Instant Pot Mushroom Pot Roast

It is getting seriously hot out here in Dallas, Texas! We blew up the little pool and hooked the splash pad up to the sprinkler this week for some outdoor summer fun, and nice cream and no bake treats are on repeat in the kitchen lately. But what about dinner? Turning on the oven just turns our little house into an oven! We can’t have chicken salad or sandwiches every night, right? This is when the Instant Pot saves the day! Well, this and when I forget to defrost the meat, of course.

Anyways, when it’s too hot to turn the oven on, the Instant Pot or the slow cooker is a great option! I have plenty of slow cooker recipes on the blog, but this is only my second Instant Pot recipe. Like most trends, I was late to the game (literally just set up my iPhone 7… only about five generations behind), but now that I’m on the Instant Pot bandwagon, I may never get off!

Now I am a fan of all pot roasts because I’m a big red meat lover, and anything that is flavorful and cut-with-a-fork tender is alright in my book. This pot roast, though, is extra special because it is covered in mushrooms and onions, which are beautifully caramelized by the end of the cook time, and is cooked in red wine which compliments the richness of the meat so perfectly. So if you want shreddably (pretty sure it’s a word) tender pot roast that took a wine bath then got dressed in meaty mushrooms and sweet onions, keep reading for the recipe!

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• Servings: 6-8
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Ingredients

• 2-3 pound chuck roast
• 2 tbsp of olive oil
• One yellow onion, chopped
• 1 cup of sliced white or baby Bella mushrooms
• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 2 tsp of salt
• 1 tsp of dried thyme
• 1 tsp of black pepper
• 1/2 cup of dry red wine (I used Cabernet Sauvignon, but Merlot would be good, too)
• 1/4 cup of water

Directions

1. Turn the Instant Pot to “sauté”
2. Add olive oil when the IP is hot
3. Sauté onions and mushrooms for about 3 minutes, until tender, then add garlic, stirring for about 1 minute.
4. Season the pot roast with salt, pepper, and thyme.
5. With the IP still on “sauté” mode, push the mushroom mixture aside and sear the roast for about 2-3 minutes per side.
6. Next pour in the wine, and allow it to cook (still on “sauté”) for about one minute.
7. Turn off “sauté” mode, add the water, cover, and put the IP on “pressure cook” mode.
8. Cook for 20 minutes per pound, and allow a 20 minute natural pressure release.
9. Shred and serve covered with mushrooms and onions.

You can serve this fantastic pot roast as is, but it is delicious with mashed potatoes and carrots on the side. A classic! This recipe, although simple, really takes classic pot roast and intensifies the flavors, making it like a whole new dish; I hope you give it a try! Check out my other Instant Pot recipe here, and plenty of slow cooker recipes here, here, and here. Keep the oven off, beat the heat…and enjoy your Pinch of Crazy!

This post contains affiliate links; if you purchase using the links, it is of no extra cost to you, just a small commission for me. Thank you for supporting A Pinch of Crazy!

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Meal Plan Month: January Meal Plan 4

January is already coming to a close, which means two things:

1. My first baby will be turning four in a few days. Four!
2. It already looks like 2021 will be flying by. Time just doesn’t stop.

This week, I went back to work for the first time in over a month thanks to Ms. Rona hitting our home after the holidays, we also had our sweet baby in a splint after a fall, and we have not one, not two, but three birthday celebrations (to keep numbers down) coming up for Zemirah. So you could say it was…a week. With A Pinch of Crazy, as always! Enjoy some pictures of the birthday girl – four years has flown by!

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Per usual, meals were kept simple and quick, and because I was buying stuff for the birthday parties, I really tried to keep costs down. Here is what I started with for the week:

Produce- spinach, mashed sweet potato, frozen broccoli, a few carrots and potatoes, apples, bananas, berries, cherry tomatoes, cucumber

Protein- frozen salmon filets, leftover black beans, nut butter, chia and flax seeds

Carbs- brown rice, oats

I was actually able to make two full dinners and prep two breakfasts with just what we already had! Doing kitchen inventory before planning meals can really save a lot of money! Here is what our meals were for the week:

Breakfasts:

Overnight Oats

• Sweet potato muffins topped with peanut butter *This was a concoction I made up to use up those mashed sweet potatoes. I wrote it down and will test it out again to hopefully get the recipe posted here!*
• Overnight oats with chia seeds, cinnamon, and almond butter, topped with bananas
• Breakfast tacos with egg, cheese, salsa, and avocado

Lunches:

• Leftovers
• Sandwiches
• For Z’s school lunch I packed: turkey/mayo roll ups (nitrate free), a green apple, seaweed snacks, broccoli, and a cookie. For her snack I packed: a fruit pouch and cheddar bunnies
• While Z was at school, Selah and I enjoyed a quiet brunch of scrambled eggs with spinach and tomatoes and a side of avocado toast topped with everything bagel seasoning. It was nice to change it up from our usual microwaved leftovers!

