When to Salt Food; Maple-Glazed Pressure Cooker Carrots - not THM

Tonight I decided to try my hand at cooking carrots via a pressure cooker to save time since I was out with my mother all afternoon.  I found this recipe on www.hippressurecooking.com and decided to give it a whirl since the rest of our meal wasn't on plan with Trim Healthy Mama.

Maple-Glazed Pressure Cooker Carrots with Raisins

RECIPE ALTERATIONS - When to salt your food

Salt.  Seriously? A recipe without salt???  Yah, no.  So I added salt before pressurizing the cooker.  Chefs will all tell you that food needs seasoning and what they really mean is salt (and pepper).  Also, if you really want the food to be flavorful, you add the salt before cooking (with a few exceptions) so that the salt gets into the food and not just lay on top of it.  America's Test Kitchen even did an experiment on the subject. So if you want to know more on the subject and how to salt your food if you forget to salt early on, I highly recommend reading their test results and recommendations. 

I also added pepper before pressurizing.  The recipe said it was an optional when combining with the maple syrup and butter. 

I used golden raisins just because I prefer them over standard red raisins.  I like their flavor better.

STARS and TRIM HEALTHY MAMA
Hubby gave this recipe four stars.  Hubby thinks that Grand Marnier would make it ever so much better.

I gave it five stars. The raisins were so yummy with the carrots.  They plumped up nice during cooking.  Definitely repeatable, but probably only for holiday meals since it isn't on THM plan.  I am going to try to figure out how to make it on plan with my maple extract and maybe nutritional yeast to give it a buttery flavor.

The Pressure Cooker - My new best friend...BBQ Pork

One of my newest pieces of equipment is my pressure cooker.  I'm very new to the land of pressure cooking, but am very excited.  I have a Fissler Vitavit Premium 10 Qt pressure cooker.  I love it!  It allows me to cook proteins so quickly that I don't have to know what I'm cooking in the morning anymore to make sure that I allow enough time for long cook times.

A lot of my friends have gotten into pressure cooking lately. Most of them use the Instant Pot.  After much research, so much so that I thought my head was going to explode, we ended up with the Fissler Vitavit.  We went for the 10 Qt pressure cooker in hopes that I'll be able to pressure can small batches of things.  You can always cook smaller amounts in a larger pressure cooker, but you can't always cook larger in a smaller pressure cooker as you can only fill it 1/2 - 2/3 full depending on what you're cooking.

America's Test Kitchen's review on pressure cookers is what sealed the deal on the Fissler brand. There were other great reviews out there, but ATK's review convinced hubby that this is the one for us. (I had asked him to pick, as my head was spinning in trying to decide.)  We ended up buying it on eBay and it looked like it hadn't been used more than a couple of times, if that, by the time we got it.  God really blessed us with a great deal on a top of the line pressure cooker.

Last night's dinner was a pressure cooker meal.  My second pressure cooker meal ever.  So I'm still learning.  One of the things that I do when I'm learning on how to cook using a new method or a new protein, I Google it.  I searched for recipes for both ideas on the recipe and ideas on how to do something. My favorite way of cooking is not following a recipe but using a recipe to get my thinking juices going.  So that is what I did to make the BBQ pork.

First things first.  I put the pressure cooker on the heat for a couple of minutes to heat up the pan.  Then only after the pan was heated, I added Red Palm Oil.  While all of this is going on, I start working on the pork roast.

As reminded in the Julie and Julia movie, it is best to dry meat before searing as it allows for a better crust to be made.  As Chef Anne Burrell says all the time, "Brown food really tastes good!"  So drying the meat is very important step.  I used paper towels.

I then cut the roast into chunks to speed cooking.  The last time I used the pressure cooker, I cooked the pork roast whole, which is great for serving a pretty roast.  I was planning on pulling this pork before serving, so I took the faster cook route of cutting up the roast.

In looking at the recipes online, I wasn't really happy with one recipe, so after reading multiple recipes, I landed on this.

RUB

1 tbsp Onion granules (yes, I see that I mis-spelled on my spice containers...oops)

1 tsp Garlic granules

1 tsp Smoked paprika, hot (I wish I wrote this down last night...this morning, I'm starting to wonder if I did 2 tsp.)

Salt (be generous with this...under salted meat doesn't taste good and the other spices don't taste as flavorful either. I didn't measure this out, but I imagine it was at least 2 tsp worth...maybe more. I use Himalayan pink salt) 

Pepper

I coated the pork with the rub till it was covered completely.  Then seared them on all sides to get a nice brown crust.

BBQ SAUCE

While the pork was searing, I prepared the rest of the recipe.

1/2 sweet onion, diced

1/2 cup BBQ sauce

1/2 cup water

1 Bay Leaf (Edit: I forgot to include the bay leaf in my original post.)

A word on the BBQ sauce.  I used G Hughes Smokehouse Sugar Free BBQ Sauce, Hickory Flavored.  It is the best sugar free BBQ sauce that is hubby approved, however, it isn't on plan with Trim Healthy Mama as it is sweetened with sucralose.  It is one of my Drive Thru Sue short cuts that was purchased pre-THM that I will use up and then will re-evaluate what I will do.  We found this sauce at Bulk Nation.

After the pork was brown on all sides, I added the above BBQ sauce mixture, and made sure all of the pieces were covered with sauce.  Then I got the pressure cooker covered and up to pressure on setting 2 for high pressure. 

TIME

The recipes that I referenced they talked about cooking it for an hour at pressure.  Since I cut the pieces into chunks, I thought that I'd try 40 minutes.  According to PorkBeInspired.com site, the roast would be done at 145-160 degrees.  Well after 40 minutes, my roast was 202 degrees.  So, next time I'm going to shave off some more time. The meat was pull apart delicious.  

