This year as I already started in my previous blog, I am utilizing my Instant Pot to help me preparing our Thanksgiving meal. This year I am so thankful for my family and friends, LuLaroe and Instant Pot.

Imagine taking naps yes naps and browse and watched movie while preparing Turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole ,  dressing or some call it stuffing, green beans casserole, rolls, dessert. And I did my grocery shopping on Tuesday night except for the turkey.

Can’t be any easier.  I have bad back problem so, standing in front of the stove for a long period of time is definitely no bueno for me. Thanks to my Instant Pot I had my sit down time a lot. 

Cranberry sauce, I have posted the steps in my previous blog, just  click on that link :).

Sweet potato casserole. This one I used 8 medium size sweet potatoes. 1 cup water in the pot, then put the sweet potatoes on top of the rack that comes with my Instant Pot. Close the lid and the vent. Press manual function 12 minutes and walk away. Note to my self 10 minutes should be OK for next time. Once it beeped, release the pressure, use extra caution on this process as always. The steam coming out from the vent is extremely hot. Well take the sweet potatoes out. Peel it. Oh and I literally peel this like flipping pages on a book. That easy! Then mashed them or you can take out your other kitchen warrior, the kitchen aid mixer. I was to lazy, I just mashed manually.. the heck I need my arm exercise anyway. Ha! it was so soft I barely burn the calories from my homemade yogurt I had for breakfast. 

Back to the mashed sweet potato..I add 3/4 cup light brown sugar, 1 to 2 tablespoons cinnamon, a pinch of salt and butter around 3 or 4 tablespoons. Then pour the dish, baked for 20 minutes, add the topping ,  I did marshmallows because my boys do not like nuts. Bake for another 10 minutes or  so until light brown.

I know you are dissapointed right now as I was too. I didn’t do this one in instant pot. Though I could have. My sausage apple cranberry stuffing. 

Basically just brown 1 lbs sausage ,  chopped onion an celery, sautee until the onion translucent and the sausage cooked through. Add dried cranberry and seasoning, the usual salt pepper and poultry seasoning, a lot coz I like the smell of sage in it, I added little more sage. Well then turn off the stove and add in the toasted bread cube or the prepacked Pepperidge stuffing. Mix and pour in chicken broth until you get the consistency you like..moist, not mushy. Pour into the pan, topped with butter and bake for 35 minutes. I add more broth as needed to keep them moist. 

And the benefit of Instant Pot…no more broth in the cartoons. 1 whole chicken can make tons of broth. I made a lot and freeze them. See Instant Pot still participate in this dish ;).

Greenbeans casserole…Ok before I let Instant Pot came into my life, I used canned greenbeans. I tried to reduce using canned by making the sauce from scratch but still using the oh so famous canned greenbeans. Not this year!

I was thinking I can make my greenbeans from fresh or frozen greenbeans in my Instant Pot. I think I will cook them with either ham or bacon and chicken broth…hey another homemade chicken broth being used here. 

So there I went ahead..I sautee or brown some chopped bacon and onion then add my green beans and chicken broth. As a good Instant Pot-head, close the lid and the vent. Press MANUAL 4 minutes. 

While the greenbeans cooking,  I started making my roux, you know the drill.. Butter flour. Yes we love mushroom so when I melt my butter in the pan….wait not in the pot? .. Arghhh another minus point for me. OK in the pan, melt the butter, sautee the mushroom then add the flour. 

By now your green beans are cooked. So dumped everything in the pan, stir until it mix well, no clumpy flour, medium heat. While stirring and thinking why don’t I use my other Instant Pot to do this?… stir and add thyme salt pepper as needed, and milk. I just pour to get it look creamy and right to my eyes and smells good. My greenbeans has cheese in it. couple cups of sharp cheddar help to thicken the sauce. Pour in the dish and bake until bubbly, say 20 to 25 minutes from cold. Then add the fried onion and bake for another 10 to crisp the onion. I said from cold because I made this the night before Thanksgiving and pour it in the dish, let it cool and covered and into the fridge they went. All if them except for the gravy and mashed potato. Oh and the rolls. And the Mango cobbler…and..I think that’s it.