Snacks:

• Cliff bars for grownups/fruit bars for Z
• Fruit leathers
• Pouches
• Apples/bananas with peanut butter
• Strawberries with honey (Z’s favorite)
• Chocolate chip lactation cookies (mostly for me, but these only lasted two days hehe)
• Boiled eggs

Dinners:

Slow Cooker Pork Roast

• Monday: Black bean burgers with spinach, avocado, and habanero ranch; fries and cucumber tomato salad on the side
• Tuesday: Slow Cooker Pork Roast with Veggies (this was my day at work, I got home at 6 and dinner was ready for us) with a side of bread and butter
• Wednesday: Salmon *I just cooked in the skillet* with broccoli and brown rice on the side
• Thursday: This was date night! Woo! The girls ate dinner at my parents’ house, and David and I got sushi 🙂
• Friday: Pork tacos with leftover roast and sautéed peppers, onions, and mushrooms; guacamole and plantain chips on the side
• Saturday: Birthday party foods – we are having a rainbow charcuterie board
• Sunday: This is Z’s real birthday so I haven’t planned anything. We are definitely going out for breakfast, and maybe dinner, too. Or we might eat leftovers, or I might just buy some frozen pizzas. It’s up to the birthday girl!

There you have it! Because I was able to plan two meals just with what we had, plus going out one night, this week’s grocery bill was only $60! Now after I added all the birthday party foods, the total doubled, but still not too bad for multiple birthday parties. That’s a plus side of social distancing – not many kiddos get three birthday parties! We are doing a food for every color of the rainbow (red pepperoni, orange crackers, yellow cheese, etc.) and I made pink unicorn sugar cookies, confetti cupcakes (from a box mix), and will do different colored frosting using natural food dye. She is going to have a blast!

If you want to look back on the last few weeks of meal plans click here, here, and here. Maybe these posts can give you some ideas while you’re planning food for next week. Have fun cooking and feeding your family…and enjoy your Pinch of Crazy!

This post contains affiliate links; if you purchase using the links, it is of no extra cost to you, just a small commission for me. Thank you for supporting A Pinch of Crazy!

Meal Plan Month: January Meal Plan 3

The first month of the new year is already almost coming to a close – how has 2021 just started yet is already flying by?! After the last two weeks of craziness, quarantine, and sickness, it was nice to get back to a little bit of normalcy this week. Thankfully the girls and I are all feeling well still, though I stayed home from work (I work one day a week out of the house teaching music lessons) just to ensure my students’ safety, and I taught my one Fit4Mom class virtually again this week. So we had another slow week kind of easing back into our normal schedule, but I still needed lots of quick meals because being stuck at home with two little ones can get a little Crazy!

As I have the past two weeks (read week 1 here and week 2 here) I will share any modifications necessary for the girls. One exciting thing from this week is that I have started introducing some dairy for Selah and me! This was exciting because she used to get terrible tummy pains, and, without too much detail, things were not normal with her diapers, when I would have dairy. Now, not only can I eat dairy, but she can too! I actually got a little too crazy with the grilled cheeses this week and found myself bloated and yucky feeling. Now that the initial excitement of being able to eat grilled cheese is over, I will work on scaling it back again hehe 🙂

Alright, on to the cheesy meal plan!

Doing my “kitchen inventory” this week I had:

• Protein: Greek yogurt, almond/peanut butter, one pound of ground turkey, cheese (how am I still trying to finish up this block of cheese?!), leftover black beans, the last bit of hummus
• Carbs: oats, rice, sweet potatoes, half a package of lasagna noodles, quinoa
• Produce: spinach, berries, bananas, apples, leftover squash, leftover burrito veggies, frozen broccoli

Based on these few things here are the meals I planned:

Breakfasts:

Berries & Greens Smoothie

• I made a “Tex-Mex” breakfast casserole using leftover beans and burrito veggies mixed with scrambled eggs and shredded cheese. I served it topped with avocado slices, hot sauce, and Greek yogurt.
• Berries and Greens Smoothies *I added Collagen Peptides to these for protein*
• Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal *I added almond butter and regular butter for some fat and protein here*

Snacks:

• Cliff bars, Z bars
• Fresh fruit with peanut butter
• Cheddar bunnies
• Seaweed snacks
• Pouches
• Crackers with cheese or hummus (finally finishing that up this week!)

Lunches:

• Leftovers
• Sandwiches (again, with uncured ham or nitrate free turkey lunch meat)
• For Z’s school lunch I packed half a turkey sandwich, seaweed snacks, a pouch, cucumber slices, and dark chocolate candy. For her school snack I packed a Z Bar and a clementine.

