Kitchen Favs

My favorite things in this world is spending time with my family (church, daily routine, family adventures) traveling, me time and food (going to restaurants or cooking in my kitchen).

I love being in my kitchen. I see it as the heart of my home. It’s where we start our day and end our day. Some of my favorite memories as a child is being in the kitchen with my mom helping cook dinner or making sweet treats. I love that both of my girls love to be in the kitchen with me. Ellie enjoys helping me when I am cutting up veggies. I chop and the scoot the pieces over to her so she can put in the bowl or bag. Abbie has a sweet tooth and loves to bake with me. 

Being in the kitchen relaxes me. I know cooking can stress many out including myself at times, but I have found cooking has made my life so much easier and also helps me have more of those moments with my girls in the kitchen. 

The first thing that has helped me are appliances. I love things that help me with the cooking process - for most of my life that was the crock pot. Find a good recipe that you can throw dinner in and let it do all the cooking is a win in my book. However there have been two additions to my kitchen that are entering into a more regular rotation. The first is an instapot. Now I will admit when Ken ordered one and brought it into our home I was very resistant. I didn’t feel like it saved anytime and preferred to cook on my stove. However I have come to see the light and appeal of the instapot. I think one of the challenges to the instapot is the recipe component. A good way to help you ease into the instapot is look for simple recipes and progress to those that are more involved. The best place I have found to look for recipes is Pinterest. It is also where I go to get recipes for the other appliance in my life that I am developing a fondness for and that is an air fryer. Now the one I have is a baby compared to some of the air fryers out there. But I do like it for chicken tenders, frozen fries and recently I tried my hand at fried shrimp. Again the thing I really like about this is the time saved, but also that you don’t have to deal with oil. The texture is very similar and it is so much easier.  I will include a great recipe for chicken tenders for the air fryer and some of my favorite instapot recipes at the end.

Taco Soup

So the second item is a good cookbook. I have two new additions to my kitchen library. One is Lelia Ali's Food for Life and the other is Chrissy Teigen's Cravings Hungry for More .

So Ali’s book is great if you are trying to have a cleaner diet. We have made her vegetarian chili and her lamb stuff peppers and both were fantastic. I like to cook meals that Ken enjoys as dinner is his favorite meal of the day. He picked both of these meals out. I will say the chili recipe was one I had my doubts, it has coffee and cocoa in it and no meat, however I was pleasantly surprised. The flavor was great and the texture did not make you miss the meat. The peppers were really yummy and again the flavor help the lamb in taste and you didn’t know you were eating it.

Stuffed Peppers with Lamb and Millet

First I want to say that love Chrissy’s book but also I love her, especially how she is as a mom. I'm always inspired by a mama bear and she is definitely one. I also think this mom factor is evident in her cookbook. The recipes are very straight forward and simple. Everyone that I have made has taken maybe at most 45 minutes from start to finish, with most just about 30 minutes. As a mom with two kids under 5 anytime I can find a recipe and only takes 30 minutes to make I there for it. So her cookbook has really become my go to. I have made so many yummy things and have included pictures. It is fantastic food and worth going and getting your own copy. You won’t be disappointed.

Broken Lasagna

Steak Diane and Smashed Potatoes

Finally, even though it isn’t an appliance - Pinterest. This is a great source for recipes and ideas. Sometimes I think about recipes I have made in the past on my stove and I look up a comparable recipe for the instapot to get an idea of time for cooking and how much liquid I may need and then I adapt my recipe for it. I also find interesting recipes that I want to make. I do the same thing for the air fryer. I just did this for my first attempt at fried shrimp and feel like it turned out successful.

So as promised here are links for some of my favorite instapot recipes and air fryer recipe for chicken tenders. I hope you enjoy and you can always follow my Pinterest for ideas too! Links for instant:

Teriyaki Chicken: https://www.thereciperebel.com/instant-pot-teriyaki-chicken-rice-recipe/

Smothered Pork Chops: https://beautyandthefoodie.com/instant-pot-keto-smothered-pork-chops/

Taco Soup: https://lowcarbyum.com/instant-pot-low-carb-taco-soup/

Air Fryer:

Ranch Chicken Tenders:https://www.mommafitlyndsey.com/2018/06/05/air-fryer-chicken-tenders/