Cheesy Stuffed Burgers

August 2011
Sometimes you make a recipe that is so yummy, you just want to share and it has nothing to do with pressure cooking.  These recipe I found in the parade magazine by Gwyneth Pultrow.  However we tried the burgers in the George Foreman and the cheese came out of the burger.  You should probably grill them like the recipe suggests.  They were still yummy.

Cheesy Stuffed Burgers

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp. EVOO
1/2 cup peeled and finely minced yellow onion, I also put in a clove of minced garlic.
1 Tbsp. very finely chopped fresh rosemary.  For 1/2 recipe I put 1 Tbsp.  I loved the rosemary flavor.
1 lb. ground turkey or chicken
1/2 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 cup coarsely grated cheese of your choice.
4 sprouted grain or whole-wheat burger buns.

Directions:
Heat oil in a small skillet, over low heat.  Add onion and rosemary, cook until soft and sweet, about 10 minutes.  Let onion mixture cool a bit and put it in a large mixing bowl with turkey, salt and pepper.
Combine ingredients.  Divide mixture into quarters.  Cut each quarter in half and form into 2 patties.
Place 2 Tbsp. cheese on one patty, place other patty on top, pinch edges together.  Repeat with remaining patties.  Preheat grill to high.  Cook burgers 5 minutes on one side; flip then cook until burgers are browned and firm, about 4 minutes.  Serve with your favorite fixing.

We fixed sweet potato fries with these burgers. 
Cut sweet potato in wedges or fries.  Put on a cookie sheet with parchment papers.  Use any oil to coat the fries, add any spices.  We used Pennsy's Northwoods, we have also used there Italion Herb mix.  Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes.
We also had fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and peaches from our garden.  It was a fun meal and oh so good.  I usually don't like chicken burgers but these are really good.

Taco Rice

I love to cook rice in the pressure cooker.  I have learned recently taking a class on grains, that if you soak your rice 8-12 hours, you can cut your time pressuring by half.  And it makes really good tasting rice. We made this recipe while Dylan and Karly were here for a couple of days one night for dinner and they loved it.  In fact, we fed the Missionaries Taco Rice last night and they also loved it.  One Missionary's comment: "I think I will made Taco's from now on with rice instead of tortillas", and the other Missionary had 2 helpings.  But with Missionaries you can't judge if a recipe is good or not, as they will eat anything.

Taco Rice:

Rice:
2 cups cooked rice (We used the Orgainic Harvest Medley from Cosco).  Soak all day 1 cup rice to 1 1/2 cups water.  Rinse and drain and put in pressure cooker with 1 1/2 cup water and 1/4 tsp. salt.  Pressure for 10 minutes, release.  Drain extra water off.  Extra rice you can keep in the refrigerator or freeze and use in salads or with fish.

Meat:
1 lb. ground beef or turkey
2-3 Tb. Taco seasoning
1/4 cup water.
Brown ground beef or turkey until nice and brown and fully cooked, add taco seasoning and water, simmer for about 2 minutes.

Optional Toppings:
Refried Beans
Shredded Lettuce
Shredded Cheese
Chopped Onion
Sliced Black Olives
Diced Avocado
Salsa
Sour Cream

Shredded Chicken in Barbecue Sauce

I love going to the DI and looking in their book section for any amazing books for cheap.  I found a great find in this book called Pressure Perfect by Lorna Sass for only $3.00.  The barbecue sauce was for ribs, but I changed the recipe a little bit for the shredded chicken for sandwiches.

Shredded Chicken in a Barbecue Sauce
For the Chicken:
1 1/2 lbs. chicken tenders or chicken breasts cut in two pieces and not too thick.
1 cup water
Add 1 tsp. salt
Pressure 8 minutes+4 minutes natural release, then quick-release.
Cool the chicken and then cut or shred the chicken.

For the Barbecue Sauce:
1 cup catsup
1 cup tomato sauce or more
1/4 cup molasses
3 tbsp. Dijon mustard, preferably whole-grain
2 tbsp. red wine vinegar
2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. Tabasco sauce or other hot sauce.  Can add more or less depending on how hot you like it.
1 tsp. powdered garlic, next time I will probably add real garlic.
A few drops of Liquid Smoke.
Mix together.

Directions:
I put the cut up chicken in a crock pot added the mixed barbecue sauce and let it cook on low for a couple of hours.  If it isn't sweet enough add any kind of sweetener, same with the other ingredients.  If it isn't saucy enough add more catsup or tomato sauce. 

Farmer's Market and Broccoli!

I love Farmer's Market, every chance I get I go to one, they are so fun and you meet the neatest vendors. I love it.  Last Saturday we went to the Farmer's Market in Salt Lake.  We had so much fun buying all these fresh vegetables.  Lettuce, Russian Kale, Zucchini, Red fresh onions, Cucumbers from Wyoming can you believe it.  No they weren't grown outside, instead in a green house, but they are so good, and Broccoli. We have had so many good salads and vegetables this week.
I love cooking Broccoli in the pressure cooker.  So easy! 
Broccoli-1/2 cup water, pressure 3 minutes, release pressure and voila, wonderful Broccoli.
I found this Cream of Broccoli Soup in the Weight Watchers, I tweaked it a little bit and it is really good.

