Instant Pot

Instant Pot Taco Meat – Keto/THM S

September 17, 2020 by Stacy Craft 2 Comments

This Instant Pot taco meat is seriously the best that you will ever make! And the best part – it works for your Keto, low carb or Trim Healthy Mama lifestyle.

My goal to start using and loving my Instant Pot has slowly been becoming a reality. I’ve made chicken stock, shredded Mexican pork, sous vide eggs, southern style veggies and even some desserts.

And I’m kinda loving it. Finally! I thought it would never happen. But I keep finding myself trying to figure out another recipe to throw in my Instant Pot. I even got rid of my crock pot last week (gasp)! Ok truth be told, I dropped the lid and it broke so it wasn’t really usable anymore but I got rid of it nonetheless.

So when I was scrolling Pinterest and saw a Taco Bell style taco meat in the Instant Pot, I had to try it. I’ve been a Taco Bell fanatic for as long as I can remember and anytime someone claims a copycat recipe I’m in.

(Affiliate Links are used in this post. A small commission may be paid to me at no extra cost to you and that helps to support this page. Please see my disclosures page for additional information.)

Instant Pot Taco Meat – Keto/THM S

The pin that I saw was written at the blog The Salty Pot. I followed the directions meticulously (subbing in my own seasoning) and it turned out great! I made some small changes to the original to make it work for our family & our Trim Healthy Family lifestyle.

And I’m telling you, it is good. I don’t know if it is Taco Bell good (because can anyone ever reach that greatness??) but I think you will enjoy it. My husband claimed it to be the best taco meat that I had ever made. The cooking process really infuses the meat with the Mexican seasoning blend giving it much more flavor than letting it simmer 5 or 10 minutes on the stove.

The recipe does have a couple of steps and isn’t exactly a quick recipe. But since it is made in the Instant Pot, you can set it and forget it. It is also a great recipe to make ahead and freeze. More details on how to do that in a minute.

Step 1: Cooking the Ground Beef

You can use frozen or fresh ground beef in this step. Which is great if you are like me and forget to thaw out your meat!

Frozen Instructions: Add 2-3 lbs frozen ground beef and 1 cup of water to the Instant Pot. Seal and set manual high pressure to 30 minutes. Quick release when complete.

Fresh Instructions: Add 2-3 lbs fresh ground beef and 1 cup of water to the Instant Pot. Seal and set manual high pressure to 8 minutes for 2 lbs or 10 minutes for 3 lbs. Quick release when complete.

Step 2: Break up the Cooked Beef

Using a meat masher, break the cooked beef up into small pieces. The first key in my opinion to Taco Bell style beef is that the meat is broken up into very small pieces.

Now drain the water & grease from the beef.

Step 3: Taco Seasoning

Now it is time to season the Instant Pot taco meat. Add 1 cup of beef broth and 2 tablespoons of taco seasoning for every pound of ground beef. If you want to use a store bought packet of seasoning, that is 1 packet per pound.

If you are a Keto or Trim Healthy Mama, try this healthy homemade taco seasoning. You can make a big batch in just a couple of minutes.

Seal the pot & place on manual high pressure for 30 minutes.

Step 4: Saute if Needed

I found that if you use 3 lbs of beef, you don’t really need to do this step. There will be a small amount of liquid left but I left it so that when I warm it back from frozen, there will be a bit of liquid.

If you use only 2 pounds or want to eat right away vs. freezing, you need to get some of that liquid to evaporate. Turn the pot off & then turn it back on by pushing the saute feature. Allow the liquid to cook off for approximately 15 minutes stirring occasionally.

Step 5: Freezing

If you want to freeze the Instant Pot taco meat for an easy meal later on just let it cool after step 4. Divide it into gallon size ziplock bags in portions that meat your family’s needs.

Label your bag and lay it flat to freeze.

