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Besides upgrading to an SSD like another person said, I guess an electronic pressure cooker was a pretty sweet upgrade. It's incredibly multi purpose, cuts cooking time dramatically, allows me to walk away and forget about cooking with no consequence, and often only requires cleaning a single pot for an entire meal.
Like ya know those old TV ads for kitchen gadgets that try desperately to convince you it'll change your life, but you never actually use them? An electronic pressure cooker is one the few cooking gadgets that actually lives up to the hype.
It was an air fryer for me.
I'm disabled, so I'm usually home alone, or cooking one meal for me and my kid. The oven takes about 10 minutes to preheat, and most things take 20 - 30 minutes to cook after that. The air fryer takes about half the time and doesn't need me to turn things.
On top of that, I get memory issues, probably related to ADHD, and sometimes forget that I've got something cooking. The air fryer has a timer and switches itself off. I literally can't burn the food and risk a fire. At worst it goes cold again 🤷🏻♂️
I got an insta-pot a couple years back, but basically only use it for cooking up grains, and beans. What else do you use your's for?
Baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, pasta, yogurt, steamed veggies, lots of rice dishes, pulled pork, chicken, venison, Thanksgiving turkey breast when it’s just the 3 of us
It’s extremely helpful when I forget to thaw meat for dinner (which is more often than not)
There is a trick to the pasta, but it saves me from panic dashing into the kitchen when the pot boils over because I forgot to check it
I cook most of our meals in it. We even have 2 so I can cook the meat separately since I’m vegetarian
But wait! There’s more! (not really, I just know I sound like an infomercial)
How much would you pay? Don't answer! You also get...
LoL
It's great for making chili, since 7 minutes of pressure cooking replaces an hour of simmering, It can make quick rice based meals with the addition of a handful of ingredients like a rice cooker can, and replaces a slow cooker for any meals that require it.
It also can make yogurt, though I haven't tried that yet myself.
The game changer is stock. Keep a bag of vegetable waste (and bones if you’re doing that) in the freezer. Fill to the max line then add cold water to that line as well. Add peppercorns, mustard seeds, whatever and 30 minutes gets you as good as the best store bought for ~free. An hour gets you restaurant style and 1:30 gets you basically rich, dark soup base. I used to roast bones and vegetable bits before boiling to get more color but that’s not required with the instant pot and you also aren’t running a big ol pot on the stove for hours.
Most people don’t make their own stock because it takes so long and is heavily tied to frugality. When you’re getting basically a kitchen defining ingredient for free at the press of a button the calculus changes and also anyone you give food to will be genuinely amazed.
The yoghurt function is good. I don’t eat enough yoghurt to use it but you’re getting homemade for basically the cost of milk.
Mashed potatoes are fast too.