When you are living with diabetes you live with a lot of “have to’s” that can require many extra steps to manage your health and live life as your healthiest self. The trick is to find ways that make preparing healthy foods, cooking them, and measuring them doable, repeatable and, perhaps most importantly, enjoyable.
There has been a lot of buzz about the Instant Pot or Electric Pressure Cooker. I wanted to find out what all the excitement was about. Some questions I wanted to answer were:
Is it really true that food cooks in a lot less time?
Is it true that it is easy to prepare foods in an Instant Pot?
Can you prepare nutritious and delicious recipes in an Instant Pot?
Here is what I found out. As with any device, it does make a difference which kind you buy. I bought the bigger capacity Instant Pot that included the button for making yogurt (see photo). It is not difficult to use but it does take some getting used to. You do need to read the instructions. If you don’t pay attention to the steps in using the Instant Pot and heed the warnings, you can get into trouble or damage your Instant Pot. You do need to pay attention, but it is not hard. Once you get used to following the steps it is actually an easy machine to use. Here is what Shelby Kinnaird said in her latest cookbook that is an Instant Pot cookbook for those living with diabetes:
“Cooking with an EPC requires minimal planning, and clean-up is a breeze. You can usually create something tasty from ingredients already in your pantry and refrigerator. You can set the table and unload the dishwasher while your meal cooks. You can even cook meat without defrosting it first. Managing your diabetes just got a whole lot easier.” Kinnaird, Shelby. The Diabetic Cookbook for Electric Pressure Cookers: Instant Healthy Meals for Managing Diabetes . Rockridge Press. Kindle Edition.
Shelby Kinnaird is a great cook. She is practical too so she makes her recipes and the tools she uses doable for others. In researching recipes to use in my new Instant Pot I wanted to explore Shelby’s new electric pressure cooker cookbook. (As full disclosure, and a happy discovery, Livliga is mentioned in Shelby’s section on portion control.) Her recipes may be mindful of carbs and specific to the needs of those living with diabetes but I have found what that really means is that they are delicious recipes that can be enjoyed by everyone. When living with diabetes you need to be mindful and measure your carbs. Ingredients and portion control go hand in hand. As someone who has had to be mindful of what I eat for weight management, I find her recipes a great resource and source of inspiration.
If you are committed to living a healthy lifestyle and want tools and inspiration to help you sustain it, the Instant Pot and Shelby Kinnaird’s new Instant Pot cookbook —Diabetic Cookbook for Electric Pressure Cookers: Instant Healthy Meals for Managing Diabetes—makes a great combo. I bought both on Amazon. The Instant Pot was on sale and I bought the Kindle version of the cookbook. Both I have already found to be great long term investments.
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