To reheat, thaw in fridge and warm it in a skillet or in the instant pot on the saute setting. If you got rid of most of the liquid in the original cooking process, you may want to add 1/4 a cup of beef broth when warming.

Serve the meat with your favorite taco toppings.

Make your Taco Meat Even Better!

Add Chorizo – Add a package of chorizo during step 3 to the already cooked ground beef. It really helps with flavor and consistency.
Pack it with Veggies – Also in Step 3, you can add 1/2 a bag of frozen cauliflower rice to your ground beef/chorizo mixture. The cauliflower takes on the flavor and color of the meat. Give it a good stir after the second round of pressure cooking is done to mix it all together. My 7 year old and my husband never knew it was there. And that is saying something!

More Healthy Low Carb / THM S Mexican Recipes:

30 Min Salsa Verde Chicken with Queso Cauli Rice

Keto Cheese Enchiladas (No Tortilla)

Instant Pot Shredded Mexican Pork

Low Carb Pork Belly Tacos with Siracha Mayo

Instant Pot Taco Meat - Keto/THM S

Servings

Ingredients

2-3 lbs ground beef
1 cup water
1 cup beef broth
2-3 Packets Taco Seasoning (1 pack per lb) (If using homemade, use 2 tablespoons of seasoning for each lb of beef)

Servings

Ingredients

2-3 lbs ground beef
1 cup water
1 cup beef broth
2-3 Packets Taco Seasoning (1 pack per lb) (If using homemade, use 2 tablespoons of seasoning for each lb of beef)

Instructions

Place the fresh or frozen ground beef in the instant pot with 1 cup of water.
Set Manual pressure to high, seal and cook 30 minutes if beef is frozen. Follow the same process but set the time to 8-10 minutes if the beef is fresh. (8 mins for 2 lbs, 10 mins for 3 lbs)
Quick release the pressure & break up the ground beef into small pieces.
Drain off the water and grease from the Instant Pot.
Add 1 cup of beef broth and taco seasonings to the pot.
Set manual pressure to high, seal and cook for another 30 minutes.
If you used 3 lbs of beef, most of the liquid should be absorbed after a quick release of pressure. If you used 2 lbs or have excessive liquid with 3 lbs turn on the saute feature. Saute for 10-15 minutes until most of the liquid is absorbed, stirring frequently.
To Freeze: allow the meat to cool. Separate the taco meat into portions that will feed your family and place into freezer bags. When ready to use, thaw the meat in the fridge. To warm, simply use the saute feature on the Instant Pot or add to a skillet on the stove. You may need to add 1/4 - 1/2 cup of water or beef broth while heating.

Keto Instant Pot Orange Brown Sugar Ham (THM S)

November 16, 2020 by Stacy Craft Leave a Comment

This Keto Instant Pot orange brown sugar ham gives you the taste of those sweet holiday hams that we all love but without the sugar and carbs that we want to avoid!

It is that time of year where big holiday meals are on my mind. So we have been having some random Tuesday holiday meal trial runs.

I’ve got my special pumpkin cheesecake ready for dessert (priorities) so I decided to move on to main courses.

And since this delicious ham is made in the Instant Pot, it is totally doable after work.

We ate this with a side of butter beans and a small sweet potato tonight for a XO meal on Trim Healthy Mama. You could also serve it with Mac N Cheese Zoodles to keep it an S (Keto/Low Carb) meal.

(Affiliate Links are used in this post. A small commission may be paid to me at no extra cost to you and that helps to support this page. Please see my disclosures page for additional information.)

Keto Instant Pot Orange Brown Sugar Ham (THM S)

Holidays are busy and often times the main entree can take up a lot of your cook and prep time.

In this recipe, we utilize our Instant Pot to warm our ham and free up that valuable oven space. Here are all the details on creating this easy Keto Instant Pot orange brown sugar ham.

Swerve Sugar Free Ham Glaze

All of the holiday hams that come to mind have that amazing sweet brown sugar glaze. But as a Trim Healthy Mama, I wanted a sugar free variety that delivers that same taste without the guilt.

