14 Ways Cooking in an Instant Pot Saves Money

Four months after Husband and I first took our Instant Pot electric pressure cooker out of the box we are still using to cook almost every. single. day. of. the. week, compared to our Crock Pot, which we use about once or twice a week.

For people like us who absolutely suck a meal planning until dinner time, buying an Instant Pot is worth its weight in gold. What we didn’t expect was how money our Instant Pot started saved us in more than one unusual way.

 Pin these budget hacks for later and to share with your friends!

 

How to Use an Instant Pot to Save Money

1. An Instant Pot uses 70% less energy to cook food than conventional cooking methods. Most of the time we use the Instant Pot because pressure cooking is so quick but the extra savings we get for not firing up the electric stove for every little thing is a nice surprise.

2. You can make specialty yogurt (or regular.) With a dairy allergy, it’s coconut milk yogurt for me or not at all. I have a hard time finding plain coconut milk yogurt in the store to cook with and I could easily fix that by making my own dairy free yogurt.

3. Making long grain rice comes out perfectly every time. Long grain rice is less expensive than Minute Rice but can have a higher rate of failure if you didn’t grow up making it (raises hand.) Now that I how that I know how to make bullet proof long grain rice in a pot on the stove, I don’t use the rice maker function often but it is nice when I’m making a stir fry and don’t have to watch another burner on the stove.

4. You can cook frozen meat without defrosting it and make an easy 30 minute meal. This is a game changer folks!

5. You can pop popcorn in an Instant Pot. You can stop buying microwave popcorn and use an Instant Pot instead, although I personally think popping popcorn on the stove is just as easy and takes a little less time.

6. An electric pressure cooker cooks cheaper cuts of meat tender. Seriously. I was surprised too.

7. An Instant Pot saves time and we all know, time is money.  The first time I had a late dinner finished in 30ish minutes after tossing chicken stock, random vegetables, spices, and frozen chicken breast in the Instant Pot and it was done before the Jasmine rice I was cooking on the stove to accompany the meal made me thank Canada for this wonderful invention!

8. It is quicker to cook a meal in an Instant Pot than to order take out or delivery. I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to do delivery and Husband countered with an Instant Pot meal in half the time.


9. It can be less messy than cooking on a stove - especially things that like to boil over like potatoes.

10.  You can stop buying canned beans and go with the less dried beans. Dry beans are less expensive but I don’t always remember to rehydrate them in time to make dinner, especially chickpeas, which is why we always have backup canned beans in the pantry.  Not anymore.

11. You don’t have to presoak and rehydrate dehydrated vegetables before you cook them in an Instant Pot. I usually forget until I see a mason jar full of home dehydrated garden vegetables and by then it is too late. Between number 10 and 11 I am clearing out cupboard space right and left to fill up with this summer’s garden vegetables!

12. An Instant Pot makes homemade chicken, beef, and vegetables stock simple and quick! You can make stock using either the slow cook or pressure cooking function and save a ton of time and money.

13. It is quicker and cheaper to cook for special diets such as Paleo and food allergy friendly diets.

14. Making breakfast is cheaper, easier, and healthier than zipping through a drive through or going to a coffee shop. I always forget to set up overnight oats the night before. Fortunately, I can cook steel cut oats in the Instant Pot while I’m getting ready to leave the house because I don’t have to watch it like a pot on a stove. You can also make hard boiled eggs, and bake quick breads and cakes in an Instant Pot although I haven’t tried it because we don’t generally eat either one for breakfast.

Do you have an electric pressure cooker? What do you cook in it? What are your tips, tricks, and hacks?

Did you like this post? Get more like it by subscribing to the Lazy Budget Chef RSS feed or by subscribing to Lazy Budget Chef by email.