Oh, Instant Pot, How do I love thee? Let me count the ways!

I have joked for a year now that I've sold so many people on getting an Instant Pot that I needed to get an affiliate link to monetize the process. So, I did. :-)

We are wanting to pay down travel debt from living overseas, provide extra-curriculars for our younger kiddos (sports and theater), and save for some family mission trips, so this is almost literally the least I can do. I love, love, love my Instant Pots, and people hear me rave about them constantly, so I decided to blog my passion to see if I can turn that into some $$$ for the family (probably more like $).

Why I love my Instant Pots,
by Cara Key

(I'll be back with links to other posts. Once I write them.)

1. I don't have to thaw meat/poultry. Okay, with chicken (we like boneless thighs), I microwave them enough to be able to break them apart to fit in the IP, but that's it. It adds time to come to pressure, but it saves time in putting them in the fridge to thaw (and then having plans change and having to scramble to cook them, even when we don't need them; not that that ever happens) or thawing them in the microwave and have portions become rubbery or leave them out on the counter to catch/develop some lovely, disease-bearing bacteria.
2. I don't have to babysit the food while it's cooking. I throw it in, set it, and walk away until it's depressurized, or it's time for me to do a quick-release of the pressure.
3. Make extracts in a fraction of the time. Homemade vanilla in three months or three hours? I don't know, which would you pick?
4. Yummy desserts that can be perfected and duplicated. 'Nough said.
5. My 12yo & 16yo, who both have autism spectrum diagnoses are learning simple recipes that they can duplicate easily, contributing to their growing independence, including being responsible for certain kitchen tasks that help the family.
6. My 18yo is learning recipes and shortcuts that he take with him when he moves into his own place eventually (with the 6qt I have put back for him; yeah, that's why I needed an 8qt #mmhm).
7. My husband can get Sunday lunch started at his leisure before he leaves for church, and we have a hot meal ready for us when we get home (because ain't no way I'm doing it before I leave at 0'dark-thirty; don't want to wake him and the kids I'm not taking with me #mmhm).
8. Get home from work or co-op at 4:00 or later, start dinner, and have it ready to eat in time to get everyone back out the door for evening activities.
9. Cook up dried beans with about 5mins of hands-on time (for basic beans) and achieve my goal of using from-dried beans, rather than canned exclusively.
10. Easily make and freeze perfect rice to pull out for later meals. (Or, more likely, make twice as much as we need at a time and freeze half for later.)
11. Cook large amounts of ground beef with minutes of hands-on time, divide and freeze for later.
12. Large amounts of fresh plain yogurt, like we were used to buying in the Middle East.
13. Boiled eggs that fall out of the shells. (Which is my 16yo's job)
14. Perfecting a recipe and having it turn out pretty much the same every time.