Cream of Broccoli Soup

Ingredients:
1 tlbsp. coconut oil
1 onion chopped
1 garlic, pressed
1 small carrot, chopped
1/2 celery stalk, chopped
1 tsp. dried thyme
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 tsp. lemon juice
1/2 cup milk
3/4 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. ground pepper.

Directions:
Put your pressure cooker on the brown setting, add the coconut oil, onions, garlic,carrots, celery and thyme; cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes.  Add the broccoli and broth and pressure for 4 minutes and release steam immediatly.  Take off lid and add lemon juice.  Let cool, I didn't, I just put the broccoli into my blender and blended.  I then turned the pressure cooker on the brown setting again and put the soup back into the pan, added milk, salt and pepper, stirring occasionally, until hot, 4-5 minutes.  We loved this with cheese and the Boulder brand rice and bean chips.  So Good!

Chinese Sweet and Sour Chicken with Sesame Seeds

I'm so excited, I did this recipe a few weeks ago and somehow the recipe disappeared, could it be I have too many recipes, anyway Leslie called Rlynn to tell him they were coming to fertilize our lawn, and I asked her if I could have this recipe again as it had been in a Fertalawn newsletter. She e-mailed it to me and here it is.  Leslie did this in a crockpot, I adapted it to the pressure cooker.  I will do this recipe  again. The crock pot took 3 to 4 hours and the pressure cooker took 20 minutes.

Ingredients:
One 3 to 5 pound broiler/fryer.
2/3 cup soy sauce
2/3 cup brown sugar or 1/3 cup agave
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup apple juice
2 Tlb. ketchup
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, optional or reduced, it does make it spicey) (My favorite spice)
1 clove garlic, pressed
2 green onions, trimmed and halved or 1/4 onion cut up
4 Tlb. cornstarch
2 Tlb. water
1 or 2 Tlb. sesame seeds.
Cooked rice

Directions:
Wash and dry the chicken thoroughly. Cut off any lumps of fat, can also remove the skin.  Put the chicken in the cooker, breast side up. Leslie doesn't say too, but I browned the chicken.  Combine the soy sauce, brown sugar, water, apple juice, ketchup, red pepper flakes and garlic in a small bowl.  Pour over chicken.  Pressure cook for 20 minutes, natural release.  If it doesn't seem done enough, cook 10 more minutes.  When I did it, it was done enough for me. Transfer chicken to a platter and pull off all the meat from the bones and cut or shred in small pieces.  Combine the cornstarch and water and stir into the juice mixture.  Cook until thickened. I had to do the cornstarch mixture twice as I didn't stir fast enough and the cornstarch went into one big blob.  Put cut up chicken over rice, then sauce, then your green onions and sesame seeds.  So Good!

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas

I made this recipe once and loved it, some how I had the first page of the recipe and couldn't find the 2nd page.  A friend gave us a pkg. of tortillas and I wanted to make this recipe.  I went online to WholeFoodsMarket.com and believe it or not I found the recipe.  I made it today for lunch and it was delicious. I've changed the recipe a little bit.  If you want the original recipe from Whole Foods go to their Web Site and look under Vegetarian recipes and type in sweet potato and black bean.

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas

Ingredients:
1-10 oz. La Victoria Enchilada Sauce-Green Chile/Chile Verde, Mild Poco Picante.
1 pkg of white tortillas
Shredded Monterey Jack cheese or Mozzerella.

In one bowl mix:
2 cups black beans, rinsed, drained
4 cloves garlic, minced
Fresh lime juice from 1 big juicy lime.

In the 2nd bowl mix:
2 heaping cups cooked diced sweet potatoes ( pressure cut up sweet potatoes in a electric pressure cooker for 10 minutes, natural release)
1/2 cup chopped roasted mild green chiles.
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp chili pepper, I put 1/2 tsp chipotle pepper.
2 tlbsp.chopped fresh cillantro.

Instructions:
Make sure your baking dish will hold 6 tortillas.  The recipe calls for 8 tortillas, but I had only enough fillings for 6 tortillas.
Pour about 1/4 cup of the Green Chile Sauce into the bottom of a baking dish.
Lay the first tortilla in the sauced baking dish; wet it with the sauce.  Add 1/6 of the sweet potato mixture down the center.  Top with 1/6 mixture of the black beans.  Wrap and roll the tortilla to the end of the baking dish.  Repeat for the remaining tortillas.  Top with the rest of the sauce.  Top with cheese.
Bake 350 degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until the enchiladas are piping hot and the sauce is bubbling around the edges.

Stovetop Fideos

We love this meal, so easy and quick. We came home today from the Computer Store, after being there for 2 hours.  I put this in the pressure cooker and in an half hour we were eating lunch.

Stovetop Fideos
4 Servings:

Ingredients:
8 ozs. whole-wheat angel hair pasta, broken into 2 inch pieces (about 3 cups)
2 cups 1-inch green bean pieces
1 medium onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium tomatoes
1 cup corn, fresh or frozen, (we like green peas instead)
1 tsp. Herb Italion Seasoning
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups broth and 1/2 cup water

Directions:

Put all ingredients in the pressure cooker, besure the pasta is covered with water, and pressure 3 minutes, natural release.
Stir in frozen green peas and serve.
We like Parmesan cheese, sunflower seeds and sprouted seeds on top.  Oh so good!