Vegan / Vegetarian options: We eat mostly plant based with occasional dairy and eggs. If you see something listed you don’t eat, feel free to use a vegan option. If it must be an animal based ingredient I’ll note that.

Instant Pot: Spoiler alert, it’s not instant! An instant pot is a pressure cooker, which means it uses pressure from steam to cook stuff.

If a recipe says white rice cooks in 3 minutes it means it’s at full pressure for 3 minutes. It will still take 10-15 minutes to build up to that, plus a few minutes to slowly release pressure. Meaning white rice in the instant pot takes, you guessed it, just as long as on the stove!

Why bother with it then? Because unlike the stovetop method which requires attention for much of the cook time, with the Instant Pot (IP) you throw it all in, push a button and it will do the rest itself.

Shortcuts:

I was a judgy asshole for a long time about shortcuts in cooking. Garlic press? ”Hell no!” Frozen veggies? “Have you no self respect?” That was when I worked full time as a cook and had hours everyday to prepare food. Fast forward 10 years and I am #teamshortcuts!

A few of my favorites:

• Frozen mirepoix mix

• Better than bullion veggie stock

• dried herbs

• Instant pot

• Frozen bagged veggies to add vegetables to meal