Instant Pot Hamburger Helper

it’s Wednesday…  I’ve made a 1 1/2 hour (roundtrip) to Kindersley once, cleaned the house (sort of), made the muffins for the booth at the school and am making my second trip to Kindersley to pick up uniforms for my son’s Junior Basketball team…

I need to get these jerseys to him, then get something started for supper before I go watch his game and get my other two children sent off to the rinks they need to be at…

sound familiar to anyone out there?  if this type of day is ringing a bell, you need to go get yourself an Instant Pot… some people might give you crazy advice to slow down…  don’t listen to them when you have the tools to cook faster!!!

not only does it look great on your counter – it is a lifesaver for families that don’t know how to say ‘no’…

I’m telling you, even the farmer could cook with this…  you push the sauté button and add onions and olive oil…

when they start to cook add your ground beef… brown it and strain if it is fatty…

no time for real garlic or fresh herbs today…

toss in some garlic and chilli powder

venture into your super tidy pantry…  because every mom has time to clean her pantry every other Tuesday…  and grab a can of green chiles and tomato sauce…

toss in some Cancun salt… if you recently did not get to leave your hectic life and go to Cancun, then any ordinary salt will do… but make a mental note to book yourself a well-deserved get-a-way…  

fancier moms might chop up real cilantro… but when you are putting it in a dish like this I think you are wasting your time…  dried cilantro is just fine and it’s not going rotten in your refrigerator because you forgot you had it…

use the package of free noodles your friend gifted you because her husband saw the ‘organic’ label on them and said ‘not up in here!!!!’…

(one man’s trash is this lady’s treasure)

place the dry noodles right on the meat sauce and cover with water

place the lid on and set for high pressure for 5 minutes… (it roughly takes 10 minutes to get to pressure… then using the quick release it takes a few minutes to lose the pressure… so overall the cooking time is around 20 minutes)

leave your teenage son in charge of it (which I would never do with a boiling pot of water) and head out to get your daughter to her hockey practice and watch your other son’s basketball game…

feeling like freakin’ Martha Stewart while you drive

when you come home and realize that your teenager forgot about it completely, no need to panic… it is just fine…

add some frozen corn and tex-mex cheese to it, turn on the sauté to warm it up and serve with a smile, knowing that cleanup is only one pot!!!