I just got back from a wonderful week of family, fun, delicious food, no sleep from late night heart-to-heart chats, and wonderful patriotic festivities. I am from a wonderful little town in Idaho called Rupert and they go BIG for the 4th of July. There is a big parade around the adorable downtown "square" and everyone in this town of 5,000 people shows up for it!

I hadn't been home for the 4th of July since high school and I admittedly forgot what I was missing out on! The Fourth of July hasn't felt this festive to me in 13 years! Nobody does it like Rupert.

Anyway, I got to stay with numerous members of my family and in-laws along my long journey and it is always so fun to stay and have dinner with different families. It is always inspiring and gives me lots of great ideas for when I get home.

I got an Instant Pot probably about a year or so ago and I haven't used it nearly as much as I should. I see the value in it and how quickly it whips up meals, but for some reason, it intimidates me a bit. Until I went to my sister Heather's. She absolutely changed my mind about the Instant Pot because she uses hers constantly! In fact, she uses hers so often that she got a second one for Mother's Day and she is in heaven! Now she can make rice in one Instant Pot and her favorite meatballs in the other one and dinner is ready in less than a half hour with very little clean up. Her bubbling energy and excitement about her easy Instant Pot dinners were the evidence I needed!

Here is my favorite recipe she made for us for dinner. It was one pot spaghetti--you cook everything in that Instant Pot, including the noodles, and after it gets up to pressure it only cooks for 6 minutes and voila! Spaghetti for days!

You brown up your chopped onion, and a little fresh minced garlic if you're into that kind of thing, and ground beef, and when you finish that, you simply add the rest. You are going to first add your spaghetti noodles, then add the liquid. It's basically a spaghetti sauce that's quite watered down so that there is plenty of liquid to cook those pasta noodles. While I really liked the recipe for the sauce, I usually use Prego sauce that I already have on hand so I am going to experiment with that by mixing equal amounts of water to sauce and see what happens :) I love the flavor of Prego and the ease it brings to a spaghetti meal.

You will want the sauce to barely cover the noodles and be quite runny, and that is the consistency and amount you want. Then you set that pressure to high for 6 minutes, whip up some garlic bread to bake in the oven while that is cooking, and maybe throw together a side salad or vegetable and by the time the spaghetti is done cooking, you are all ready with a full-blown meal with very little cleanup in under 30 minutes! That's what I'm talking about!

Are you completely on board with the Instant Pot or is it a bit intimidating to you as well? Please share your thoughts and your favorite meals to make in the Instant Pot in the comments below!

ONE POT PRESSURE COOKER SPAGHETTI

Prep time:
Cook time:
Yield:

Serving size: 6
Calories per serving: 0

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound ground beef
1 cup chopped onion
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound spaghetti pasta, uncooked4
4 (8-ounce) cans tomato sauce
3 cups water
1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon italian seasoning
1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes
crushed red pepper flakes, to taste
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese


Directions:

Heat the pressure cooker, using the saute mode if it has one, and add the oil. Lightly brown the ground beef , onion, and garlic in the pressure cooker, stirring occasionally to break up the meat. Break pasta noodles, if desired, and layer on top of beef.

Add tomato sauce, water, seasonings, salt and sugar and stir well so ingredients mix and the pasta is coated in sauce.

Close the cover and lock in place. Bring to high pressure and cook for 7 minutes for well done spaghetti, or 6 minutes for al dente. Use the quick release method to release the pressure from the cooker. Stir the cheese in before serving.

Recipe formatted with the Cook'n Recipe Software from DVO Enterprises.