#2,691: Irish Cheddar, Bacon and Potato Muffins

I've been trying to make each of the monthly muffins that Food Network Magazine put out at the beginning of the year (one for each month), and I personally thought these savory muffins sounded good, but I figured I was the only one who would probably eat these.  I was surprised that Allison enjoyed these and said they tasted a little bit like breakfast pizza...she's kind of right.  It does remind me of that a little.  The other two kiddos were not fans, although Matthew just licked his so I can't really say that counts as a true vote either way.  I liked these, but didn't love them, so I probably wouldn't make them again.  Not bad, just not my favorite thing to eat.

Also, they stick quite a bit to the paper liners, so using silicone muffin tins might be better to use!  

1 large Yukon Gold potato (8 ounces) (I'm so lazy I used refrigerated shredded hash browns)

¼ teaspoon salt

1½ cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1¼ cups buttermilk

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1 large egg

3 slices bacon, cooked with 1 tablespoon bacon grease reserved

4 ounces Irish cheddar cheese, diced

¼ cup chopped fresh chives (about ½ a bunch)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a 12-cup cupcake pan with paper liners and set aside.

(I totally omitted this step) Cook the potato in the microwave. Poke the potato 5-6 times with a fork and wrap in a damp paper towel. Cook until the potato is just cooked through, about 4-5 minutes, being sure to turn it once during cooking. Let the potato cool. Once you can handle it carefully peel off the skin and grate the potato. Lightly season the grated potato with salt and pepper; toss to combine.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and ¼ teaspoon salt. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, melted butter, egg, and tablespoon of bacon drippings. Pour the mixture into the well of the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Carefully fold in the grated potato, bacon, cheese, and chives.

Evenly divide the batter among the prepared paper liners. The batter should fill each to the top. Bake for 22-25 minutes, or until the top of the muffin is golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean. Cool the muffins in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack to completely cool.

#2,690: Super Moist Banana Bread

Now this is definitely a moist banana bread.  I usually start to get nervous when it calls for 3 bananas because I'm afraid it's going to be too banana-y (is that a word?!), but figured I'd give this recipe a try with the kids.  They loved it!  The totally devoured it for breakfast for 2 days.  Although this does have quite a bit of sugar in it, so next time I'm going to cut back on that and see how it turns out. 

3 medium Bananas

3/4 cup Sugar (or 1/2 c honey)

1/4 cup Vegetable Oil

1 Egg

1 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour

1 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder

1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda

1 tablespoon Cinnamon 

Preheat your oven to 350.

Mash your bananas.  Add the egg, sugar (or honey) and cooking oil to your bananas.

Add the dry ingredients to your banana mixture and stir just until moistened.

Spray the bottom and sides of a loaf pan with cooking spray. Cook for 50-55 minutes, or until a cake tester (or toothpick) inserted in middle comes out clean.  Allow pan to cool for 10 minutes on a cooling rack.

Remove the bread from the pan, and allow your bread to fully cool on a wire cooling rack.

#2,689: Instant Pot Fried Rice

I had total mixed reviews on this recipe.  First of all, I liked it...but it was NOTHING like fried rice, and I even added in some coconut aminos and sesame oil to amp up the flavor.  Would I make this particular recipe again, probably not only because it didn't taste like fried rice.  But would I make rice in the Instant Pot again?  For sure!  I'm still on the lookout for a more authentic fried rice recipe, but for a veggie rice, this was good. 

2 cups Long Grain Rice

2½ cups Vegetable Broth

2 Carrots

3 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

½ cup Frozen Peas

2 Medium Eggs (I omitted only because I ran out of eggs!)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Add rice and vegetable stock in your instant pot. Mix so the rice is spread around evenly. Throw in diced carrots and close the lid.

Instant Pot Settings: turn the vent to “SEALING” position, press “MANUAL” and adjust the time to 3 minutes.  When the instant pot finished cooking, press “CANCEL” button. After 10 minutes, release the pressure manually.

Now mix the rice, it will be quite sticky but it should change its texture and lose quite a lot of its stickiness. Move the rice to a side and press the “SAUTE” function. Add oil and frozen peas and saute for about a minute before mixing everything together.

Make a well in the middle of the rice and add beaten eggs. Stir the egg into rice and fry everything together for a further 1-2 minutes before turning off Instant Pot completely. Taste it and if needed, season with salt and pepper.

