Instant Pot Sausage & Mash

I caved & gave into the craze & bought myself an Instant Pot & I'm so glad I did!!! I've made so many recipes since buying it. This just works for me because I can go home & whip up something quick, instead of waiting forever in the slow cooker or on the stove or in the oven. And you can do everything in the pot-sauting included. I just love it! And this is good for all my diet restrictions-I can cook a lot of meat again & start filling up my freezer again with meals!

One of the first recipes I made were these brats & mashed potatoes. The recipe I found included mashed potatoes, but I used the recipe found in the Instant Pot cookbook it came with. I was amazed how quick everything took & how it still tasted amazing.

*Classic Mashed Potatoes (Instant Pot) (4-6 servings)

5-8 medium potatoes
2 c water
1 tsp salt
1/2 c almond milk
Salt & pepper to taste

Place washed potatoes (I also peeled & cut them in quarters) in pot. Pour in water & sprinkle wiht salt. Close & lock lid. Select pressure cook & then adjust buttons to set 20 min of pressure cooking time. When time is up, do a quick release & open lid.

Transfer potatoes to mixing bowl, reserving the cooking water. Remove skins, if you didn't before. Add 2 tbsp of cooking liquid or butter and begin mashing with a potato masher (I used a mixer). Continue adding small quantities of cooking liquid & cream until desired consistency is reached. Add salt & pepper taste.


*Brats (Pinterest) (2 servings):

6 thick pork sasauges, prick with a sharp knife
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 c sticky onions (I had no idea what sticky onions were so I just used regular onions)
1/2 c red wine or beef broth
1/2 c water
1 tbsp cornstarch mixed with 1 tbsp water
Salt and pepper, to taste

Add oil to pot & set to Saute. Add the sausages & brown in oil-you will need to move them around regularly to get all sides colored. When browned, stir in the onions, immediately following with the wine & water. Turn off saute. Set to pressure cook for 8 min. Once cooked, do a quick release.

Take off lid, hit cancel & push the saute button. Stir frequently & pour in cornstarch mixture. Bring to a bubble for a couple of minutes until desired consistency is reached. Serve over mashed potatoes. Enjoy!





Enjoy!...

Sweet Potato & Turkey Sausage Hash

I found this recipe in a low calorie magazine. I love a good potato hash and this included a sweet potato so it made it a little healthier. I made the mistake of peeling the potatoes a couple hours before cooking them-shows how often I cook potatoes!-so they turned a funky color. I had to google it to make sure I could still eat them lol. I should have cooked the potatoes separately because the white potatoes had to cook a bit longer than the sweet potatoes and the sweet potatoes ended up being a tad mushy. I used mini sweet peppers in multi colors instead of the green peppers. All in all everything tasted pretty good. I think I chopped up the potatoes a little too small because it made way too much! Lol but it still tasted pretty good. I served mine with a fried egg on top to add some protein. Yum!

Sweet Potato & Turkey Sausage Hash (4 servings) (Better Homes & Gardens Low Calorie):

2 med russet potatoes, peeled, if desired, and diced
1 med sweet potato, peeled, if desired, and diced
Nonstick cooking spray
1 small green sweet pepper, chopped
1 med onion, chopped
1/2 of a 14-oz ring, smoked turkey sausage, halved lengthwise and sliced 1/2 inch thick
1 tbsp snipped fresh sage or 1 tsp dried sage, crushed
1/4 tsp black pepper

Preheat oven to 400. Place russet and sweet potatoes in a 15x10x1-inch shallow baking pan. Lightly coat with cooking spray and toss to coat. Bake about 20 minutes or until tender and lightly browned, turning once with a spatula.

Meanwhile, in a large nonstick skillet, cook sweet pepper, onion and sausage for 8-10 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Stir in sweet potato mixture, sage and pepper. Enjoy!




Everything mixed together...






Enjoy!...