Dinner:

Creamy Tomato Basil Soup

• Monday: Grilled cheese (my first real grilled cheese in like a year!) and tomato soup
• Tuesday: Spinach, squash, and turkey lasagna *I simply cooked a spaghetti sauce similar to last week but with turkey meat, mixed some shredded mozzarella with an egg and Italian seasonings, then layered those sauces between noodles and raw spinach and squash. Baked for about 45 minutes, covered for the first 30.*
• Wednesday: Salmon with tzatziki sauce and a quinoa salad with broccoli, tomatoes, avocado, and a hummus based dressing *you can see this dinner on my Instagram highlights*
• Thursday: Sushi bowls *I will be using leftover salmon shredded and mixed with mayo and sriracha, put over cooked brown rice, and top with avocado, cucumber, seaweed snacks, sesame seeds, and coconut aminos*
• Friday: Sweet and sour meatballs with red bell pepper and mushrooms over rice *I will be using this meatball recipe, but with Asian-inspired seasoning, cover in this sweet and sour sauce, then serve over cooked brown rice and with sautéed veggies*
• Saturday and Sunday: last week’s highlights, and we may go out to eat once 🙂

There is our full week of food! I kind of overly stocked up on snacks this week, so hopefully next week that won’t be necessary, as I will also be buying some birthday party foods next week. However, even with stocking up a little more than usual, I did not go too far over budget (I try and keep it at or below $100/week); I spent $110 this week. That may seem like a lot, but for a family of four eating three meals and two snacks a day, seven days a week, that’s really not too bad! We are all big eaters, too, so that’s even better!

According to insider.com the average fast food burger (not the sides, just the burger) cost $2.64 in 2018. I calculated buying 5 burgers for my family (again, no sides) for two meals a day every day and that came out to $184.80 for one week. So even with the “cheaper” option of fast food I would end up spending more per week and we would actually be eating less. Of course this is not even accounting for the health factor of eating home cooked food, which is invaluable, and I feel grateful to be able to serve my family in this way!

I think that covers everything for this week. Next week I’ll finally be going back to work after winter break/quarantine so I will likely have a crock pot meal in the menu sometime. Our sweet Z is turning four next week so I will also be sharing her birthday party foods, so stay tuned for the last meal plan of the month. I hope you can draw some inspiration from these easy meal plans, get in the kitchen, make some good, healthy food…and enjoy your Pinch of Crazy!

This post contains affiliate links; if you purchase using the links, it is of no extra cost to you, just a small commission for me. Thank you for supporting A Pinch of Crazy!

Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos

Who out there doesn’t love tacos? I don’t mean the greasy yet crunchy tacos with questionable meat sold by what I think is a clown…? Although those tacos are tasty, and have their place in college at 2 AM, they do not compare to soft tacos full of tender, shredded chicken topped with guacamole and a squeeze of fresh lime. Yum!

I’ve talked before about my affinity for slow cookers – flavorful yet simple meals ready for you when you walk in the door. Can’t be beat, right? Wrong! Let’s combine slow cooker simplicity with the deliciousness of tacos!!!

Serves 6-8.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs of boneless, skinless dark meat chicken
• 4 cloves of garlic, peeled
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp paprika
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/4-1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• Juice of two limes
• Optional toppings:
  • cilantro
  • onions
  • fresh lime juice
  • hot sauce
  • guacamole
  • salsa

Directions:

• Place chicken and garlic in your slow cooker (I have this small one – it’s on sale right now!)
• Cover with seasonings
• Squeeze lime juice over chicken (I suggest using a manual juicer to get all the juice and none of the pulp or seeds)
• Cook on low for 8-9 hours or on high for 4-5
• Shred chicken
• Serve on tortillas or lettuce wraps with plenty of toppings, and don’t forget the side of guac and plantain chips!
• Leftover meat will keep covered in the fridge for up to a week – it goes great on a taco salad.

I hope this taco recipe can “spice” up your weekend! For more spicy meals, check out my One Pan Chicken and Shrimp Fajitas, Taco Stuffed Potatoes with Avocado Chipotle Ranch, or Spicy Garlic Chicken Nachos. And if you like slow cooker meals, you may also like my Slow Cooker Potato and Kale Soup, Slow Cooker Pork Roast with Veggies, or Slow Cooker Meatballs – can you tell I use my slow cooker often?! I hope these tasty tacos can help simplify your life, and bring peace knowing that you are feeding your family well. Nothing beats taco night! Go ahead and get another scoop of guacamole…and enjoy your pinch of crazy!

This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase using the links, it is of no extra cost to you, just a small commission for me. Thank you for supporting A Pinch of Crazy!