Instant pot

I will admit that I held out way too long on making mac and cheese in the Instant Pot.

See, I’m a mac and cheese purist: I prefer Kraft Mac & Cheese over everything. Literally. I don’t care what gourmet bacon-truffle-lobster-garlic-whatever mac and cheese you’ve got, that blue box will always be better. I’m not saying I don’t enjoy other mac and cheeses, because, obvi. But that powder packet of cheese wins, hands down, every time.

So I’ve never had the motivation to homemake my own. If my favorite restaurant can’t do it better, why should I think *I* can?

I’ll be the first to admit that #MomLife is HARD. Like, way harder than I anticipated.

I mean, I obviously never expected it to be easy. But I didn’t know it would be this hard.

Like, dig-yourself-out-of-cement-with-a-plastic-fork hard.

But in my 18 months of experience (read: not very much), I’ve picked up a few essential tools for survival. The jackhammer to your plastic fork. These are the 10 items I actually couldn’t survive motherhood without:

You guys already know about my love affair with my Instant Pot. At this point, I’m using it at least 3 times per week, for breakfast, dinner, and even dessert. That’s more than I’ve used any one cooking appliance! If you’re just getting started with your Instant Pot or other electric pressure cooker, then this is a …

The Instant Pot strikes again! The more I use this thing, the more I love it. It’s very quickly becoming a staple in my weekly menu planning.

One thing I’m trying to get the hang of is the “pot-in-pot” method, where you cook two different things at the same time by putting one item in the bottom of the main pot, and then a second item on a trivet, in a smaller pot (or a makeshift aluminum foil “bowl”) above it.

Fewer dishes + faster cook time = 🎉🍾🙌