instant pot Archives - I am a Honey Bee

Guys!!!! We have power!!!!! I still can’t believe it!!!!

Did you hear that yelling?! That was me in utter excitement that we still have power even after Irma has hit FL this weekend.

We occasionally lose power during an afternoon thunderstorm. It might just blink or we might lose it for 1-10 minutes, or a few hours. So I was sure that we would be without power for several days. It surged about 8 times last night, but we certainly lucked out and didn’t lose it.

At one point over the weekend, I pulled up a hurricane tracker and it basically had the eye of the storm going right over our community and continuing right on up through Tampa. I could zoom in enough to the map to see that the black spaghetti line was within walking distance to our house and you could zoom in and see our lot. WTF. That was scary to see.

I’m really glad that Irma changed its course and continued hits northerly trek up the state of FL further East of what was predicted, keeping us, and Tampa, on the West side of the storm, which is the weaker side. While it worked out well for us, I know a lot of people still effected here in the area, and elsewhere. I have a lot of friends without power in the Tampa area and I know people in Miami that have a lot of clean up to do. Shoot, my mom had a tree fall on her house! Thankfully, it landed on the part of the house that house where her garage is, but it still caused some damage. Plus, it scared the shit out of her when it happened! OMG!

Since I had thought that we wouldn’t have power for at least 3 days, I prepped and prepped and prepped for that. We had plenty of water, iced teat, juice, seltzer and soooo much food to get us through it. I bought bread and frozen it for PBJ’s. I organized the fridge so that I could know where everything was so I could open it, grab something, and close it immediately. I had prepped tons of meals that I frozen anticipating them staying chilled or thawing out and then we could just reheat them on the gas stove. My instant pot was my best friend during all of this.

I having been using my Instant Pot for everything that I can think of. Soup! Rice! Spaghetti! Taco Meat! Pulled BBQ Chicken! The list goes on and on. I really love how quickly everything comes together and there is so little clean up. I still love my slow cooker but there are times when I want something, like a roast, done in an hour or so and the Instant Pot is perfect for that.

Using a 6-Cup Bundt Pan, I made monkey bread in my 6-Quart Instant Pot in just 20 minutes. Normally it takes 45 minutes for a monkey bread in the oven, and you make a biiiiiig one. But this guy was a mini version and took half the time. It was great that I didn’t need to heat up the oven, which always makes our house so hot, and it was a smaller sized monkey bread.

The one thing that I would note is that it does have a spongier texture compared to the monkey breads I make in the oven. I certainly didn’t think it was a bad thing, still really enjoyable, but I wouldn’t be a good blogger if I didn’t give ya all the facts, now would I?

Let’s hope that we don’t have any other hurricanes for a long time, but at least now we know how to best prepare for it. Or how to get the hell out of dodge if it’s going up the West Coast of FL. With my Instant Pot with us, of course!

Instant Pot Monkey Bread

Makes 4 Servings

Ingredients

1 large can of Grands Biscuits (16.3 ounce)
1/3 Cup
1/3 Cup
2 heaping teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 Cup chopped walnuts
1/4 Cup butter, melted

Process

Spray a 6-Cup bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray.
Pour 1 1/2 Cups of water into your 6 Quart Instant Pot. With the handles folded under, place the trivet into the pot. Pull off about 6″ of tin foil and fold it over 2x to create a sturdy handle to help you remove the bundt pan, set aside.
Cut each biscuit into 8 pieces.
Combing the sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Add the cut biscuit pieces to the sugar combination. Coat well.
Sprinkle some nuts into the bundt pan, then place a layer of the coated pieces into the pan, sprinkle with more nuts, add the remaining the coated pieces.
Sprinkle any remaining cinnamon and sugar mixture over the filled bundt pan. Pour the melted butter evenly over the pieces.
Place the filled bundt pan into the pot on the trivet, with the piece of foil under it, with edges extending up for easy removal. Fold over so they don’t interfere with the lid.
Seal and then set on MANUAL on HIGH for 20 minutes. When done, do a quick release.
Remove and carefully invert onto a plate. Enjoy!