's how I tackled my meal prep day:
Selected Dishes Ahead of Time
I selected a few dishes I knew I could actually make that I wouldn't get sick of, and headed to my supermarket to pick up all my ingredients on a Sunday afternoon. I settled on whipping on a turkey sausage chili, chicken soup, and a spicy chicken curry. I also grabbed a few sweet potatoes in case I needed to make a healthy snack at the last minute because they're beyond easy to make in an Instant Pot. My fiancé also wanted to try out an enchilada casserole, which I reluctantly agreed to despite having to fit in my wedding dress in a few months.
Cooked Multiple Meals in One Day
Once we got home, I put my favourite classical music station on my Google Home and got to work. My goal? To cook as many meals as possible that night so I would have a few lunch and dinner options to hold me over for the week. I started with my turkey sausage chili because I've made it a few dozen times over the years. Might as well start with what you know, right?
After I cut my veggies up, browned the meat, and dumped the last of the chicken broth and beans into my pot, I screwed the lid on tight and let my pressure cooker do its job for a half hour. While that was cooking, I immediately got started on the mise en place for my chicken curry. Pro tip: buying your meat precubed saves you a lot of time as far as meal prep is concerned. When you're doing big batch cooking, even 10 minutes of not having to chop can make a big difference!
2 Hours In: My First Hiccup
After I transferred my chili into a giant Tupperware and started sauteing the onions and garlic for my curry, it hit me: I had no idea what I was going to do for breakfast.
I attempted to make hard-boiled eggs in my Instant Pot and cook down some of the sweet potatoes just in case. While softening up the sweet potatoes was pretty easy, I have to admit, I totally regretted trying to make the eggs in my pressure cooker. Is it possible to make perfectly cooked hard-boiled eggs in an Instant Pot? Absolutely. But is it worth the additional time? In my humble opinion, no. Just stick to your run-of-the-mill sauce pan.
Monday and Tuesday: Eating Days
The best part of my experiment was how put-together I felt going into the week. For the first time in a while, I didn't have to scramble to make food to take to work in the morning. I could just grab one of the preportioned containers from my fridge and head to the train. Easy peasy.
As for the taste? Honestly, both the chili and the curry were pretty damn good. For my sanity's sake, I opted to bring the chili to work on Monday and eat the curry for dinner that evening. I reversed my order the following day.
And for as much of a pain in the ass making eggs in an Instant Pot was, when I went to peel off the shell, they were cooked well. I had two eggs for breakfast with some fruit on Monday and two pieces of sweet potato with mashed avocado on Tuesday, and yep, those little meals held me over till lunch time.
Wednesday: Spontaneous Cooking Day
As fate would have it, the sinus infection and cold combination that I had been battling for a week came back in full force when I woke up on Wednesday morning. Although I was feeling a little lethargic after work, I knew making some chicken soup would be completely worth it. Despite the fact I still had leftovers, I cut up the package of soup veggies I got at the supermarket and threw them into my Instant Pot with some chicken and spices and waited a half hour for my soup to come to life. Although I wasn't planning on cooking again this early in the week, my body thanked me for all of that healing chicken goodness.
Thursday and Friday: Eating Days
Now that I had a third meal in my rotation, the next two days were a breeze. I also came to terms with the fact that there's no better feeling in the world than sitting at your desk and realising you don't have to cook an entire dinner from scratch that evening.
Although I wasn't sick of any of the big batch meals I cooked up, I had another issue: my Instant Pot was in desperate need of a cleaning. Obviously, I had scrubbed the metal insert where the food actually cooks between uses, but the outside of the machine itself was looking a little dingy. On Friday night, I washed down the machine with soap and water and used a Q-tip to get some of the gunk out of the lid's lip. Yuck. If I could do it again, I was definitely invest in some Instant Pot liners ($3 for 6) to make cleaning my appliance a whole lot easier.
Saturday and Sunday: Cooking Day and an Eating Day
By the time the weekend rolled around, I was officially sick of chicken curry. While the recipe I used was amazing, I needed a little variety. Even though I told my fiancé I wasn't crazy about making the enchilada casserole off the bat, I definitely needed a change.
On Saturday night we cooked together, and dividing the work between two people made things go a lot faster. As much as I hate to admit it, the casserole ended up tasting delicious, despite how it looked to the naked eye. We added a little sour cream, avocado, and a Mexican cheese blend to the finished product. Talk about an affordable and a kid-friendly recipe!
Overall Thoughts
Eating solely out of my Instant Pot wasn't as bad as I thought! Here's what my biggest takeaways are:
- Don't waste time on hard-boiled eggs. Making them in a normal pan would've taken way less time.
- Between doing my cooking in bulk and not spending money eating out, I saved a ton of money. My ingredients cost me a little over $50 — which included buying some less common spices like garam masala — and I didn't spend my usual $40 a week on takeout or getting lunch at work.
- Cleaning your Instant Pot can be a challenge. It's definitely easy enough to scrub the metal pot you actually cook in, but dirt and grime can build up around the appliance's lip pretty quickly.
- My biggest regret was not freezing more of my food from the get-go. While it was amazing to have so many choices of food around, I ended up having quite a large amount of leftovers. Next time, I'll be sure to put a few portions worth in freezer-safe bags.
