The Risky One-Pot Dinner
Will your kids eat a one-pot dinner or reject it? Plus, a truly delicious recipe for Instant Pot shredded pork.
Speaking only as Jenny the Person, I’m a huge fan of one-pot or one skillet dinners. Everything cooks together and you can eat your protein, veg and starch without dirtying too many dishes.
Speaking as Jenny the Mom, who tries to feed two kids each night, I’m very skeptical of one-pot dinners. They’re risky.
Inevitably, one of your kids won’t like one of the ingredients and will refuse to eat the whole meal if they can’t pick that ingredient out. Or maybe one of your kids prefers their food to be separated on a plate so they can see exactly what they’re eating. They don’t like it when everything is cooked together.
You might have a few one-pot winners that your family loves. Maybe chili, or chicken soup, or lasagna. But beyond those, trying a new one-pot dinner is risky, am I right?
I think you’ll love the three recipes below, though. They are easy to make, don’t dirty a lot of dishes and are quite delicious. But if your kids reject them anyway, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
One Skillet Butter Beans with Pizza Cheese & Spinach
Butter beans are white lima beans, similar to Greek or Spanish Gigante beans. The beans are larger than regular white beans and hold their shape better, although the mild flavor is similar. Canned butter beans can be found in many grocery stores, but in a pinch you can substitute regular white beans.
This one-skillet meal smothers butter beans with a garlicky tomato sauce, baby spinach and shredded pizza cheese. Says one review on Kitchen Skip, “This was really good! I loved it as it was, but my kids picked out the spinach.” Yep. Mine did too.
Creamy Chicken Paprika
I’ve been craving this dish lately so it’s going to show up on my dinner table soon. Technically, I guess this is a two-pot dinner if you serve noodles on the side, which you should. If your kids (like mine) don’t love the creamy chicken and bell peppers seasoned with paprika, maybe they’ll eat the buttered egg noodles on the side.
Instant Pot Chicken and Dumplings
Instant Pot chicken and dumplings is so cozy and comforting. The dumplings give the broth a rich texture and have a half fluffy, half doughy texture that one of my kids loves (me too). Keep this one in mind for when the weather gets chilly.
(p.s. you can always find these recipes later in the archives or on my website Kitchen Skip)
Dinner Last Week
I’m always curious about what other families are eating. Aren’t you? Here’s what my crew ate last week.
Monday: It was Rosh Hashanah and I decided to serve a vegetarian holiday meal, which turned out to be an okay-ish 7 vegetable tagine. It was fine, but not amazing. I seem to have this “meh” feeling whenever I don’t serve meat or seafood for a holiday meal (two years ago I made a vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner….never again). So I’m thinking maybe we’ll be a mostly vegetarian family, except for holidays?
Tuesday: Clearly, I was craving meat because on this night I made Instant Pot pork butt, which is delicious. It’s easy and affordable too, and you can get more than one meal out of it (see Wednesday). I served the shredded pork in rice bowls with shredded cabbage and carrot and Glory Bowl salad dressing.
Wednesday: We ate shredded pork again, this time as burritos. I crisped up the pork in a skillet and served it with rice and beans, avocado, cilantro, etc…
Thursday: Random leftovers
Friday: My husband Sorin made his veggie stew, which is a blend of cauliflower, carrots, potatoes and zucchini with a few spices and coconut milk.
Cookbooks
You guys, I don’t know, I just haven’t had the bandwidth to look at cookbooks lately. Usually, I love flipping through cookbooks for inspiration. I think I’m too tired to be inspired right now?
But I have been enjoying my before bedtime reading, including Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason and Booth by Karen Joy Fowler.
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Last Sunday we had a beach + bagels day, which was lovely. This weekend we’re seeing an old friend who’s visiting from London and maybe, just maybe, it will finally be cool enough to set pumpkins out on our front porch.
xo
Jenny
P.S. If you’ve enjoyed this free newsletter, hitting the heart button is great way to show your support. Thanks!