My household consists of me and a cat. You'd think I'd have plenty of time to cook a meal at night. Maybe I do have the time, but I never know what I want to eat. The meat is usually frozen and quite honestly, I hate to cook. Don't get me wrong. I love to eat, I just hate to cook and then clean up the mess. The Instant Pot can create a meal in less than an hour, including from meat that is frozen.

The Instant Pot is an electric pressure cooker that can also slow cook, cook rice perfectly and even make yogurt.

I've tried many recipes in my Instant Pot. I've made country style BBQ pork ribs, hard boiled eggs, pork chops, rice, roast beef, baked potatoes and goulash. Everything except the potatoes turned out great. The baked potatoes were still hard after 30 minutes in the pressure cooker and I still had to put them in the oven to crisp the skin. Too much work!

Tuesday, October 17 was National Pasta Day and I thought I'd share these awesome Instant Pot pasta recipes.

The second thing I ever made in my Instant Pot was goulash. It was so amazing!

Instant Pot Goulash

  • 1 pound ground beef
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • 12 ounce can of tomato juice
  • 1 can of condensed tomato soup
  • 2 cups of water
  • 2 cups elbow macaroni
  • Optional - I'm a plain, picky eater, but if you're not you could add onions and peppers.

Use the saute function to brown 1 pound of hamburger. Add salt and pepper to taste and add onions and peppers if you'd like. Let everything saute until hamburger is cooked. Add the tomato soup, tomato juice and water. Stir in macaroni. Set the Instant Pot on Manual for 6 minutes and quick release when done.

Karla Brown/Townsquare Media
Karla Brown/Townsquare Media
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My cousin Darla is a business owner, helps her husband on the farm and is the mother of two young boys. She IS busy and still has to cook a nutritious dinner for her family of four. She also uses the Instant Pot and the other night she posted a picture of spaghetti she made in the Instant Pot. Yes, spaghetti in one pot. It looked amazing! I'm making this recipe this weekend.

She sauteed one pound of ground beef with a little salt. Then she added one pound of dry spaghetti. You can either break the spaghetti in half or buy the pot size box of spaghetti. Add one 24 ounce jar of your favorite pasta sauce and three cups of water. Set your Instant Pot on Manual for 3 minutes. Yes, THREE minutes! When the time is up, do a Quick Release, stir and serve. Sprinkle some Parmesan or mozzarella cheese on top and enjoy. Dinner in less than 20 minutes.

Darla Cameron (Used with Permission)
Darla Cameron (Used with Permission)
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Darla says there is a macaroni and cheese recipe that her family loves. Click here to see the recipe she uses.

There are several electric pressure cooker brands on the market right now. Instant Pot is probably the most well-known. Other brands include Presto, Power Pressure Cooker XL, Cook's Essentials, just to name a few. Pressure cooker recipes are all over the internet too. You won't have any trouble finding the perfect, quick dinner idea.


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