After cooking, I let the roast rest for 5-10 minutes and then I pulled it using two forks right in the BBQ sauce mixture. 

                                   

Almond Green Beans

I served the pulled BBQ pork with sauteed fresh green beans.  I used red palm oil as the fat and heated the pan and fat up just as I had before adding the pork.

After rinsing the beans, I trimmed each end.  (My guinea pigs love this...so I gave them all the end pieces.)

Diced two garlic cloves

Almond slices

Sauteed the green beans first, then added the garlic cloves. Be sure to not burn the garlic cloves.  When my pan was getting dry, I added a bit of water and that saved my cloves from getting burned and steamed the green beans too.  Near the end, I added the almond slices.  Toss then serve.

STARS

Least to say, dinner was five stars for both hubby and me. Which means that we not only liked it, we loved it and want it again in the future.

"Julie and Julia" Inspired Me

It has been a while since I blogged.  I had surgery which totally changed my life and getting back into the grove of things was just hard.  I admit it. My medicine for my neurological condition doesn't help and living with constant discomfort/pain is wearing.

On Monday, hubby and I were watching the movie Julie and Julia based upon Julie Powell who started a blog to document her journey to cook through Julia Childs' book Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a year.   Hubby found the DVD at a thrift store today and bought it because I love cooking.  In the movie Julie Powell states that she gave herself the deadline to motivate her to accomplish something.  This inspired me.

I'm resuming blogging, but with a twist.  I'm adding my attempts to improve my cooking ability and my learning the Trim Healthy Mama plan.  I'm also going to add other bits and pieces of my health journey.

Have comments, questions, or just want to let me know that you're there with me, please post in the comments below.

The 15 Minute Timer and The 5 Minute Timer

Last time I told you about a friend of mine years ago introduced me to the FlyLady by letting me borrow her book, "Sink Reflections." This book helped me multiple ways.

Here is the second way...

2. The timer

      As I mentioned in my prior post, I have ADHD, and I'm easily overwhelmed by large tasks.  The 15 minute timer became my friend.  I could do anything for 15 minutes and was shocked to find out what I could accomplish in 15 minutes.  I'm most successful, when I use the 15 minute timer and 5 minute timer. Let me explain. 

A.  The 15 minute Timer

     If I have a task before me, let's face it, when do I not have one before me?  I digress.  If I have a task before me, I set a timer for 15 minutes. During that 15 minutes, I work on that task.  Nothing is allowed to distract me (see side note below for mothers and fathers), and I am to work on that task and that task alone non stop for 15 minutes.   

    Side note for mothers and fathers: OK, if I had kids and a crying baby, that would be an exception to allowing myself to get distracted...but I started this as a single woman and do this now as a married woman with no kids.  So I have a little bit more control on this.  My recommendation for those of you who have children is to tell them that mom or dad will be available in "__" (fill in the blank with how many minutes left on your timer) to answer their question or help them or whatever is needed.  If it is a baby, then use your best judgement on how to handle.

    B. The 5 minute Timer

  

    So this is my FAVORITE Timer!  If you are like me, you have things you want to do, but you feel guilty about doing it because of all of the things that need doing.  This timer is GUILT FREE time to do whatever, within reason, I want to do!!!! Want to read a book, watch TV (or the more modern stream something online), work on a hobby, peruse Facebook, go for it!  It is your time. You earned it with working during the 15 minute timer.  

    How it works:

    Now when my buzzer goes off, I have a decision to make.  I can go take my 5 minute break now guilt free or, if I'm on a roll and want to, I can keep working.  When I'm ready to take a break, I can now take a break for longer.  For example, if I worked non stop for 30 minutes, I can now take a 10 minute break.  Make sense?

    Basically, the 15 minute timer is a minimum timer...it is the minimum amount of time that I have to work for.  The 5 minute timer is a maximum timer...it is the maximum amount of time that I can take a break, unless I worked 30 minutes or more as explained above.

     Side note for mothers and fathers: I would also expand my "break" time so that you have 5 or 10 minutes to deal with the children's needs and then 5 minutes to be your break.

I'm Not Alone

A friend of mine years ago introduced me to the FlyLady by letting me borrow her book, "Sink Reflections."  This book helped me multiple ways.

Here is the first way...

1. I'm not the only one who struggles with clutter and messiness

        I don't know about you, but for the longest time I thought that I was alone in this struggle and that everyone else lived a virtual clutter free life.

      OK, so I didn't think noone had clutter, but I didn't think that they had my level of messiness!  Or if they were messy as children, that they got their act together by the time they were an adult, unlike me.

     Knowing that I wasn't alone was a tremendous help.  The book helped show me that there ARE others like me out this world.

Do you or have you ever felt this way?  Please share in the comments.

Me and Cleaning - Not two words my parents would put together in a sentance

Here I am launching my blog with a confession.  I hate cleaning.  I mean avoid it all costs, run away from, procrastinate from ... OK, you get the picture.

When I was a child, my poor parents and I fought endlessly over my messy room, and I mean MESSY!  I would hide out in the closet or bathroom with a book to avoid cleaning it.

Now as a 41 year old woman, I have learned a lot about myself.  I have learned that one of the main reasons that I avoided cleaning was because I was overwhelmed by the task.  Either I didn't have a place to put everything or the cleaning process was too complicated (granted, this is an ADHD's girl's definition of complicated :)  ).

My cleaning journey is just that a journey.  Come join me on this journey as I share how the Lord is helping me overcome a lifelong battle with a messy and dirty home.