Instant Pot Sweet Potato, White Bean, Vegetarian Sausage and Kale Soup

Slice two Trader Joe's Italian vegetarian sausages.
Sauté in Instant Pot for a few minutes in a little olive oil till browned.
Remove sausage and set aside in a bowl.

Sautee a chopped onion in a bit more olive oil. After a few minutes, add 2 cubes of frozen Trader Joe's garlic and a cube or two of frozen Trader's Joe's ginger. (Or fresh.)
Grate on some lemon pepper as this cooks.

Add in a large sweet potato or two smaller ones, cut up in small cubes.
Grate on a little salt and pepper.

Add 5 or 6 cups of Veggie Both (whisk Vegetable Better Than Bouillon into boiling water).

Set Instant Pot to pressure cook for 8 minutes and let it release for 10 mins.

Open lid carefully and add a generous amount of chopped Tuscan kale.
Add a can of white beans, drained and rinsed.
Set Instant Pot back to sauté mode and cook for about five minutes to soften the kale.

Stir in the sausage and serve with rosemary crackers and peppered goat cheese medallions.

Very simple, very good granola

Pre-heat oven to 300.

On a cookie sheet, mix well:

5 cups of rolled oats (not the quick-cook type)
1 to 1.5 cups of slivered almonds
.5 to 1 cup of sesame seeds
1 cup sunflower seeds
several twists of pink sea salt

Drizzle olive oil over the top. Then drizzle either maple syrup or honey to taste.
Mix well.
Pop in oven for 10 minutes
Stir again and bake for 10 more minutes
Stir again and bake for a final 5 or 7 minutes. Be careful not to let the almonds get too dark.
(Total baking time  approximately 25 mins.)

Remove from oven and stir and let cool.

When completely cooled, add in a good quantity of chopped dried slab apricots. (I like to use Blenheim from Trader Joe's.)

Store in a sealer container or ziplock.

Serve with sliced nectarines or peaches and milk.

Blueberry Pancakes and Vegetarian Sausages

For two people... (double if desired)

Heat a little olive oil in a medium frying pan. Put in vegetarian sausages and quickly brown the outside to get a good texture. Then turn down and continue to cook.

Beat 3 eggs.
Beat in 1 T olive oil and 1/2 cup milk.

Add in 1 cup Trader Joe's multigrain pancake mix.

Microwave a cup of frozen blueberries until slightly warm. (Or just use fresh.) Add into pancake batter.

Heat a large frying pan and add a dab of butter and spread around.
Ladle in four pancakes. Flip when the show little holes.

Makes about 8 pancakes.

Serve very hot with butter and real maple syrup and the sausages.

Fusilli with roasted baby asparagus and grape tomatoes

Bring big pot of salted water to boil.

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Wash a pound of baby asparagus and cut it into 2 inch lengths.
Wash a box of plum or cherry tomatoes and cut in half.

Spread asparagus on about 2/3 of a big cookie tray and the tomatoes on the remaining 1/3.
Drizzle with olive oil, grate on lemon pepper, and add a cube of frozen garlic in the middle of the asparagus and another in the middle of the tomatoes.  Pop in the hot oven.

Add fusilli to boiling water and stir often.

After a short time, take the vegetables out of the oven and stir the melted garlic into the asparagus and into the tomatoes so it coats them as much as possible. Grate on more lemon pepper. Pop back in oven.

Drain the fusilli when it is al dente and stir in a little olive oil.

When the asparagus and tomatoes are nicely roasted (asparagus tender, tomatoes soft and full of flavor), take them out of the oven.

Fill each person's bowl with fusilli and top with asparagus and tomatoes.
On each portion, shave on some Trader Joe's Uncommon Cheddar, add 4 or 5 green and black olives, and add more salt and pepper if desired.

Overnight oats with berries

To get ready tomorrow's breakfast, in a glass jar with a lid or a ceramic mug with a lid, combine:

1/2 cups rolled oats (preferably the slow cook kind)
1/3 cup of milk or cold water
1/3 cup whole milk plain yoghurt
1/2 - 3/4 cup of frozen berries ... I use a mix of raspberries and blueberries
optional: 1 teaspoon of maple syrup

Stir well, put on the lid, and place in the fridge overnight.