#2,688: Instant Pot Beef and Broccoli

As a family, we all really enjoyed this quick Instant Pot dish.  The only complaint I had to this was that the broccoli was too hard for my liking.  I think it needed way more than 5-10 minutes to cook and soften.  Personally, it probably needed closer to 20 minutes for my liking.  Other than that, we really, really enjoyed this.  

2 tsp olive oil

1 1/2 pounds of flank steak, sliced very thin against the grain

1/2 cup diced shallots (I used sweet onion)

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tsp freshly grated ginger

2/3 cup beef stock 

1/3 cup of coconut aminos (or sub low sodium soy sauce)

2 T plus 1 tsp honey

3 1/2 cups of broccoli florets

1/2 T arrowroot or your favorite thickener/flour (I used cornstarch)

1/4 tsp salt

crushed red pepper

Whisk coconut aminos, chicken stock, honey and fresh ginger together. Set aside.

Set Instant Pot to Saute. When it's hot, add olive oil and shallots and sauté until they begin to soften and become fragrant. Add in garlic and cook an additional minute.

Pour stock mixture into the Instant Pot and add in sliced flank steak. Cover and lock your Instant Pot and set to manual/pressure cook for 12 minutes. When cook time is up, allow to naturally release for 5 minutes before finishing with a quick release.

Carefully take off the lid and remove 1 cup of the cooking liquid and make a slurry by whisking in 1/2 T of arrowroot starch. Mix until well combined and then return to pot. Set Instant Pot to sauté and stir until the sauce begins to thicken. Stir in salt. Turn pot to keep warm.

Add in chopped broccoli florets and stir everything together. Place lid on IP and give the broccoli 5-10 minutes to steam from the heat of the pot.

When broccoli is to desired tenderness, garnish with some scallions, crushed red pepper, and additional grated ginger if desired.

Serve over rice, quinoa, or cauliflower rice.

#2,687: No Yeast Soft Pretzels

I always love a good warm soft pretzel.  But I am not a patient, yeast-using type of cook, so I was looking for an easy recipe that I could use that omitted it.  We whipped this recipe together really quickly, and I gave each of the kids enough dough to make 2 pretzels.  You would think I was torturing them asking them to roll out logs of dough.  Once they were done and put into a semi-pretzel shape, we coated half of them with an egg wash and salt, and the other half was coated with cinnamon and sugar.  It was a 50/50 split vote whether we liked the salty or sweet pretzels.  Both were good though.  These are a bit dense (but I expected that!), but still pretty good.  I don't think these compare to a good soft pretzel, but for a quick, easy recipe, I thought they were ok! 

1 1/2 cups flour

2/3 cups milk

2 tbsp vegetable oil

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

topping suggestions: coarse salt, cinnamon, sugar, toasted sesame seeds, etc. 

Preheat oven to 425°F.  Stir together the first six ingredients to make a soft dough.

Sprinkle 2 tbsp of flour on the counter. Divide dough into two balls. Knead it. Put bowl upside down over balls for 15 minutes.

Divide each ball into four balls, resulting in eight total balls. Roll each ball into a long rope, about a foot in length and form into pretzel shape.

Spray cookie sheet and place pretzels on pan.  Beat egg and brush over pretzels. Sprinkle on your desired topping.

Place in the oven for 9-11 minutes, or until slightly golden brown.

#2,686: Instant Pot Taco Pasta

Although I thought this recipe sounded wonderful, I wasn't sure if my family (particularly my husband) would agree.  But I figured I'd take a chance and make it anyways (and there was some leftover Texas Roadhouse Pot Roast in the fridge if my husband absolutely hated it!).  Plus it gave me an excuse to try another Instant Pot recipe.  I made the meat mixture ahead of time on the stove when I had some extra free time, and so that I didn't have to spend as much time in the kitchen right at dinner time when it's usually a little crazy.  This would also be a great prep ahead meal for a quick weeknight dinner. 

Anyhow, I figured I was pushing my luck with this recipe but wanted to push it just a bit more, so I added some frozen riced cauliflower into the mix...AND MY FAMILY NEVER KNEW.  Score!!  Actually my kids were more concerned about the corn they could see in this dish.  Babies.  

I was so scared that the noodles wouldn't be cooked but I left it to fate and tried it anyways, and was shocked when the noodles were cooked after only 5 Instant Pot minutes!  

By the way, not only did we enjoy this dish, but it was really good as leftovers too! 