Spiralized Sweet Potatoes

Last week my family, who was in town, made a simple dinner at my aunt's one night. She wanted to do sweet potato and yam spears in the oven and I've been wanting to try to spiralize them so I stole a sweet potato and started experimenting. I had bought a spiralizer back in September before I moved but the only thing I've made so far with is is spiralized zucchini in place of spaghetti noodles, which I do quite often actually. I also experimented with a carrot once, but since the carrot is such a hard veggie, it was a little difficult. My spiralizer is the Paderno that I found on Amazon but I'm sure you can find them elsewhere too, or you can use a veggie peeler.

I had to watch a video online to figure out what blade I needed to use and once I figured that out, it was super easy. I added a 21-spice blend my aunt had bought from Costco. It doesn't have salt in it and I loved the flavor-guess I'll be making a trip out to Costco soon! This was just an experiment but it actually turned out really flavorful. They spiralizer made the sweet potatoes into shoe strings and with the spice blend, it turned out really yummy. I bought some yams at the store yesterday so I'll be trying those soon to see if they turn out as good as the sweet potato.

Spiralized Sweet Potatoes (3-5 servings)

1 1/2 sweet potatoes
1-2 tbsp olive oil, more as needed
21-spice blend, or whatever seasoning you have on hand

Use the number 3 blade, which is the smallest hole-blade to spiralize the sweet potatoes.

Heat oil in large skillet on the stove over med-high. Once the oil is hot, add the spiralized sweet potatoes. Using tongs, toss the sweet potatoes until sweet potatoes start turning brown and crisping up. Add the seasonings as you cook the sweet potatoes. Enjoy!




Spiralizer






Spiralized...






Enjoy!...

Sausage, Potato & Peppers

I've been craving sausage lately so I went on to Pinterest to find a good recipe and I found a couple that sounded good, this being one of them. I found the recipe via www.lilasapron.com. Super easy to prepare and to make. Instead of adding the Creole seasoning and rosemary, I added Cajun seasoning and Italian seasoning. I ate it cold for lunch today at work and it tasted really good cold, as well as hot. So this will be something I will make again! You can also change up the seasonings and add pretty much whatever you like, which is always nice!

Sausage, Potato & Peppers (3-4 servings):

1 pkg of your favorite sausage links, sliced
4-5 decent-sized potatoes, cut into chunks or sliced (Yukon or red bliss)
1 small jar banana peppers, drained
1-2 bell peppers, sliced
Olive oil
Salt & pepper
Cajun or Creole seasoning
Rosemary or Italian seasoning (or anything to your liking)

Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray. Place all the ingredients, except the olive oil and seasonings on the baking sheet. Sprinkle with a generous amount of olive oil to coat all the ingredients. Add salt, pepper, Italian and Cajun seasonings, again enough to coat the ingredients. Not sure the measurements-just use what you want. Mix everything together with your hands so it's evenly coated.

Bake at 400 for 30-35 minutes, until the potatoes are tender. Enjoy!




Everything minus the banana peppers and seasonings, all chopped up and ready to go...






Fresh from the oven...






Enjoy!...

Caramel Potatoes

I found this recipe in a Fine Cooking magazine and was instantly intrigued! Caramel potatoes...kinda weird sounding but kinda good sounding at the same time. Apparently it's a Danish side dish that's often served with ham. I convinced my parents to try this dish for our Christmas dinner. It was just going to be the 3 of us so that's usually when I try new dishes. While I was making this, I wasn't sure it was going to turn out since the caramel didn't seem to be breaking down but in the end, it melted down. And it tasted really good! The only thing I didn't like was my potatoes. I used pre-cooked ones from Schwan's and I think they were cooked too well. They were kind of mushy so I think if I make this again, I'll use raw potatoes and not cook them as much. My parents want to try this dish with ham so I was thinking I could try to convince whatever relative hosts Easter this year that I would bring the potatoes lol.

