"Instant Pot Rescues Dinner for Week-Long Tired Mom and Three Kids"- News at 11

     You ever just have that day, or week, when the morning turns into afternoon and you are suddenly like "Shoot! I forgot to toss dinner in the slow cooker!"
Yea? That was me today. 

I love my slow cooker. A lot. So much that I have four of them. No joke. I know, Mr. Wishes-His-Wife-Was-More-Of-A-Minimalist has mentioned I should get rid of a few. To be fair, I have only use two of them. Another he used when he was stationed in Korea for a year, so that shouldn't count against me. 

There it is, I forgot to toss dinner in the slow cooker before lunch. I'm a busy woman/mom/educator/slacker. You get my drift. 
I hate love being tortured throughout the day with awesome smells that require waiting for the evening. Pro-tip: if friends are coming over when the slow cooker is on, make sure there is enough to feed them. It's rude to force them to inhale that fragrant aroma without offering to satisfy their taste buds. If they show up unexpectedly, well that's on them. You aren't required to play fabulous host(ess) at that point. I bet they will remember to call, better yet: text, first before making the trip over. A casual "what are you making for dinner?" might be tossed into the conversation somewhere too.

Mom forgot to toss the beef roast into the slow cooker, what ever will she do?! 
She's going to pull that bad boy out and figure out how to cook it in the Instant Pot, that's what she is going to do. 

You might have seen these Tyson Beef Roast kits in the refrigerator section of the meat department at your grocery store. They are a life-saver! There was one small one left when I happened to walk by. On a whim, I decided to grab it. We haven't had beef for dinner in some time, we aren't big on red meat, and it would be a nice change. Everything portioned in one package was perfect! No need to buy a whole onion, or bag of potatoes, or carrots, or celery. Especially not when you haven't gotten your meal planning done for the first half of the month yet. I can't recall how much it cost, I was too busy calculating the time it would take me to get checked out, everything loaded into the car, and back to the charter school to pick up K2 from his science class. We had a soccer assessment for K1 that night, a little over an hour after K2's class, not much time for price comparison. I knew it wouldn't be dinner that night, but it was whispering sweet nothings to my brain today. 

So, how did I do it? First, getting the Tyson Roast kit isn't imperative. If you have a roast and the fixings, that's all you need. The kit just made my lazy Friday that much easier. About an hour and a half before I wanted to feed the minions I pulled everything out.

Ingredients:
Tyson Beef Roast Kit
Montreal Steak Seasoning
Olive Oil
1.5 Cups Beef Broth
Cornstarch
Red Wine*

*An essential part of any meal prep.*

~Throw away the seasoning packet in the package~

1. Plug in the handy-dandy Instant Pot, select "saute," click it once more to increase the temperature and pour in about 2 tablespoons of Olive Oil.

2. When the IP says "hot" go ahead and sear your beef. About 3-5 minutes per side, don't forget the ends, should be good. 

3. While the beef is searing go ahead and get your broth and wine ready. Don't forget your wine glass!

4. When you feel your beef roast is nice and seared all over, dump in the broth and a generous splash of red wine. I used Cupcake brand this time. Sprinkle the Montreal Steak Seasoning over the roast, and a little into the broth, evenly. Close the IP lid, close the valve, set to "meat stew," adjust the time to 20 minutes, pour yourself a glass of the wine, and go check out the deal of the day on Amazon.

5. Don't jump up as soon as the timer goes off. I let mine sit for about 15 minutes to slow release. The valve pin had dropped during that time, so releasing the steam wasn't very exciting. Dump in the remaining ingredients, aka the veggies, close the lid, make sure the valve is closed, press "pressure cook" and adjust the time to 15 minutes. Now, go finish your wine and finish contemplating that item sitting in your Amazon cart. 

6. When the timer goes off let it sit for a few minutes. The IP stays on warm so you needn't worry about dinner getting cold on you. Go ahead and mix up about 2 tablespoons of cornstarch with some cold water. Clean off the styrofoam tray, if you purchased the beef roast kit, and release any remaining steam from the IP. 

7. Pull out the veggies, arranging them around the edges of the tray if you feel fancy. Place the beef roast in the middle, cover with some foil. Turn the IP back to "saute," click again to get it to medium heat. When the broth and drippings just start to boil, add the cornstarch in water. Whisk until you get the desired gravy consistency your family prefers. We like ours thick, so I was there for a few minutes. 

8. Turn off the IP, get your plates together, tell your youngest to announce dinner to the others, and set up the movie you plan on showing with dinner. In our case it was Cool Runnings. What? The Winter Olympics are only days away and I'm preparing my kids for hours of me rooting for all the countries participating.

And that's it! A normal all day meal prepped and cooked in less than two hours! It was awesome! Even K2 said the meat was tons better this time, nice and tender. I agreed, our last beef roast did not turn out well. Think beef jerky with gravy and veggies. Not one of my finer meals. 

Why did I decide to use the styrofoam tray for serving? Because it made for less clean up later! I am not a styrofoam fan, not at all. Whenever we buy something that has styrofoam I try to think of different ways to use it before begrudgingly throwing it away. 

I think this weekend will involve a lot of Pinterest time. I want to find some neat ideas to make our own Olympic Medals. What better way to encourage cleaning around the house than to promote it like an Olympic sport? Yes, I'll be "competing" in the "Dad will be home in a few days" Winter Olympics too. I'm curious if any of the kiddos can win the gold over me? 😆

Shared from abcteach.com

This one in particular looks fun and easy to do this weekend!