1 pound ground beef or turkey

1/2 sweet onion, chopped

2 Tablespoons taco seasoning

1 cup frozen sweet corn

1 - 14.5 oz. can of fired roasted diced tomatoes (I used picante sauce)
I also added about 1/3 cup of frozen riced cauliflower

2 cups chicken broth (I used 2 1/2 cups)

8 ounces small pasta of your choice, uncooked (I used 12 oz of elbow macaroni)

1 1/2 cups sharp cheddar, shredded 

Optional Garnishes

Freshly chopped cilantro

Freshly chopped green onion

Sour cream

Chopped red onion

Extra cheese

Fresh salsa

Shredded lettuce

Set your Instant Pot to sauté. Add the ground meat and onion and cook until browned, stirring while it cooks. Once it is cooked add in the taco seasoning, frozen corn, fire roasted tomatoes, chicken broth and pasta. Cover and seal the lid. Change the Instant Pot to MANUAL HIGH and set the time to 5 minutes.

When the Instant Pot beeps showing that it is done, do a quick release. Once all of the pressure/steam is please turn off the Instant Pot. Remove the lid keeping the lid pointed away from you and stir the taco pasta together. Add the cheese to the pasta mixture. Cover the Instant Pot (do not seal it) and let the cheese melt for a minute or two. Open your Instant Pot and stir.

Serve the taco pasta in bowls with garnishes.

#2,685: Texas Roadhouse Pot Roast

We don't eat at Texas Roadhouse, so I can't vouch for the comparison to what they serve, but I can tell you that we loved this recipe!  I also highly doubt that Texas Roadhouse serves this as sandwiches, but that's how my family enjoys roasts the most.  

We eat some form of a roast fairly regularly and it's always hit or miss if my kids enjoy it or not.  I wasn't sure if they were going to be fans of this one, and in fact, would have bet they did not.  They completely proved me wrong!  We had 3 different meals leftover this week so we had a leftovers night, and both of the girls chose this meal over the other choices.  I'd say that's a good sign.  I too ate the leftovers but ended up making these as sort of nachos (chips, leftover meat, and some cheese) , which was also absolutely delicious!  We loved this recipe and I'd definitely make it again!

As I mentioned above, I served this as shredded beef sandwiches.  I just shredded the meat with 2 forks, and then put it back into the sauce to soak up more flavor.   

2 - 2.5 lb chuck roast

1/2 onion, chopped

1/2 bell pepper (any color), chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed

1/2 cup tomato sauce

1/2 cup BBQ sauce

2 beef bouillon cubes

1 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/2 cup water

Place roast in the bottom of the slow cooker.  Top with vegetables, BBQ sauce, tomato sauce, water and spices.  Cook on low for 8-10 hours.  

#2,684: Instant Pot Green Beans with Mushrooms and Bacon

I've made this recipe three times now since I originally found it.  Personally I think it's easier to make this separately and not all in the instant pot.  I use my griddle to cook up a pound of bacon, and I only use what I need and save the rest for another time.  In a saute pan I cook the onions and mushrooms, and then in the instant pot I cook the green beans.  I don't know if I'd boil or steam green beans in a pot again.  I am always hit or miss if they turn out or not.  Sometimes they are perfectly cooked, and other times they are over cooked.  But each time I make them in my Instant Pot I end up eating all of them and they are cooked perfectly!  In fact, I'm making this again for dinner tonight!  

1 pound fresh green beans, cleaned and trimmed (while fresh green beans are best, frozen will work in a pinch)

6 ounces bacon, chopped

1/2 onion, diced

8 ounces mushrooms, sliced

1 clove garlic, peeled and minced

splash of balsamic vinegar

sea salt and pepper, to taste

Place green beans in inner pot of pressure cooker.  Add enough water to barely cover the beans.  Put on the lid of your cooker, checking that the seals and all components are in good shape, including being in the sealing position.  Set to high for 1 to 2 minutes (fresh green beans) or 3 to 4 minutes (frozen green beans).

Once cycle is complete, hit the cancel button and allow pot to do a quick pressure release.

Drain green beans into a colander.  Set aside.

Turn pressure cooker to Saute function, or put stove-top cooker over medium heat.

Add bacon.  Let fat render.  Add onions and garlic.  Add mushrooms a little later, in time for them to get soft, but before bacon is too crispy.  Once bacon is crispy, onions are translucent, and mushrooms are soft turn your Instant Pot off and add the green beans back to the cooker.  Add a splash with vinegar and stir to combine.  Season to taste.