In the morning, stir again and top with toasted whole hazelnuts or any toasted nut of choice.

Instant Pot Mujadara

Thinly slice two large yellow onions.
Heat 1/4 cup olive oil in a large frying pan and caramelize the onions. Grate on some sea salt while cooking. Stir frequently.
When onions are almost fully done, add in 3 minced cloves of garlic or 3 frozen cubes of Trader Joe's garlic and cook until garlic is done.

Rinse and dab dry:
1 cup brown basmati rice
1 cup whole green lentils

Boil water in kettle.
Whisk 3 teaspoons of Vegetable Better Than Bouillion into 2 2/3 cups of the boiled water in a big glass measuring cup.

Heat a little olive oil on the Sauté mode in the Instant Pot.
Add in the rice and lentils and stir around for several minutes.
Turn Instant Pot off.
Add the vegetable broth, stir, put on lid and make sure lid is in the unvented position.
Set for 15 minutes of pressure cooking.
Let it decompress for 10 when pressure cooking is done.
Open lid carefully (press the vent with a wooden spoon to let it finish venting).
Evenly mix the rice and lentils.

Serve in bowls with topping of caramelized onion and garlic mixture.
Add freshly grated pepper.
Offer olives on the side.

Serve with a simple salad such as arugula and cherry tomatoes.

Instant Pot Vegetarian Chili

Ingredients

2      tablespoons olive oil

1 red or yellow onion, chopped

4 fresh minced cloves or frozen garlic cubes

2 tablespoons chili powder

1 tsp dried oregano

1      tsp freshly grated Trader Joe’s Everyday Seasoning

2 tsp ground cumin

2 tbsp tomato paste

2 cups vegetable broth

1      14 oz can Trader Joe’s fire roasted tomatoes or diced tomatoes

1 14 oz  can diced tomatoes

2 tsp adobo sauce (from chipotle pepper can) and a little minced chipotle pepper if desired)

2 (14 oz. each) cans black beans drained & rinsed

2 (14 oz. each) cans red kidney beans drained & rinsed

1 (14 oz.) can cannellini beans, drained & rinsed
1 red pepper cut into small pieces

2       cups of frozen white corn

Chopped cilantro or flat-leaf parsley.

Set Instant Pot to saute setting. Heat the olive oil and sauté the onions.

Clear a space in the onions and add a little more olive oil and add the garlic into the oil, sauté it slightly, and stir the garlic into the onions.

Stir in the chili powder, oregano, cumin and Everyday Seasoning and cook for a minute or so. 

Add the vegetable broth with the tomato paste whisked into it.

Add the crushed tomatoes, chipotle pepper, adobo sauce, beans and frozen corn.

Stir to combine well.

Put the lid on the Instant Pot and close the steam vent. Use the manual setting and pressure cook for 10 minutes.

Allow 5 minutes of decompression after the 10 minutes of pressure cooking is up.

Taking care not to get burned, release the pressure. 

Serve in wide bowls with a topping of grated sharp cheddar, a dab of sour cream, and a sprinkling of chopped cilantro or parsley. Add salt and pepper as desired. 

Fried Quinoa, Cherry Tomatoes, and Egg

This is a great way to use up some left over quinoa.

Melt a dab of butter or heat a little olive oil in a stick-free medium frying pan. Add 1/2 cup to 1 cup of cooked quinoa and stir to heat. Move quinoa to half of pan.

Add another dab of butter to clear side of pan and spread it around. Crack a large egg into the hot butter.

Add 4 or 5 cherry tomatoes, cut in half, into the pan near the quinoa. Grate lemon pepper or salt and pepper onto the tomatoes and the quinoa. Mix the tomatoes in with the quinoa after they have softened a little.

Flip the egg and add salt and pepper and cook until white is set but yolk is runny.

Serve with slices of pear.

(This makes one serving. Use your biggest frying pan to double or triple the recipe.)