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Tasty Taco Salad

As part of my Instant Pot challenge, I have been cooking for my family of five using only my pressure cooker. Why you might ask? Well, mainly out of necessity and desire to continue to feed my family well, whilst we refurbish our kitchen.

The easier option of course would be to buy microwave meals, but I really enjoy real food! I also know that within days, I would be feeling down and drained of energy eating frozen meals.

As part of this journey, I am aiming to develop a number of “base meals” that create easy to adapt meals to reduce mealtime stress. This base ground beef recipe will probably start to reappear in other meals, which if you are a busy Mum like me, is great. The less work the better.

I keep my base recipe reasonably simple to satisfy young kids, however, if you know your family likes it hot, feel free to spice it up! Or do like me, and add fresh chili as a side.

I like to set up taco nights as a self-serve experience. Think taco-tapas! The kids love it and everyone gets to have what they enjoy most. Feel free to pick and choose your favourite toppings, and experiment with my recipes.

My beef recipe suffices for two full meals for five, there will be lots of meat leftover to use in another meal or freeze for your next taco evening.

GROUND BEEF INGREDIENTS

  • 2 Tbsp olive oil or coconut oil, for frying
  • 1 small red onion, diced
  • 1kg organic ground beef
  • 1-2 Tbsp taco seasoning (no added sugar)
  • 1 cup beef broth
  • 2 Tbsp tomato paste

TAPA STYLE TACO TOPPINGS

  • 70g mixed leaves
  • 100g cherry tomatoes
  • 100g sliced cucumbers
  • 200g grated cheese
  • 1 fresh chili, finely sliced (for those who like it hot)
  • 150g corn
  • Taco chips
  • Guacamole
  • Mayonaise

GROUND BEEF INSTRUCTIONS (INSTANT POT)

  1. Select Saute on the Instant Pot and allow it to warm up.
  2. Add olive oil and red onion into the inner pot, allow to saute for 2-3 minutes then add the ground beef and taco seasoning. Using a wooden spoon, brown the meat. End saute.
  3. Add beef broth and tomato paste to the pot. Close the lid and turn the valve to seal.
  4. Select Pressure Cook for 15 minutes. Once finished, carefully force release.
  5. Finally, select saute for a further 10 minutes to allow the meat to reduce.
  6. Serve with the tapa toppings and allow every to create their own salad.

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Instant Pot Challenge

Have you ever had to live without a kitchen? What was your plan of attack? For the coming weeks, we are undertaking a full kitchen refurbishment and our entire kitchen has been taken away with the exception of our fridge and freezer.

If I wanted to make life simple, I could go buy five microwave meals or order take out every night. However, I love real food too much, and like to know my children are getting as much nourishment as possible when eating at home. My solution is my Instant Pot!

If you haven’t yet encountered an Instant Pot, let me introduce you! An Instant Pot is a multi-function cooker that allows for “hands-free” cooking. Multi-cookers provide versatile cooking methods including pressure cooking, slow cooking, and sautéing, all in the one appliance.

For the coming weeks, I will cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner, only using my multi-cooker… so what this space, and let’s see what I come up with!