By using Swerve brown sugar, you get that sweet, syrupy glaze for your ham topping but keep it sugar free. My next obstacle was the orange juice that seems to be in every brown sugar ham recipe.

So we sub the Bai Clementine to give us all the sweet orange flavor but none of the insulin spiking results of regular OJ.

And since you will have a part of the Bai leftover – make sure you make this Orange Creamsicle drink while you are waiting on your ham to cook. It is so good & takes less than a minute to make.

Doubling the Glaze For Bigger Hams

The ham I made tonight was just over 9 lbs. If you have a bigger ham like this, definitely consider making a double batch of glaze.

I made it as written with the larger ham & it works but I think it would have been even better with more glaze. If your ham is 4-6 lbs, the amount of glaze listed in the recipe should be perfect.

Also, my 9+ lb ham fit but just barely! I stuffed it in but I wouldn’t go any bigger than 9lbs because I don’t think it would go.

No Pressure Cooker – Can I Bake the Ham Instead?

Of course! Place the ham in a 9×13 roasting pan and cover it with the water and 2-3 tablespoons of the glaze.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 Degrees for 10-15 minutes per lb. If you go with this method, you will want to boil the glaze ahead of time and get it nice and syrupy.

Baste your ham every 20 minutes or so throughout the cooking process.

Making the Low Carb Instant Pot Holiday Ham

Creating this ham for the holidays (or any day of the week) is easy and worthy of your Thanksgiving or Christmas platter!

What You Need:

4-6 Lb Spiral Cut Ham
Nature’s Hollow Honey Substitute
Bai Orange
Dijon Mustard
Cinnamon
Ground Cloves
Ground Nutmeg

Prepping the Instant Pot

This Keto Instant Pot orange brown sugar ham is a dump and go kind of recipe.

Place the metal trivet into your Instant Pot and insert the ham. I had a ham that was a little over 9 lbs so I really had to stuff it in but it worked.

Add in the cup of water.

Prepare the Sugar Free Ham Glaze

Mix the remaining ingredients in a bowl. This is the start of your glaze. Add 2-3 tablespoons on top of your ham and secure the Instant pot cover.

Seal the pot & set a manual pressure for the amount of time that your ham needs to cook. The formula is 2 minutes per lb of ham so if you have a 6 lb ham, set the timer for 12 minutes.

While the ham is cooking, prepare the reserved glaze. Place the glaze mixture into a small saucepan and bring it to a boil on the stove.

Reduce the heat to medium and cook for 3-5 minutes until the mixture is a thicker consistency. Be careful not to let it boil over! Thankfully my hubby caught mine before it made a big mess!

Natural Release/Quick Release

Allow your Instant Pot to naturally release pressure for 5 minutes & then quick release. Remove the ham from the pot & place it on a platter.

Carefully pour the warm glaze in between the slices and any extra over the top of the ham.

Serve immediately (but of course it is also great cold for sandwiches)!

More THM S – Keto Holiday Recipes

Double Layered Pumpkin Cheesecake
Pumpkin Spice Crockpot Almonds
Crockpot Sugar Free Cranberry Sauce

THM Instant Pot Orange Brown Sugar Ham

Servings

Ingredients

4-6 lb Spiral Cut Ham
1 cup water
1/4 cup Nature's Hollow Honey Substitute
2 tbsp Dijon Mustard
1/2 cup Swerve Brown Sugar
1/4 cup Bai Costa Rica Clementine
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

Servings

Ingredients

4-6 lb Spiral Cut Ham
1 cup water
1/4 cup Nature's Hollow Honey Substitute
2 tbsp Dijon Mustard
1/2 cup Swerve Brown Sugar
1/4 cup Bai Costa Rica Clementine
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

