Instant Pot Vegetable Stew
Plus, Five Dinners in Real Life
Hello!
It’s been a minute! The beginning of Spring feels like the perfect time to re-dedicate myself to writing this newsletter on a more regular schedule. I’m really glad to be back!
When life gets really busy and overwhelming it’s easy to accidentally cut out things that are essential to your well-being, like exercise, favorite hobbies, time with friends, or writing your Substack newsletter. I thought that writing this newsletter was draining me, but it turns out that connecting with this community and writing this newsletter is actually something that feeds me. I need a creative outlet in my life and I need this connection with you each month. So, let’s jump back in!
Going forward, a few things will be changing as I continue to figure out the best way to balance my full-time job at an elementary school with my full-time job raising two lovely but demanding kids and my side gig sending out this newsletter and keeping my food blog going.
About Your Subscription
My goal is to send out this newsletter twice a month. As time allows, I might occasionally send out a third newsletter that has more recipe links and less chit-chat, a “here’s what I’ve been eating lately” sort of thing.
Going forward, all subscribers (paid and free) will receive the same newsletters and content. Paid subscriptions (a very affordable $35/year) are simply a way to say “thank you” and support my work. I will continue to send out occasional bonus recipes. Free subscribers will have access to new bonus recipes for a 7-day preview period. After 7 days, only paid subscribers will have access to the archive of bonus recipes.
Bonus recipes are not published on my regular food blog. They only live in the Kitchen Skip recipe archive on Substack. Unlike recipes on my blog, bonus recipes are ad-free and easy to read and print. The bonus recipe archive is like a virtual cookbook, just for you, filled with easy family dinner recipes, side dishes and snacks. Check it out!
This Week’s Recipe: Instant Pot Vegetable Stew
I made this recipe for my family recently and was reminded how much I love it. It’s a great meal for the beginning of spring, when you’re craving lighter food but a cold wind is still cruelly blowing outside. The broth is thick and silky, similar to beef stew, and the flavor is rich and satisfying.
Find the full recipe here → Instant Pot Vegetable Stew
You can make this stew in 5 easy steps:
Saute onion until soft.
Add mushrooms, garlic, thyme & salt. Saute until mushrooms are soft. Add broth.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour and water. Whisk in tomato paste. Pour the flour slurry into the simmering broth. This is what thickens the broth.
Add potatoes and carrots. Cook on high pressure for 10 minutes. Quick release.
Stir in frozen peas and garnish the stew with fresh dill or parsley before serving.
Dinner in Real Life
I’m always curious about what other families are eating, aren’t you? I hope that my week of real life dinners will provide helpful recipes & cooking ideas for your family.
Lately, dinner has been all over the place at my house. Some nights we eat together, some nights we all eat at different times. Some nights we have an organized meal, some nights we all fend for ourselves and eat whatever we can find in the fridge. I guess this is what dinner is like with two working parents, a busy teen, a finicky tween and after-school sports three nights a week.
Here’s what my crew ate recently:
MONDAY: Instant Pot vegetarian chili + brown rice + cornbread
I really like this chili when it’s served over brown rice with lots of toppings (cheese, crumbled chips, cilantro, etc…) We also had a giant bowl of guacamole with dinner as we enjoy the last avocados from our bumper crop. We always have enough chili for leftovers the next night and leftovers have become essential in my quest to feed the family on busy weeknights.
TUESDAY: Chili leftovers!
Three of us ate leftovers. One of my kids is not super into chili or leftovers, so I’m pretty sure she ate boxed mac ‘n cheese.
WEDNESDAY: Sautéed red cabbage with kielbasa + sliced polenta
This is a really easy dinner combination and an easy meal to keep on hand for nights when you’re almost out of groceries. Pre-cooked sausage of any kind and a head of cabbage keep forever in the refrigerator and a shelf-stable polenta tube keeps forever in your panty.
To make this meal, just slice and sauté the cabbage in olive oil, then add sliced sausage when the cabbage is almost cooked (you can also put both, together, on a sheet-pan and roast at 425F in the oven for about 20 minutes). Warm the sliced polenta tube in a non-stick skillet with butter and/or olive oil. Serve with sour cream.
THURSDAY: Hummus bowls with ground meat, veggies and feta
This is a good meal for nights when everyone is eating at different times. I cooked ground beef with onion and spices (cumin, coriander, smoked paprika, garlic & onion powder), sliced cucumbers and tomatoes, and roasted cauliflower and zucchini. I also set out hummus, feta and pickled red onions. You can eat all of this over rice, quinoa, barely or couscous. Or, you can just serve pita bread and/or pita chips on the side.
FRIDAY: Salmon + baked potatoes + salad
This trio has become a regular in our meal rotation because one of my kids is really into baked potatoes right now. Sometimes I swap in tilapia for the salmon, which I usually buy frozen at Trader Joe’s. Defrost the fish overnight, then brown the fillets in a very hot skillet with butter and olive oil for about 4 minutes on each side. Season generously with salt or Johnny’s seasoning salt and a squeeze of lemon.
Cookbooks
Yes, this cookbook is called Best of Fall Recipes but the recipes aren’t especially autumnal and most of these meals are appropriate for dinner any time of year. You can choose from recipes like tortellini & broccoli or black bean soup and lots of different ways to cook various cuts of meat in your slow cooker.
This book is part of the “Fix-It and Forget-It” series that publishes hundreds of easy slow cooker recipes with simple ingredients and instructions. I like the “Fix-It and Forget-It” series because the recipes are truly easy and there are so many to choose from.
However. . . .for my personal tastes, many of the recipes are a little outdated and feel very 1970s (lots of sugar, canned ingredients and some weird combinations like pineapple and ketchup). BUT when you flip through a cookbook like the Best of Fall Recipes you can still find some good recipes that make very simple family meals. The “Fix-It and Forget-It” cookbooks are the type of cookbook that you should check out from the library, instead of buying, because you won’t love every recipe they offer. But you might find a few gems that help you use your slow cooker more often.
That’s it for this week. I’ll end with a picture of Tiger, who perfectly shows how I felt for most of March. Here’s hoping that April means sunnier, easier days are ahead of us!
xo
Jenny
Just lovely.