Caramel Potatoes (8 servings) (Fine Cooking):

4 1/2 lb baby potatoes
Salt
1 c granulated sugar
1/2 c salted butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

Put potatoes in a 6-8 quart pot, add cool water to cover and 1/4 c salt. Cover and bring to boil. Turn heat down to maintain a simmer and cook until potatoes are just tender when pierced with a fork, 12-15 minutes. Drain and transfer to a baking sheet to cool slightly, about 20 minutes. Peel. (I left the skin on my potatoes, only because they were too soft to peel.)

Put sugar in a Dutch oven over med-low heat and let it melt, stirring occasionally, about 6 minutes; it will be a medium amber color. Stir in the butter and 1/2 tsp salt until foam from the butter begins to subside, 1-2 minutes. The butter and caramel will be separate at this point.

Add potatoes and stir once to coat. the caramel will seize and become stringy, but that's OK. Use the spatula to push any hard bits of caramel to the bottom of the skillet so they can melt again; as the potatoes cook, the caramel will smooth out into a homogenous sauce. Adjust the heat to keep the caramel at a simmer and cook, occasionally turning the potatoes, until the caramel thickens and begins to coat them, about 20 minutes. Gently and constantly turn the potatoes until they are coated layer by layer with the caramel, 5-10 minutes more; there will still be a thin layer of caramel in the bottom of the pot. Remove any potatoes that fall apart as you stir. Serve the potatoes with the caramel.




Sugar cooking...






Sugar slowly turning amber...






Sugar turned amber color...






Potatoes added...






Sauce finally melting down...






Enjoy!...






**Note**

I made this recipe again for Easter this year and they turned out way different and way better! I bought 12 small red potatoes, peeled them and cut them into 4 pieces. I cooked them in boiling water until just fork-tender, about 3-5 minutes. I let them cool overnight and while I was cooking the caramel, I diced them into smaller pieces. I also think I didn't use the right amount of butter the first time around-1/2 c butter is actually one stick and I think I only used a 1/2 stick. The caramel melted down perfectly with the butter and with the potatoes diced small, they adhered to the sauce so much better! There were no big chunks of hardened caramel and they just tasted better all around. Below is a picture of what they should look like!

Balsamic Roasted Potatoes

I found this recipe on Pinterest via The Lazy Cook. I was trying to empty out my fridge before I went grocery shopping a couple days ago and I found a bag of baby red potatoes in my fridge that needed to be cooked before they went bad. I had seen a couple recipes I had pinned on Pinterest that I wanted to try and when looking through them, I decided to make this one since I had all the ingredients. The original recipe didn't say how much potatoes to use and I think I used too few so the vinegar was a little strong. When I make these again, I'll use about half of what I used for vinegar. Other than that, the potatoes turned out really good, lots of flavor.

Balsamic Roasted Potatoes:

Baby new potatoes (yellow or red)
Minced garlic (I used 3-4 cloves because I love garlic)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp dried rosemary
1 tbsp dried basil
1 tbsp paprika
1/4 c balsamic vinegar
Pinch salt
Pinch pepper

Preheat oven to 400. Wash potatoes and cut in half or quarters, depending on the size. I half-peeled mine only because mine had been sitting in the fridge for a while and I wanted to make sure to cut off the bad parts.

Place potato halves in med bowl. Add herbs and olive oil. Mix with your hands so that all the potatoes are covered.

Coat a med-large oven-proof dish with cooking spray. Place potatoes in pan and spread evenly. Roast for about 25 min, until tender.

Take the potatoes out of the oven, add the balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Put potatoes back in the oven for another 5-10 min. Enjoy!




Ready to be baked...






Ready to eat...

