A Week in the Life of my Instant Pot

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Time. Time seems to be the biggest issue that people find prevents them from cooking from scratch. Whether it’s forgetting to take something out of the freezer or just being worn out after a long day, the reason people turn to processed food or takeout is because they just don’t have time to make dinner. Being completely honest, we run into the same issues. My husband and I will look at each other and say “I don’t feel like cooking.” Then we end up with takeout. It’s a rule though, that unless there are extenuating circumstances, we only get takeout once per week and it’s on the weekend. That means the rest of the week is on me. I love having quick frozen meals on hand and it’s one of the reasons why we can so much too.  The other way I like to handle this situation is using the instant pot. They seem to be losing popularity which baffles me because we use ours constantly. Here’s a breakdown of a week in the life of our instant pot. 

Instant Pot vs. Ninja Foodi

Let’s get one thing clear. When I refer to our “Instant Pot” I’m actually referring to our Ninja Foodi. We got it for our wedding and it’s still the best gift that we got. However, not many people know what a Foodi is which makes this article a little more difficult. Since the majority of what we do uses the same functions as an instant pot, I’m referring to it as an instant pot.

However, I do think you should look into the Foodi vs. an instant pot. One of the reasons that instant pots are losing popularity is the room that we have in our kitchen. If you, like us, lack space then the Ninja Foodi is the best tool. It’s an instant pot, slow cooker, and air fryer all in one. People also love air fryers but you’ll see them all over at thrift stores too. The same thing applies, people only use them sparingly and they don’t have space. When you have a tool like the Foodi, it gets used more often and it’s just one gadget that you have to keep instead of three. 

Monday

Kicking off a week in the life of my instant pot with one of my favorite things. I love starting our week by cooking a frozen chicken in the instant pot. One homegrown chicken will give us 3-5 meals depending on what we do with it so this sets us up for a super easy week of meals. 

My favorite way to cook chicken in the instant pot is to simply cook it directly from frozen. I add the frozen chicken to the pot with some water (I don’t usually measure it but it’s probably 2-3 cups). The water will turn into a broth which can be used for soup or cooking so it’s another way to make something and have it for later. Just another benefit to the instant pot. 

Anyways, put the chicken and water in the instant pot and pressure cook for 45 minutes. If it’s a particularly extra large bird, I’ll add 5 or 10 minutes but usually 45 minutes works perfectly for chicken that falls off the bone. 

I’ll let that chicken sit in the pot until I’m ready to do something with it. Even if I cook it in the morning it’ll stay warm all day if I just leave it on. I typically turn it off about 30-40 minutes before I’m ready to debone it and pour out the broth so it can cool. I also don’t season it before cooking because we don’t know what we are going to do with it. I’ll season it as I add it to each meal. 

For this specific chicken our first meal was chicken enchiladas. I’d made some extra homemade tortillas for the freezer so those were also ready to go and we had the enchilada sauce canned in the basement so it was a super easy meal. 

Tuesday

We used the instant pot twice on Tuesday! 

The first thing I did with it was cook butternut squash for my daughter. The easiest way to do this is to just put it in the trivet with 1 cup of water. That’r sight, put the whole squash right in there! Then you just pressure cook it for 25 minutes and let it naturally release for 10 minutes. When it’s cooled you can cut it in half, scoop out the guts, and then scoop out the rest of the squash from the shell. We mashed it up a bit for her and it worked perfect for a few dinners. 

The second thing we did with the instant pot on Tuesday is to cook rice. This is, honestly, one of my absolute favorite ways to use the instant pot. Prior to having it, I don’t think I ever cooked rice in the pan. It just never turned out right for me. Now that we have the instant pot it’s so much easier to cook and it turns out perfect every time. 

My recipe for rice is so simple. Add 2 cups of rice and 3 cups of water to the pot. Pressure cook for 22 minutes and naturally release for 10 minutes. 

If I’m being honest, I typically make this in the middle of the day and then just let it stay in the pot on warm until I’m ready to turn it into dinner. It’s a huge time saver because I’m not rushing around trying to get it done and it keeps it nice and warm for hours until I’m ready for it. 

For this meal we used a bed of rice and topped it with a ranch chicken and veggie mixture. Yes, that’s right- we used another portion of the chicken from yesterday too! I guess that means 3 pieces of what we ate today were from the instant pot. When I combined that chicken with some canned veggies it made for a super quick dinner and my husband said it was definitely a keeper. 

Wednesday

Halfway through a week in the life of my instant pot and today we are making mashed potatoes. What else do you serve with meatloaf? Canned potatoes are super close to being ready to mash but they need a little more cooking. I absolutely hate boiling them because for some reason they always boil over and it causes the biggest starchy mess. 

When I’m using canned potatoes I’ll just pressure cook them with a cup of water for about 10 minutes and let them naturally release. This is another item that I’ll let sit on warm until I’m ready to deal with them. That’s one of the best features of the instant pot, really!

If you are using raw potatoes you’ll want to pressure cook them for about 20 minutes. 

Thursday

Maybe take a day off? 

Just kidding, today we’re making cookies. I use frozen scoops of cookie dough and bake them in the instant pot. I try to use a low temperature with a higher time when I’m baking because otherwise I find that the outside gets cooked but the inside does not. 

This is another reason I prefer the Ninja Foodi- it bakes too! In the fall I typically make some apple crisps for the freezer and this is one of my favorite ways to heat them up. Resource-wise, this makes even more sense because it is far easier and far cheaper than heating up our entire oven and using up a bunch of propane. 

In fact, if you are someone who doesn’t want to use a microwave I would argue that this could be an even more beneficial tool for you! It’s so easy to reheat leftovers and they will stay warm until you are ready to use them! Grab a silicone liner and throw those leftovers on it for heating. 

Friday

I volunteered to bring deviled eggs to Easter this weekend so I want to get ahead of making them. Using the instant pot is the absolute best way to hard boil eggs. I go into detail on it in this post but I’ll give a quick overview here too. 

Wash your eggs and put them in the trivet. Pressure cook for 7 minutes, let them naturally release for 7 minutes, and then put them in cold water for 7 minutes. 

I’ve found with this method our farm fresh eggs peel perfectly and it’s the most hands off method so I can make them while doing something else. 

Weekends

This is the most boring part of a week in the life of my instant pot. Weekends don’t call for much use other than heating food up. We’ll typically do some chicken strips from our local butcher or some frozen french fries. Again, the oven part of the Ninja Food and the air frier features are so useful when it comes to these. I don’t have to heat my whole oven up and we can have good food quickly.

In Summary: A Week in the Life of my Instant Pot

It’s very interesting for me to see instant pots at thrift stores already but I get it. If we didn’t use ours as often as we do, I’d get rid of it too. I think it’s important to realize that all these people out here cooking from scratch aren’t necessarily doing it on the fly. Yes, there are nights where I make everything all at once and I use no extra gadgets. However, those nights are actually few and far between. Most of the time I’m using something to make my life easier. Sometimes that means we can different things- like meat, soup, or chili base- to make dinners quicker. On top of that we freeze some things to make them quick and easy to use. Beyond that, it comes down to the tools that I have at my disposal. This example of a week in the life of my instant pot is not an unusual one. In fact, this is pretty much a typical week for us. This particular post is the exact reason I think everyone should have a Ninja Foodi in their kitchen (and I’m not affiliated with Ninja either).