Easy Beef Stew in the pressure cooker

Sometimes it's a struggle fixing dinner when you get home from work. If I don't have an idea ahead of time, we might end up getting drive thru. But there are some instances that I get home, look in my fridge and create something with whatever I have. Last Friday night was that night. 

How easy is this recipe? So easy that I didn't have time to photograph the items or the steps!

I have the Bella brand pressure cooker. I know it is different from the Instant Pot and other pressure cooking settings, so choose your preference. I've seen many recipes use the manual setting instead of the presets. 

Ingredients:

• (1) lb stew meat - Or you could keep this recipe meatless.
• (1/2) bag of potatoes - I had this half bag of potatoes from possibly a couple of months ago. They were already "growing" roots. I pulled the roots off and peeled the skin before adding them in. 
• (2) bags of frozen vegetables - I used a stir fry and a california style vegetables. Since I did not have my usual seasoning blend of veggies (onions, red peppers, green peppers, etc), I cooked the onions, carrots and red pepper with the meat as it was searing. The california style veggies are broccoli, cauliflowers and carrots.
• (1) small can of cream of mushroom soup
• (1) can of diced tomatoes - I used the canned tomatoes with chilies
• (1) can of water (after I added the tomatoes in the pot)
• seasonings: smashed garlic, garlic powder, onion powder, pinch of paprika, McCormick grill mates in flavor Montreal Steak (contained salt), and salt and pepper to taste.

Instructions:

1. Turn on pressure cooker and set to SAUTE. Cook meat, onions, peppers and garlic until the meat is almost fully cooked. 
2. Add the diced tomatoes and cream of mushroom soup. I did not have any chicken or beef stock, so I added a can full of water. Make sure the soup and water are incorporated. 
3. add the sliced and cut potatoes on top of the meat and diced tomatoes.
4. Add the frozen vegetables on the top, and add more water until the veggies are covered.
5. Change setting on pressure cooker to STEW or SOUP and cook for 15-20 min. Since the meat is already cooked, you want to make sure the potatoes cook. I left the cooker for 20 minutes and my potatoes were soft. 
6. Quick release the pressure, and your stew is complete. 

There has been a couple times when I cook the vegetables a little too much. In this case, the peas came out of their pods, the potatoes were a little over cooked, and my cauliflower melted into the soup. I also wish I had some corn to add in. But I used what I had in my kitchen and saved these items from being wasted.

Do you have some quick go-to dinner recipes? Let me know!

Recipe Test: Zucchini Lasagna Rollups

I tried making Zucchini Lasagna Rollups for dinner on Tuesday night. It kept showing up on my Facebook news feed, so I had to try it out. Although I sliced my fingers twice, I think I still did a good job. Lorenzo really liked it!

I will share a few tips on what I learned from this recipe:

Two 15 oz containers of ricotta cheese will give you more than enough spread. I had enough of everything to make two trays. If I had used a 9 x 13 inch pan like the instructions said to use, I might not have had extra.

Make sure you have a good knife to cut THIN slices of the zucchini. This is where the cuts on my fingers came from. If the slices aren't at least 1/8th of an inch, you will not be able to roll them. I should just call mine zucchini fold ups.

I could only roll up TWO.

I had tons of extra odd cut pieces from the 5 zucchinis the recipe asked me to purchase. I'm not one to waste, so I made another zucchini lasagna where I layered sauce, ricotta cheese mix, mozzarella and zucchini over and over until everything was used up. The second lasagna could have also been stored in the freezer for a later dinner.

Ricotta cheese is MESSY! Be prepared to have your fingers drenched in cheese and sauce while making this. I promise I washed my hands every time I tried rolling a few of them.

If you take time to cook a delicious meal and he has to wait a few hours to eat, he might just set the table. :)

Even though I had struggles, this was an easy meal to put together. The zucchinis were perfectly cooked and had a little crunch. And this meal satisfied my desire for a pasta meal. Enjoy!