Mashed potatoes. Never again boil my potatoes on the stove. We made a lot of mashed potatoes with dinner with meatloaf, for my shepherd pie etc etc. A lot..I guess we just love them hahaha.

5 lbs potatoes peeled, you don’t have to peeled them if you like the skin, quatered them. Sometimes I leave them whole. Add 3 cups of chicken broth salt pepper and throw in 7 small cloves garlic, and you know the drill by now..

Close that lid and vent yes! Then press Manual 8 to 10 minutes depending on how many you put in the pot. Once beeped, release the pressure, take the pot out after to open the lid of course. And mashed away in the pot. Add butter, creamchese, milk, seasoned more to your liking. And you just made Cheesy garlic mashed potato that is creamy and fluffy and yummy..

The rolls…My other kitchen warrior into this task. The  Breadmaker! See… I am lazy. I like to eat and cook but I don’t like making hard stuffs. Dump and walk away in everything if possible.  

This one Dump in order, 250 ml warm milk, 4 egg yolks, 500 gram bread flour, about 4 tablespoons sugar, a pinch of salt, 15 gram milk powder and 11 gram yeast, oh and a stick of butter. Run the dough cycle and walk away. Once done, dump the dough on floured board cut into 16 pcs, rolled or shaped to whatever you like. Arrange in greased pan, let it sit for another 30 minutes before baking them. 350°f Preheated oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown and sound hollow when you tap them with wooden spoon. Out from the oven and brush them with butter.

Turkey..Spatchcock turkey a.k.a butterflies turkey. Dry brined my turkey the night before after I turn it into butterfly..a fat and chunky butterfly it is. My dry brine contains kosher salt, light brown sugar, cracked black pepper, garlic and onion powder, thyme. Rubbed the mixture on the turkey, inside out, under the skin. Then let it sit in the fridge overnight. uncovered so that the skin dries out…on the roasting rack with paper towels underneath. 

The next day, take them out, let it sit for 30 minutes then smothered them with the herb butter. Again inside out under the skin all over the turkey. Then baked in preheated 350°f oven for 1 1/2 to 2 hours until it reached 160°f on the breast part. Or when the juice in between the thigh and breast running clear when you cut them, that’s the old way to check the doneness of your turkey. 

My herb butter was a stick of butter mixed with fresh finely chopped of thyme, rosemary and sage.

The result…moist turkey with crispy skin. Definitely a do again next year.

Last but not least, my hubby made his mango cobbler. Yes mango baby! Started by accident…Beautiful oops we said. We wanted to make peach cobbler, that day we went to the asian grocery store for other stuffs and too lazy to make another stop. Guess what..they did not have canned peaches..weird. So I said use mango. They look the same, same texture..kinda. We did and never go back to peaches since then. 

This is a very easy recipe ya’ll. 4 cans of those mango in lite syrup. Only use the syrup from 1 can. Discard the rest of the other syrups from those other 3 cans. No don’t throw away the mangoes!. They all go into a 9×13 Pyrex pan. Sprinkle cinnamon over them. Now get a mixing bowl, dump 1 yellow cake mix, 1 block of 8 oz creamcheese and mix them just until they are crumbly. Cover those mangoes with that mixture. Last, melt a stick of butter and drizzle all over the mixture. Baked in 350°f Preheated oven for maybe around 30 minutes until golden brown on top bubbly around the edges. Served them warm is best topped with cinnamon or caramel ice cream ,  which we did. 

It was the best no stress yummy Thanksgiving for me and my family. Mostly me, coz I was not stress and that makes my boys not stress. Ha! Thankful for Instant pot and my other kitchen warriors!

Oh and The 7 on 1 – 6 quarts instant pot is on sale today. Check them out on amazon. Half the price!