I have a love affair with kitchen gadgets. My cupboards are full of things to make healthy eating quicker and easier.  I often ask myself the question, “Do I need all of these gadgets?” The answer of course, is YES! I don’t want to spend my time dicing up onions when I can use a food processor; I have no idea how to get juice out of celery without my juicer. I make homemade yogurt and fruit leathers for my kiddos with my dehydrator. We drink healthy smoothies every morning from our Vitamix blender. The list could go on and on but I just can’t seem to part with any of them.

One of my favorite gadgets is my Instant Pot (IP)!   If you haven’t dove into the world of electric pressure cookers you probably have no idea what an Instant Pot is. I just want to share some of my thoughts on this amazing kitchen gadget that has made dinner time faster at my house.

The Instant pot is an electric pressure cooker that offers 7 appliances in 1, including: a slow cooker, a pressure cooker, a rice cooker/porridge maker, a steamer, a sauté pan, a yogurt maker, and a keep warm serving pot. It comes with a stainless steel pot instead of a nonstick pot included with other brands of electric pressure cookers. The IP is very easy to use and can be an awesome idea for those who do not have a lot of kitchen space. My family went to Florida for a vacation and we took our IP with us so that we would be able to make quick and easy meals even while we were away from home.

We eat a lot of Wildtree Freezer Meals at our house. I love the simplicity of making meals ahead of time. I especially love things that go into the crock pot so that I don’t have to think about it. But I can’t tell you how many times I have forgotten to put my dinner in the crock pot first thing in the morning. So there I am at noon trying to figure out dinner because my roast needs 8-10 hours in the crock pot. What a bummer! That isn’t a problem now that I have an electric pressure cooker. I stick it in the pot, close the lid and press the meat button, 50 minutes shows up and I let it go.  When the time is up, I am alerted that the deliciously seasoned roast is about ready. Now I can open the lid and add my carrots and potatoes to the pot, turn it on for 10 more minutes and then dinner is ready to be served.  (Just an FYI, boneless skinless chicken breasts are ready to serve in 15 minutes!) I also love making bone broth in the IP, it’s so quick! Instead of a batch of broth taking 24 hours on the stove or in the crock pot, I can make a batch of broth in the IP in 4 hours. This is a huge time saver and because of the “keep warm” feature, I can turn it on before I go to bed and it is ready when I wake up.

The Instant Pot was definitely a good investment for me and my family and I foresee myself using it for years to come.