This morning for breakfast, we made bagel bites in the instant pot.  My 5 year old daughter, Jane loves to make these and has gotten really good at making them herself.  We get pizza dough and cut it into about 20 squares.  We also cut about 20 squares of cream cheese.  We wrap the pizza dough around the cream cheese and then roll into the everything bagel seasoning.  I have a silicone egg cup tray for my instant pot that fits each bagel bite perfectly.  Place the bagel bites into the instant pot and then we bake into the oven to toast them.  They taste exactly like a bagel! 

 For dinner tonight, I made Instant pot meatloaf.  I've been trying to use up all of the chicken in my freezer, so we were definitely ready for beef today.  This is one of my favorite recipes, its so delicious and the leftovers are just as good.  I buy a McCormick meat loaf package and use Italian sausage, ground beef, half and half, egg, ketchup, and ritz crackers.  I form into a loaf and place into the instant pot.  If you are only making one loaf, then you can add your diced potatoes in the bottom of the instant pot with 2 cups of water and then add the loaf on top.  I wrap the meat loafs into foil and I usually make two loafs and stack on top of each other in the instant pot.  Turn to custom and cook for 25 min, then top with ketchup and broil.  (Adding to instant pot recipes) 

Form the loaf and then fold in the sides

Wrap loaf completely and place into instant pot with 2 cups of water on top of the trivet. 

If only cooking 1 loaf you can add chopped potatoes on the bottom and then add the trivet on top of the potatoes, then add loaf to cook everything at the same time.  I made two loafs so I did not have room to do that and made my mashed potatoes on the stove. 

Cook on custom and 25 min on high for the meatloaf in the instant pot. 

Once the instant pot has cooked the loafs, mix ketchup and brown sugar and brush on top.  Broil until bubbly.  Enjoy with mashed potatoes and mixed veggies. 

 Yesterday, I made lazy lasagna in my instant pot.  If you do not have an instant pot, I highly recommend it!  It really makes life a lot easier.  

This recipe is a favorite because I can cook everything fast on a busy day.  Only a few ingredients too which I love.  Onions, garlic, Italian sausage, marinara sauce, chicken broth, lasagna noodles, and ricotta cheese.  I also love that you can cook everything in one pot, so you don't have a load of dishes to wash.  I turned my instant pot on saute to cook the onions and sausage and then poured the rest of the ingredients and cooked for 5 min.  So easy!  

Turn your instant pot to Sauté and cook onions, garlic, and Italian sausage until sausage is browned, 

Crunch up the lasagna noodles and add to the instant pot with the marinara / chicken broth covering them

Turn instant pot on for custom 5 min on high and then enjoy!  I add a dollop of ricotta cheese on top.  You could also add to a casserole dish when finished with shredded mozzarella cheese on top and pop in the oven on broil until cheese is melted. Such an easy dinner!  

I'm adding this recipe into Instant pot recipes 

 Yesterday I made some bone in chicken leg quarters in the slow cooker with some salsa for Mexican food dishes this week.  I was going to make burritos using the chicken and made my Spanish rice in the instant pot.  For the burritos I was going to use corn, refried beans, large flour tortillas, cheese, sour cream, etc and then crisp up in the air fryer.  My plans quickly changed, when David came home with some masa flour.  Instead we decided to make tamales!!  

I've always heard that making tamales is labor intensive, and steered away, but honestly it wasn't any worse than making a batch of cookies.  The instant pot also helped cut the time of steaming the tamales. 

For the Masa dough, we used David's Nana Chavez's recipe which included lard, broth from the chicken, masa flour, baking powder, and salt.  We shredded the chicken and added herdez salsa ranchero and blended into the food processor.  As we were doing all of this, the corn husks were soaking in warm water to make them more pliable.  

We added a small amount of the masa dough into the corn husk and topped with the chicken, then rolled the corn husks and placed into the trivet in the instant pot with 2 cups of water.  

We placed the tamales into the instant pot and cooked for 40 min on high.  They were the most tender and soft tamales I've ever had.  Usually when I've had tamales, I've had to drench in sauce because they were so dry, but these we ate all by themselves and they were amazing!  I'll add this recipe under instant pot recipes.  

 I have really been crafting lately and making a lot of bowl cozies.  They are so fun!

Bowl cozies are handy little pot holders that wrap around your bowl and are microwaveable to keep your food warm and your hands from burning. They are great for protecting table tops and can also be used for ice cream to keep your hands from freezing. Bowl cozies also make a cute addition to your table for parties to keep food bowls warm and tables decorative. 

I just got some new fabrics to work with and have enjoyed finding the right combinations to make them beautiful.  

My next project will be to make some tortilla warmers with the pepper fabric and taco fabric!  Sewing is my happy place.  I love the feeling of creating something new and beautiful, especially when it's handy! 

Here are some of my latest: 

Cute Farm fabric cozy with cow print 

Pioneer woman floral cozy with red 

Pioneer woman floral cozy in teal

Dessert Print cozy with purple flowers 

Cozy with my chicken and dumplings.  You can find the recipe in my Instant Pot section of this blog.  

All of my cozies are listed on my Easy shop - https://www.etsy.com/shop/SarahsCleverCrafts

If you are local, send me a message on which ones you like and we can work it out locally.  If you are not local, I ship anywhere in the US.  

 I've made a new section under Crafts called Bowl cozies.  Here I will be showing all of the different cozy projects I will be making.  

Bowl cozies are my new favorite sewing projects.  They are so handy, and now that I have some, we can't live without them.  They are potholders that fit around your bowl and are microwavable, so that when you take a hot bowl out of the microwave you don't burn your hands.  I have made many for family and friends and I just added them to my Etsy shop!  These make amazing gifts.  

The most popular is the Pioneer Woman fabric cozies.  I love that I can find her fabric so that it can match your kitchen decor!  This is my new favorite combo...so pretty!  You can find all of my new bowl cozy projects under the crafts section of my blog.  

You can find them on my Etsy shop here - https://www.etsy.com/shop/SarahsCleverCrafts

 For dinner last night, I used the leftover rotisserie chicken to make a Chicken spaghetti with a creamy white sauce.  David thought it was wonderful and went back for seconds.  He was really excited to eat it again for lunch, and requested that I make more!  

I diced some onion and then made a rue with butter, flour, and garlic.  Next I added white cooking wine and half and half, shredded chicken, parmesan cheese, diced tomatoes, chicken broth, and some pepper.  

I served with spaghetti noodles and Brussel sprouts. 

This is definitely a keeper!  

I'll add the recipe to the Dinner recipe section