my first texas-style chili (instant pot recipe)

Pretty sure the only chili I’ve ever had was from the fast food chain Wendy’s and even then was used merely to dip my french fries in.  I sort of hate beans so chili has never appealed to me but apparently Texas style chili is bean-less so, perfect!  I’ve been wanting to use my Instant Pot more so I decided to try and make chili for the first time in it. This is very loosely based on a recipe I found online from a cookbook called Down South Paleo.  I don’t know how legit this recipe is and I’m obviously no chili expert but I think this turned out really tasty!  (Like, does chili ever have bacon in it?  ‘Cus it does now!)  It was even better as leftovers the next day. Oh and of course you don’t need an Instant Pot to make this but it just speeds up the whole process. You could alternatively just let it simmer away on the stove for a few hours.

500 grams lean ground beef  /  4 slices of bacon  /  1 green pepper  /  1 medium yellow onion /  2-3 carrots  /  2 ribs of celery  /  3 cloves of garlic  /  1 tin (28 oz) diced tomatoes  /  1 tbsp worcestershire sauce /  1 tsp hot chili powder  /  1 tsp paprika  /  1 tsp salt  /  1/2 tsp ground black pepper  /  1/2 tsp cumin

First, for your prep.  Mince the garlic and dice up your carrots, celery, green pepper, and onion.  Next, chop up the bacon.  Using the Instant Pot, set it to ‘sauté’ and toss in the bacon and ground beef, cooking until the beef is completely browned.  Then add in all the other ingredients and simply stir together.

Lock on the lid with the steam valve closed and press the ‘cancel’ button to stop the sautéing function and then press the ‘meat/stew’ button.  I think it automatically set itself for 35 minutes and then just let it pressure cook away!  Release the pressure and you are all done.  Sorry the photo isn’t particularly amazing, I was really hungry and wanted to eat!

At first I was concerned that the chili had quite a bit of liquid in it (though I don’t even know what consistency chili is supposed to have really).  But apparently if you want a thickened chili you could add in a roux or whatever.  Last night we had it with baked potatoes and today for lunch I had it with crunched up saltine crackers and some shredded aged cheddar over top.  Really good!

barbacoa beef (in an instant pot)

It seems like everyone’s raving about the Instant Pot lately (well, my 2 friends that have one and…the internet) but I needed a new rice cooker anyway so we decided to try out the Instant Pot instead.  So far we’ve only made a few things in it including well, rice, and this dish, but we really like it.  This recipe is adapted from the combo of 2 copycat Chipotle barbacoa beef recipes that I found online. (I couldn’t decide which recipe I liked better!) It’s shredded beef that’s been braised in a sauce of chipotle peppers and various spices and it’s really yummy!  We’ve only eaten at Chipotle a handful of times but I remember liking their beef so I thought this would be a good place to start.  So we made this in the Instant Pot but you could instead cook it in a dutch oven on the stove on low heat; it would just take probably at least 8 hours instead of 1!

2-3 lb beef roast  /  1 tbsp grape seed oil (or other cooking oil of your choice)  /  4 cloves of garlic /  2 chipotles in adobe sauce /  juice of 1 lime  /  1 tsp ground cumin  /  1 tsp oregano /  1/2 tsp ground cloves  /  1 tsp onion powder  /  1 cup water  /  1/4 cup apple cider vinegar  /  2 tsp salt (or to taste)  /  1 tsp freshly ground black pepper  /  1 tbsp tomato paste  /   3 bay leaves

Using a hand blender or a regular blend, puree the garlic, chipotles, lime juice, cumin, oregano, cloves, onion powder, water, vinegar, salt, pepper and tomato paste until you get a smooth sauce.  Cut up your roast into roughly 3 inch cubes.  With the Instant Pot, set it to ‘Saute’ and add the grape seed oil when hot and sautee the beef until browned on all sides.

Add the pureed sauce and the bay leaves and then clamp the lid on.  Set the Instant Pot to ‘Manual’ and choose ‘high pressure’ and let it cook away for 55 minutes.  Apparently you can release the pressure in the Instant Pot either manually or you can let it do it by itself slowly but I was impatient so we did it manually.

Take the beef out and using 2 forks, simply shred it and then add back in some of the sauce. This was my first time cooking with a pressure cooker and I was pretty impressed; it’s cool to be able to cook something that usually takes many hours in a fraction of the time.

Anyway, the beef turned out great and really tender.  We slapped together some quesadillas with the beef and monterey jack cheese and served it with a quick guacamole, some greek yogurt and cilantro and since then, Rock’s polished off the leftovers. So, success!

 

armadillo cheesy garlic bread

Maybe right after everyone makes their new year’s resolution to eat healthy is not the ideal time to post this recipe but it’s just sooo good.  Plus I haven’t blogged since October…but to be fair we moved from Moose Jaw to Comox, BC for Rock’s work in November and then it was the holidays.  And so yes, technically we’re not Eating in Moose Jaw anymore, but I can’t change the name of the blog so the name is staying!

Anyway, I had been wanting to make this recipe from Chrissy Teigen’s Cravings book ever since I got it many months ago but it’s so excessive that even I couldn’t justify making it for just us. So my family’s Christmas Eve dinner was the perfect time and I made two loaves of these bad boys!  The recipe says one loaf serves 8 and I actually agree with this ‘cus while you could definitely split one between a few people (‘cus it’s so delicious that you just wanna scarf all of it), you would probably hate yourselves for the rest of the day.

1 x 1-lb round loaf French bread (we used a sourdough)  /  3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese  /  1 and 1/2 cups finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese  /  3/4 cup butter, room temperature  /  1/2 cup mayonnaise  /  4 cloves garlic, finely minced  /  1 tsp red pepper flakes (which I skipped just ‘cus I didn’t have any on hand)  /  1 tsp salt  /  1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 400F and in a bowl, combine all of the ingredients except for the bread. With a serrated knife, cut the bread in a crosshatch pattern with the cuts about 2 inches apart and without cutting through the bottom of the loaf.

Spread a sheet of aluminum foil on a baking sheet and put the bread in the middle.  Stuff the cheese-garlic mixture into all the cracks of the bread and spread any remaining mixture on top. Doesn’t this look AMAZING?!

Take another sheet of aluminum foil and lay it over top of the bread, crimping the edges with the bottom sheet of foil to seal in the bread. (The recipe says to spray the top sheet of foil with cooking spray but I guess I simply didn’t read that part ‘cus I was too excited… anyway it didn’t stick so you can skip this step if you want.)  Bake for 20 minutes and then turn down the heat to 375F and take off the top sheet of foil.  Bake for another 15 minutes or so.  Then dig in!  The diet can start tomorrow.