Chicken Breasts with Veggies

I found this recipe a couple years ago in Taste of Home Servings For Two..I don't think they publish that magazine anymore, which is a bummer since 2 serving dishes are ideal for me, who lives alone. The first time I made this, I used the recommended measurements but there wasn't enough marinade. The second time I made it, I made it for my parents and I doubled the marinade and it tasted a lot better. I did make a mistake tonight..I only had large potatoes so I thought if I cut them into slices, they would cook okay...by the time everything was done, the potatoes still weren't so I put them in the microwave for a couple minutes so I could eat them with the chicken. And I just realized I didn't read the recipe all the way through lol..I forgot to add the Italian seasoning and Parmesan cheese. Luckily I've made this dish a couple times before so it was still good!

Recipe:

4 tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp reserved
4 tbsp balsamic vinegar, 2 tbsp reserved
4 tbsp Worcestershire sauce, 2 tbsp reserved
4 tbsp teriyaki sauce, 2 tbsp reserved
6 tsp soy sauce, 3 tsp reserved
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 small potato, peeled and cut into 1/2 in cubes
1 large zucchini, sliced
1 small green pepper (I used yellow), chopped
1/3 c chopped onion
1 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning

In small bowl, combine first 5 ingredients. Pour marinade into large resealable plastic bag; add chicken. Seal bag and turn to coat; refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight. Cover and refrigerate reserved marinade.

Drain and discard marinade. Place chicken in an 11x7-in baking dish coated with cooking spray. Arrange the potato, zucchini, pepper and onion around chicken. Drizzle with reserved marinade. Sprinkle with cheese and Italian dressing. Cover and bake at 375 for 40-45 min or until juices run clear. Serve with veggies.



The 5 simple sauces that make an amazing marinade...





All the veggies cut up and the chicken placed in the dish with the marinade poured over it...




Served my dinner with a couple pieces of garlic/cheese toast (not pictured)



Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Balls

I was watching the Food Network one night before Thanksgiving and Paula Deen was on. I wasn't really paying too much attention to the show until they started talking about sweet potato balls. Sounds interesting right? I thought so too, so I started really listening. It looked pretty easy to make so I decided to try them for our Christmas dinner at the cabin this year. They turned out pretty well and it makes a perfect single serving. It also lets your guest or family member choose what they want on their serving so everyone is happy!

A couple side notes...the recipe calls for orange juice and orange zest. My mom used canned sweet potatoes, which are a little more moist than regular baking sweet potatoes. If I were to use the canned again, I wouldn't add the orange juice. The sweet potatoes were a little too moist and starting to melt. I also wasn't a big fan of the strong orange juice taste with the sweet potatoes. So next time, I'll omit the juice but keep the zest for a little added flavor.

Since there was only 3 of us, we just made 6 balls, which is the perfect amount for 1 can of sweet potatoes.

Ingredients:

4 lg sweet potatoes (or 1 can sweet potatoes)
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp orange juice
1 tsp orange zest
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 large marshmallow per ball
Toppings such as coconut, crushed nuts, brown sugar, crushed fruit, etc

If you are using baking potatoes, bake until tender, then peel and mash them. Stir in brown sugar, orange juice, zest and nutmeg. Press mashed potatoes around each marshmallow, creating a 2-3 inch diameter ball.

Roll balls in topping mixture of your choice and place on a pan covered in tin foil. Bake 15-20 minutes, watching carefully for the last few minutes or cooking (the expanding marshmallows can cause the potato balls to burst open). Let cool slightly and serve.


Canned sweet potatoes...




Freshly ground nutmeg...




Fresh orange juice...




Ready to be rolled...




Marshmallows...the recipe called for giant marshmallows and we couldn't find any so we used the regular ones. And the balls turned out to be a decent size, so it worked.





Rolled up around the marshmallow...




The three toppings we used...brown sugar and sugar, coconut and crushed pecans..




All rolled up and ready to be baked. We had to put the two brown sugared balls into muffin cups as they began to melt before we could get them into the oven. They seemed to have worked just fine.




Fresh from the oven...




Enjoy!