Instant Pot Shabbat: Instant Pot Recipe for Black Lentils (and more!)

So I joined the cult of Instant Pot (yes, it's Instant Pot, not Instapot) after resisting and resisting for longer than I probably should have. Although I've only had it a few weeks, I'm happy to say I'm in love and kicking myself for all the snide comments I made to others about the craze. The best part is that I've gotten rid of my rice cooker and small crockpot and now have more space in my kitchen, which, might I add, is super, unbelievably tiny.

This is the photo from the Food Network, and my fish looked exactly like this. Period. 

I ended up doing both Shabbat meals in the Instant Pot: the first completely and the second partially. For Shabbat dinner, I pretty much followed this recipe from Food Network for Instant Pot Salmon with Garlic Potatoes and Greens, except:

• I substituted kale (I'm so millennial) for the spinach.
• I used a Moroccan spice mix I had laying around (mix it up!). 

The reviews were outstanding. My 4.5 year old loved it and my husband couldn't shut up about it. This one will be going into rotation. Seriously, I can't cook fish this perfectly in the oven, so knowing the Instant Pot can? Priceless. The best part was that it only took a few minutes and I did it right before candle lighting, so everything was hot and fresh.

For Shabbat lunch, I wanted to whip up a hardcore healthy Buddha Bowl-style meal, which included:

• Roasted rainbow carrots
• Roasted sweet potatoes
• Roasted red onions
• Sautéed mushrooms
• Roasted cherry tomatoes
• Black lentils
• Tahini sauce (tahini, garlic, lemon juice, parsley, salt, pepper)

Brilliant! I love bowls that are packed with veggies and protein, and this one was going to be a doozy of goodness. The only problem? I couldn't seem to find a legit recipe for just making black lentils; every recipe was for a soup or red, green, or brown lentils. I love black (or puy) lentils because they're incredibly hearty and packed full of protein. After digging through some regular recipes and Instant Pot recipes, I decided to wing it. The result was outstanding! 

Ingredients

• 1 cup black lentils
• 3.5 cups broth or water
• pinch of salt

Instructions

• Put the ingredients in the Instant Pot bowl. 
• For settings, you want 3 minutes on high pressure. 
• Make sure the steam valve is closed. 
• Put the lid on and the process will begin. 
• After the 3 minutes, let the Instant Pot sit for 10 more minutes. 
• After the 10 minutes, release the steam valve carefully. 
• Once the pressure is resolved, remove the lid, and enjoy!

You should have perfect black lentils for use in whatever you need to make. If you want them to be a bit more soupy, use 4 cups of broth or water instead of the 3.5. 

Pro tip: If you have cherry tomatoes that are starting to turn, chuck them in the oven at 400 degrees with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Let them cook until they start to burst and pop. Throw 'em on pizza, a buddha bowl, on spaghetti, or just eat 'em with a spoon!

Do you have a favorite Instant Pot recipe? Sock it to me! My Instant Pot is going to stay pescatarian/dairy, but I'm curious how you're using yours.

A Mom's Life: The Moment You've Done Something Right

 You know that moment when you're holding your baby and your other kids are playing so nicely and quietly and you look down at the baby and think, "You know? I've got this. I've really got this?" And then the baby starts screaming and your toddler starts screaming because her older sibling isn't letting her play the way she wants to play and then all hell breaks loose and you're thinking, "Yeah. I jinxed myself there." And everything falls apart and you want to curl into a ball and get sucked into a time vortex back to college when you could stay up until 3 am drinking and delivering films for the college newspaper for printing ...

Just me? I mean, some of the specifics there are probably just me, but this is basically a cycle I go through on a daily (sometimes multiple times) basis.

Having three kids is stupid. It's just the absolute most stupidest thing any human being could ever possibly do. With two kids, at least you sort of feel like it's a level playing field if there are two parents and two kids. You can each man one child at a time. But with three? And three under 5? It's stupid. It's dumb. It's the stupidest thing I've ever done in my entire life (except maybe not really going for the decadent non-kosher foods before opting to go kosher perhaps).

But then there are these moments like today. As I attempted to chill the Zush out while sitting on the couch (he pooped twice, so there's the answer), my other two were schlepping half the toys from my oldest's room into my daughter's room to have a "show." Then, they shut the door and I'm there, helpless on the couch, attempting to ignore the ensuing laughter and thumping and pounding. They have taken to WWE-style wrestling, my 2 year old and 4.5 year old. I mean, it keeps them super occupied, which is cool, and usually no one even ends up crying, which is also cool. But getting them to calm down afterward? Impossible.

So it's almost Tirzah's bedtime and Zusha finally falls asleep, so I get Asher to clean up the whole mess (because Tirzah suddenly is tired and thirsty and can't help), and he does. (Miracle!) Then I get Tirzah ready for pajamas and she's massively pooped without telling me. Every single time the conversation goes something like this:

Me: Tirzah, you pooped. What do you do when you poop?
Tirzah: MOMMY! TATTY! I POOPY!
Me: Great.
Tirzah: MOMMY! TATTY! I POOPY!
Me: Okay, it's too late now. You did it. I found it. Next time, mmkay?

So I get her changed and in bed and say Shema and Asher decides he wants to read her stories. Cool, I think. This'll end in disaster. So I go sit down on the couch to troll Facebook Marketplace for killer toy deals, and I hear him reading to her.

And it is the single most beautiful, heartwarming moment of my entire week. He doesn't know the words, but he knows the stories, and he's reading to her with gusto and excitement like Tatty does. Eventually he comes out and shuts her door.

"She wanted me to read three books!" he says proudly.

My heart melted. It was helpful having him read her bedtime stories because after working all day and picking up kids and making the crappiest (and yet tastiest for them) dinner and then running to Target on a 15-minute run before Mr. T went into the deli for the night and then dealing with Screamy McScreamerson aka the Terrorist aka Zusha ... I was spent.

Sometimes, kids feel like my greatest curse. Seven o'clock hits, and I'm exhausted. My internal clock kicks me awake at 5:30 am or earlier every single day whether I want it or not. I do what feels like 30 loads of dishes a day and am constantly detaching Batman stickers from my feet, not to mention cursing the sand that is everywhere all the time from the preschool playground. I feel like there is stuff, everywhere, and I can't get rid of it enough to feel like I have ownership of my space, my personal, individual, Chaviva space.

And then sometimes, I realize that I'm almost 35 and this is precisely where HaShem wants me to be. We're all on a journey, and we are where we are for a reason. I don't really get the reason. Sometimes I feel great regret and resentment and then immense guilt for feeling those things. It's a cycle I'll never understand, probably, but when I hear Asher reading to his sister and making her laugh and smile or making Zusha smile just by looking in his general direction, I know I must be doing something right.

In other news: Today we celebrate THREE YEARS since Mr. T returned to the USA after his nine month immigration disaster absence. And yet, three years on, it still feels so raw and close. Boy I hope it feels less painful as the years continue to roll on.

Happy 4th of July folks!