Cook a Pressure Cooker Low-Carb Meal for Friends
Got a free day? Prepare dinner for a friend who works an eight-hour job. Your friend will love you for it. Satisfy the palates with this nacho-style entree with all the fixin’s. It’s easy to make in an electric pressure cooker.
Make Dinner for a Friend
The day after July 4th holiday, my husband and I had dinner with our friends, John and Karen. She had to work that day, and I didn’t. They changed their eating habits to fit the low carbohydrate, high protein plan. I thought about what I had on hand. There were two ribeye steaks, one chuck steak, and packages of ground beef in our fridge. Perfect for the low-carb plan. Hubby and I had stocked up on meat sales so we he could grill.
Karen and I discussed the plans for dinner. She suggested cooking dinner at their house or going out. I asked, “How about I make the whole dinner?”
“Oh, that sounds wonderful!”
It was settled. I would cook the meal, and my husband and I would bring it over to their house after she got home from work.
A Pressure Cooker and Slow Cooker Meal
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I wanted to be sure we had plenty of protein, so I cooked two ribeye steaks and one chuck steak in the slow cooker for five-and-a-half hours. If you’ve never cooked ribeyes in a slow cooker, you’ll have to try it out. So easy! Season it with whatever herbs and spices you like, cook the steaks in the slow cooker on high for five or six hours or on low for nine or ten hours. It is the most popular recipe on this blog. In fact, I have a slow cooker Mango Mesquite Ribeye & Veggies recipe in my brand new Simple Summer Recipes cookbook. This summer cookbook is filled with simple beverage, shake, salad, picnic, grilling, pressure cooker and slow cooker recipes. The book only has ONE recipe cooked in an oven. Who wants to cook in a hot kitchen? Not me. All the other recipes are cooked either in a slow cooker, pressure cooker, or on an electric griddle or grill.
Since I began cooking steaks in the slow cooker, my husband and I have become quite creative with our recipes. He drives a semi and cooks meals in a slow cooker in his truck. Occasionally, he takes a leftover steak, cuts it into small pieces, and makes steak chili or soup in his slow cooker in the big rig. He has become a great trucker cook and deserves a slow cooker trucker hat for his new cooking skills (he loves to wear caps). What’s really fun is when he makes me dinner from his big rig slow cooker.
After the steaks were cooking in the slow cooker, I started on the rest of the dinner. The remainder of the food was cooked in my Farberware pressure cooker that is currently my favorite kitchen appliance. First, I cooked pinto beans and then navy beans after that. However, the pinto beans didn’t seem soft enough. When the navy beans came out just right, I decided to put the pinto beans back in the pressure cooker for another 20 minutes. I added extra water the second time, and they came out perfect!
Finally, all the beans were done and placed into containers to go in the fridge. My next task was to figure out what to do with the two-pound package of extra-lean hamburger. I ended up making chili-beef, not quite soupy as regular chili. After sauteing the onion and browning the beef, I added a can of Ro*Tel and placed a metal rack inside the pressure cooker. Six small red potatoes were placed around the top of the rack, and I cooked the hamburger and potatoes for 35 minutes.
By the time the hamburger and potatoes were done, the ribeye and chuck steaks in the slow cooker were fork-tender. No knife needed. My husband and I brought the dinner over to our friends’ house as we had planned.
Nachos & the Fixin's - Without the Chips
A pressure cooker and slow cooker meal cooked for friends
Ingredients
- 8 oz navy beans
- 8 oz pinto beans
- 4 cup water
- 1/3 diced onion
- 2 lb ground beef, extra lean
- 1 teaspoon Six Seasonings by Santa Fe Seasons a blend of herbs and spices
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 can Ro*Tel Original Diced Tomatoes and Green Chilies
- 8 small red potatoes
Instructions
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Cook navy beans in the pressure cooker (Beans button) with two cups water.
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Pour navy beans in a container to be refrigerated.
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Cook pinto beans with two cups water in pressure cooker (Beans button) + 20 minutes longer for more tender beans.
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Pour pinto beans in container to store in refrigerator.
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Saute onion and brown the ground beef in the pressure cooker pot with the lid up, choosing the Sear-Roast option.
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When the ground beef is done, add the Ro*Tel tomatoes and seasonings,
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Put the pressure cooker's stand inside the pot, place the red potatoes on top of the stand, close the lid, and cook on Sear-Roast.
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When the pressure cooker indicates that the ground beef mixture and potatoes are done, allow the pressure cooker to stay on until it has released the steam on its own - or press the steam-release button until all the steam has been released and the red button on the pressure cooker drops.
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Serve this meal like Nachos Fixin's - without chips.
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Instead of chips on the bottom, place a red potato on a plate, cut it in fourths, add the cooked beef mixture on top, and add all the toppings you want: sour cream, grated cheese, shredded cabbage, salsa, etc.
Serving the Dinner
Once the table was set, I explained that the hamburger and bean mixture was to be served like nachos and the fixin’s – without the nachos, or chips. Red potatoes were cut into fourths and placed onto the bottom of each plate. The chili-beef and beans went on top of the potato.
We also had chopped cauliflower/shredded spinach/shredded cabbage, sour cream, and plain Greek yogurt toppings to choose from as well as various salad dressings. In addition, I had made a cucumber, tomato, and onion salad with vinegar and olive oil. Everybody loved it! No bread. No chips. But very nutritious.
The best part? Making dinner for friends, delivering it to their home, serving them – and they didn’t have to do a thing.