We're slowly feeling the mercury rise as it slides towards summer, and as we all know, one of the worst parts of summertime is having to cook in its heat. That's why I'm extra excited about my Black Friday purchase of an Instant Pot ($99 normally, $69 on Black Friday!). Yes, I too succumbed to the craze because cooking with the extremely old stovetop pressure cooker was inefficient and sometimes pretty scary. That chk-chk-chk-chk sound when it got going fast made me nervous.
At first the yogurt making function was exciting, but mostly now I use it to pressure cook vegetables that would take forever to roast in the oven. Sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, butternut squash, and spaghetti squash all take less than 25 minutes, which includes washing the vegetable, pulling out the Instant Pot, putting the water and vegetable in, plus the steaming and pressure release time. The best part is that you can use it inactively, as I did today.
Meatloaf and I have been going to obedience classes on Tuesdays at the Greater Columbia Obedience Club for most of this year, and the most current session begins at 6:15 p.m. So I have time to prep dinner but not eat it before we go, but that means I really, really want it to be a quick preparation upon returning home around 7:30 (give or take, STUPID TRAINS).
So tonight between getting home at 5 and getting in the car at 5:45 to go I put the squash in, googled how long to set it for, and headed out.
The recipe I had in mind required very little preparation upon arriving home. Once I got Meatloaf settled in, I went outside to clip some herbs (lemon thyme, oregano, and basil) and mixed up the remaining ingredients from Recipe Runner's spaghetti squash with feta and herbs recipe. I did add some Parmesan cheese to mine though because I couldn't help it. Also, I broiled mine for about two minutes which luckily didn't heat up the kitchen noticeably.
I'm looking forward to finding other ways to make set-and-forget-til-it's-time-to-eat recipes in it that won't make the kitchen blazing hot like it's sure to get as we get further into the year!
