#MomLife: One Pot Dinners

#BUSYMOM #NOTIME #SOTIRED #EATWHATEVER #EASYDINNERS #SOHUNGRY #ISTHISEXPIRED #LEFTOVERS #MYKIDTHREWFOODATME #IFORGOTTOADDSALT

FYI, i'm eating 3 (small) scoops of strawberry ice cream with bananas as I write this post. Somehow, in my own little head, the bananas over power the ice cream making my 11 PM snack 10 times more healthier. Again, this is in my own head. I could just be adding extra calories and making myself happy for no reason. Feel free to judge my "healthy eating" choices.  This post is suppose to be about the one pot dinners that have no become my life.

I'm not sure why I hadn't thought of this before. I would over complicate my life, and become extremely overwhelmed when it came to meal time. Since Zoe has been eating solids, I feel as though i've had to become more creative in my meal ideas. I find it very important to introduce new tastes and textures into her diet often to keep her from becoming a picky eater. As of right now, she eats anything and everything in sight and belief it or not she has my eating habits - good or bad i'm not sure! I digress, as I was saying, one pot dinners have become my life now! I love the idea of throwing my favourite ingredients into one pot and let it work it's magic while I tend to other things. This gives me the opportunity to not have to use my brain too much, and making things less stressful. At this point i'm concerned with teaching my child the basics (because according to the parental police, I am way behind in that department) and that means food sometimes takes the back burner (HA! see what I did there!?). 

For this particular recipe (who am I kidding), I had some chicken that needed to be cooked asap but I wasn't in the mood for a dry fry or deep fried chicken. What I really wanted is the stock. So here's what I did, lightly fry the chicken with a few vegetables on medium to high heat, added my desired spices, a few glasses of water and POP! put the pressure cooker lid on. Yes, I said pressure cooker - these things are a life saver!! I use them on the daily. They cook food quickly and thoroughly, especially meats! I let my concoction cook for 15-20 minutes in the cooker before turning the stove off and letting the steam settle on it's own. I checked to make sure that it's to my liking and then put it back on the burner on a high flame, bringing the liquid to a boil. For this particular day, I added large shell pasta for a change but you can substitute using whatever carb you desire, be it rice or couscous, etc. 

I have made several variations using minced meats, beef and lamb. If i'm sharing this dish with the little one (which I often do) I hold the chili a bit or add it to my own portion later on. I'd love to hear your one-pot dinner ideas and what your meal time secrets are! 

Happy New Year!

- SMS XO