What to do when Mimi is sick-

I really thought that my first post about my new adventure into Instant Pot Ⓡ cooking would have been my Black Bean and Rice dish beginning with dried beans and brown rice (1st dish in cooker) in 45 minutes. 

  No! This post is not even about my creamy and perfectly cooked steel cut oats (2nd dish) made withOUT my arm cramping up while stirring it for 30 minutes as I direct my kids and husband to make their own breakfast because mom can't leave that pot for fear those little oat kernels will stick, dry and burn which will result in me spending the rest of the morning alternating between soaking and scrubbing my pot. Nope this post isn't about how I just popped those steel cut oats into my cooker and walked away to fix my kids a nutritious breakfast of pop-tarts and milk.

This post is about how my father-in-law showed up at noon to surprise my husband by splitting some wood and mentioned to myself and my 3 year old that Mimi was sick!  The thought of someone sick, not to mention her Mimi, is enough to put my 3 year old on a mission of mercy and unavoidably me as well.  The only cure to save the day was Chicken Noodle soup, of course!  We rushed inside, our wood pile is small so I knew we didn't have a long time to prepare our dish. 

Addilyn immediately began cutting up carrots and celery, thankfully left over from our Thanksgiving crudités.  This post is also NOT about how to ruin your child's love for cooking by being too much of a perfectionist in the size and shape of vegetables going into a soup.😄 

After checking my instruction manual on how to use the saute feature--3rd dish, remember, not an expert-- I added a little bit of olive oil, garlic, carrots, and celery to the metal insert in my IP and cooked those veggies down.  Next I dumped in the required 1 cup to 1 1/2 cups of liquid, chicken broth in this case, threw in 5 FROZEN chicken tenders and set that pot to manually cook for 8 minutes at high pressure.  I walked away and began cooking lunch for my hungry wood splitters.  Before I could get those ham and cheese sandwiches browned on the cooktop the IP beeped.  I did a quick release of pressure, removed the lid, set the pot to saute again ("more" setting) and added the 4 more cups of chicken broth.  The pot still super hot boiled very quickly and Addilyn dumped untold amounts of dried noodles into the soup until I noticed and stopped her.  A short 5 minutes later we had some "Fix Your Mimi Right Up Chicken Noodle Soup".  

All done in ONE pot in a SHORT amount of time.  After ladling up our creation into a nice canning jar with a fancy ribbon we were able to send it right home with Papa. I am certainly hoping our Mimi is all fixed up and that my daughter continues to fulfill Romans 12:13, with her love and faith of a child.  "Share with the saints who are in need. Practice hospitality."   

Links to recipes:
 http://myplantbasedfamily.com/2015/04/02/instant-pot-mexican-casserole/
http://www.hippressurecooking.com/pressure-cooker-oatmeal-how-to/
http://www.pressurecookrecipes.com/pressure-cooker-chicken-noodle-soup/