I’m a little bit late to the party on this one, but for Christmas I received a pressure cooker. I had been on the fence about this for some time, and for several reasons.

For one reason, it seemed too good to be true. Did I really need another appliance in my life? My counter space real estate is already limited, so this thing had better be worth it.

My next reason, which ties into the first reason, really, was whether or not I would actually be able to operate the thing, and not just have an explosion in my kitchen.

Well, around Christmas time is the ideal time to buy these kind of appliances and kitchen gadgets, and knowing all my mixed feelings about them, my husband wasn’t about to buy me one for Christmas until it was some insanely great deal.

Alas, he found one.

Then the surprise was ruined when it showed up on our doorstep, two weeks before Christmas in packaging that revealed exactly what it was.

Actually, it didn’t show up on our doorstep, the FedEx guy showed up at the exact time I arrived home from picking up our boys from school and handed it to me.

I told him I wasn’t supposed to see it yet, but there was nothing either of us could do at that point, and it became a funny story around our household.

Then it sat, unwrapped, in all its glory, under the tree. My husband stated that since I had already seen it, there was therefore no reason to wrap it. He was right.

The first time I used it was to make chicken wing dip, which I promise to share the recipe for in the future, and it came out great … but it took a much longer time than anticipated.

This was due to the fact that I didn’t know what I was doing yet.

I procrastinated, since the cook time for the recipe was only 15 minutes in the pressure cooker. I had no idea about the need for the pot coming to pressure or releasing pressure after it was cooked.

Thankfully the guests who were partaking of the dip with us are lifelong friends who didn’t care in the least about waiting for food to be ready.

So this contraption and I are still getting used to each other, but I love making our food quicker than I ever have before, and there are some things that I honestly would not have made if not for the quicker cook time.

This recipe could easily be adapted for a slow-cooker too, it would just take longer. For example, what was cooked in 35 minutes in my pressure cooker, would take a minimum of 6 hours in a crockpot.

Something that is great for families with an on the go kind of lifestyle, or when it’s a little bit unpredictable if you’ll be home at the proper dinner cooking time. Much like our current situation.

Bonus points here, my kids actually loved this, and requested that it become a regular recipe in our house.

When you have your kids not only willingly eating vegetables, but loving it, that my friends is a win.

INGREDIENTS

1 ¢ lbs. Beef Stew Meat

1 Tbsp. Olive Oil

1 Tbsp. Butter

3 Cloves Garlic, Minced

1 Large Onion, Chopped

1 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Pepper

1 tsp. Italian Seasoning

2 Tbsp. Worcestershire Sauce

2 C. Carrots, peeled and cut into chunks or slices.

1 lb. Potatoes, Cubed

4 Stalks celery, cut into small chunks

2 1/2 C. Beef Broth

1 10 Ounce Can Tomato Sauce

1 C. Water

2 Tbsp. Cornstarch

2 Tbsp. Cold Water

1. Cut up vegetables, leaving everything but the onion set aside. Put onion, garlic, butter, and olive oil into instant pot, and turn on the sear/saute setting. Cook until translucent.

2. Add beef to instant pot, to sear all sides of each chunk. Sprinkle salt, pepper and Italian seasoning on top, and keeping stirring to get each side of the beef browned.

3. Add in the veggies, then immediately add the broth, tomato sauce and water. Stir all together to combine well.

4. Cook on high pressure for 35 minutes.

5. When the timer goes off, stir together the water and cornstarch. Add in the corn starch mixture once the pressure release pin has gone down on your pressure cooker.

Enjoy! Makes about 8-10 generous servings, more if you have toddlers!

As always, thanks for reading, and happy cooking from hbk!