Minestrone Soup is a Copycat Olive Garden that is a perfect family-friendly meal hearty enough for even the biggest appetites.
I hosted dinner for my book club friends this week and decided to do a couple of soups, salad, and dessert. One of the members is a vegan, so I wanted to have good veggie options. I was making a black bean soup in the crockpot, so needed to do the other one on the stove or in the IP. Had a super busy day, so the IP it was.
I’d bookmarked this receipt from somewhere (maybe an IP group I’m part of on Facebook) and decided to give it a go. I mean, what’s not to like about it?
It was super easy! I sautéed the veggies on the stove because I doubled the carrots and celery. Then I basically dumped in everything it called for -- minus the spinach, because I read in the comments that it got overcooked, and minus the pasta because I forgot to put the pasta in. But it was no problem-- I made the pasta on the stove and put it in at the end.
People seemed to like this. I know I did. So I’ll likely make again.
If you're looking for a knock-out recipe that takes minutes to put together, this mouthwatering Sausage Stuffed Spaghetti Squash is it!
When I was making this, before we ate, the phrase that kept going through my head was “unmitigated disaster.” That’s how I felt while preparing this meal.
I wanted to make two squash worth because we’re three people and I have been trying to keep leftovers for lunch. Seems simple enough, right?
I microwaved two spaghetti squashes, each for 10 minutes, so I could slice them open. Great, no problem. I stuffed them with sausage. Easy peasy. I stuck them in the oven. Cool.
After 30 minutes, I took them out, ready to break up the sausage like the recipe said, only to find that the sausage was in fact not cooked all the way through. Like, not even a little. So then I had to take the sausage out of the scorching hot squash, which was NOT easy, put it in a pan, break it up, and brown the meat.
Meanwhile, the undercooked sausage left raw meat juice in the squash bodies. So I had to dump that before I could start shredding the squash. Except.. have you ever tried to do that? The squash were hundreds of degrees warm and slippery on the outside from the meat juice that spilled over the sides. So I put on an oven mitt but that was super bulky. Also, what was I supposed to do with the squash I shredded that still needed to be mixed with sausage? That required another bowl. A big one because I had two squashes’ worth of spaghetti and 2 pounds of sausage.
At that point, I was pretty close to pitching everything in the trash and going to In n Out. But I decided instead I’d pitch one squash, stuff the other, and call it good. I mixed, I re-stuffed, I covered in cheese, I put back in the oven, and I waited another 10 minutes.
When I served it to Michaela, she said, “wow, this is really good! I really like it!” and then she asked for seconds. I was shocked. SHOCKED.
Mike said there was no hint of veggies in it and it was full of sausage and cheese, so of course she liked it. Which is mostly true (although spaghetti squash is a vegetable, damn it!).
If I were ever going to make this again - and let’s be clear, I’m not - I would do so knowing that it needs multiple steps, multiple dishes, etc. And then I would probably not be so disappointed.
Instant Pot Mushroom Risotto - I promise, this is the EASIEST risotto you will ever make right in your pressure cooker without any stirring or any kind of fuss! The risotto comes out perfectly - amazingly rich and creamy, loaded with mushrooms, spinach, peas and freshly grated Parmesan!
Who doesn’t love risotto? And who doesn’t love easy?
When Michaela tried this, she said it tasted the same as my spinach feta orzo. And she’s not wrong (except that this uses parm, not feta). So there’s also an argument to be made for just sticking with that.
In making this, I accidentally forgot to start the pressure cook part of the IP (after sautéing), so I think my rice absorbed a lot of liquid and ended up being more... sticky?... than I wanted. So I’ll give this another try and see if it ends up significantly better or different than my orzo dish. If so, great. If not, I’ll stick with that.
Instant Pot BBQ Pulled Pork - The easiest + BEST pulled pork ever! Serve with your favorite BBQ sauce. So smoky, so flavorful, so juicy, and SO SO GOOD.
When Mike tasted this, he said, “I think this is the first thing you’ve made in the Instant Pot that I really, really like.”
Of course my darling daughter said, “What about the tomato soup? You really like that.” Thereby saving me the trouble of having to point out that either he regularly lies about food I make or maybe that was an exaggeration.
At any rate, this was good!
I used less meat than the recipe called for (I think the package I got was 2.8 lbs, and that included a bone, but I didn’t adjust the spice mix, so it ended up very spiced. And in a bit of a broth, which wasn’t a big deal-- I just used a slotted spoon to scoop out the meat.
The meat shredded super easily and was great on buns with coleslaw and BBQ sauce. I could also see making this meat, skipping the sauce, and putting it on nachos, tacos, or even eggs benedict.
