With it being so cold lately, I’ve been craving some Taco Soup.  You know, that recipe that has been around forever?  I decided to try to make some in my Instant Pot here at work, and it turned out great!  You could easily brown some beef in the IP before adding all of the other ingredients, but I was mostly craving the spices and beans.

Easiest way to make this is in a slow cooker, but can make it on the stove top as well. You'll just have to spend a lot more time checking and stirring etc. If you don't have a slow cooker my suggestion is to soak the beans overnight. Just throw them in the pot you'll cook them in with enough water to cover the beans by an inch.

This is what I call starter dough, you can eat it just as is with jam and butter with eggs for a quick meal. You can add cheese and spices for a savory bread, it's good for biscuits and gravy. Can add in chocolate chips etc or fruit (just make sure the fruit isn't frozen and you pat it dry so no extra liquid is added to the mix). These also freeze really well. I'll make a double or triple batch, turn out the dough into the individual biscuits and then freeze them. You can take however many out of the freezer you want to bake as you're preheating the oven.

This slow cooker Asian peanut chicken can be thrown together in minutes and tossed in the freezer! It is the perfect combination of meal prep and cooking fresh food daily because you get the freshly cooked meals without the hassle of preparing them every day.

From Six Sisters' Stuff video: 3 EASY Dump and Go Instant Pot Freezer Meals

From Six Sisters' Stuff video: 3 EASY Dump and Go Instant Pot Freezer Meals

From the kitchen of: Mimi Beckes.  A very quick and easy bread that goes well with dinner or can be for breakfast as well. It is light and soft.

   Menu Description: " White and  red beans, ground beef, tomatoes and pasta in a savory broth."    It's amazing how many lousy clone recipes for this delicious chili-like soup are floating around. Cooking message boards, and questionable sites that claim to have "actual restaurant recipes" have for years passed off numerous versions that disapoint home chefs. Other formulas leave out major ingredients that you can clearly see in the real thing, like the carrots, or ground beef, or two kinds of beans. Others don't even get the pasta right—it's clearly  ditalini pasta, which are short little tubes. If you want the taste of Olive Garden's famous Pasta e Fagioli at home, this may be the only recipe that will live up to a side-by-side taste test. Beware of imitation imitations!    Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes  2 by Todd Wilbur.

per Donna Roehrig

From Donna Roehrig

The Instant Pot is a bean’s best friend! Cook your red beans super fast with no hands-on attention required (after a quick sauté) and no soaking.