Instructions

Place the unwrapped ham in your Instant pot on top of the trivet & add 1 cup water to the bottom.
In a medium bowl, mix the honey substitute, mustard, brown sugar, Bai, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.
Spoon 2-3 tablespoons of the mixture over your ham & reserve the remaining sauce.
Set the Instant Pot using the manual pressure cook setting & cook the ham for 2 minutes per lb. So a 6 lb ham would cook for 12 minutes.
Allow the pressure to naturally release for 5 minutes and then quick release.
Once the ham is done (while the pressure is naturally releasing), pour the remaining sauce that you reserved into a small saucepan.
Bring the sauce to a boil and then reduce heat to medium. Cook for about 3-5 minutes. The sauce will thicken up.
Remove the ham from the Instant pot & pour the thickened sauce between the slices of the ham.
Serve the ham with your favorite sides.

Instant Pot Green Chili Mexican Pork – THM FP

August 27, 2020 by Stacy Craft Leave a Comment

This Instant Pot green chili Mexican pork is a quick and easy way to get seasoned pulled pork to use in tacos, enchiladas, stuffed peppers and more. It can even be made into a freezer meal for those super busy weeknights.

A Trim Healthy Mama FP recipe is always welcome in our house! A fuel pull is kind of a blank canvas that can be shaped into whatever type of Trim Healthy Mama meal that you want. And this Instant Pot green chili shredded pork will give you a great start to your favorite Mexican meal.

Stuff a bell pepper with black beans, brown rice and green chili shredded pork for a yummy “E” meal with healthy carbs. Or load up a low carb tortilla with sour cream and cheese for a pulled pork taco that is a perfect “S” or low carb meal. We also love it in enchiladas or even as a salad protein.

And since this recipe is low fat and low carb, it works for many different healthy lifestyles. Whether you follow a low fat diet like Weight Watchers or a low carb lifestyle like Keto, this recipe will work for you!

(Affiliate Links are used in this post. A small commission may be paid to me at no extra cost to you and that helps to support this page. Please see my disclosures page for additional information.)

Instant Pot Green Chili Mexican Pork – THM FP

I have been making this seasoned pulled pork in the crock pot for years. It is really versatile and with only 3 ingredients it is a simple weeknight meal that the whole family will love.

But since it takes around 8 hours in the crock pot, I wanted to see how it would fair in the Instant Pot for those evenings that I forgot to worry about dinner! Does anyone else meal plan like a crazy woman and still end up at least one night a week staring in the pantry at 5:30 with zero ideas? I don’t get it but it happens to me often.

So I pulled out that big pressure cooker that I’m determined to love (even though it wasn’t love at first sight) and dumped in the pork and sauce. And in just over half an hour we had a successful shredded pork dish.

THM Enchilada Sauce

Let’s talk enchilada sauce before we go any further.

Many of the store bought varieties include things like food starch, flour, caramel color and sugar. All of which we don’t want in our pork. Why do they do that?! We just want something easy that we can buy for busy weeknights.

So no one that manufacturers enchilada sauce asked me and it is what it is at the store. But I really wanted this to be drive thru Sue friendly like those instant pot dump meals that we loved pre-THM.

So while there is not a perfect THM on plan store bought enchilada sauce, the one that I used is the best that I could find and I’m ok with it. If you have read the 5 things I don’t do, you will know that A. I’m not a purist & B. an off plan oil doesn’t make me cringe so long as everything else is on plan and that it is not the first ingredient.

That is the case with this sauce. It uses cottonseed oil which is a vegetable oil and not on plan. The oil is the 4th ingredient and the numbers work so I use it. However, I don’t want to mislead you. An off plan oil makes it off plan regardless of the numbers because ingredients trump numbers on THM.

If you want something that is totally on plan, try Darcie’s enchilada sauce with this recipe. It is simple and could be frozen ahead of time to make life easier later.

Update: I did find this store bought & on plan sauce at Target. It is 100% on plan & I’m going to try it out the next time that I make this Instant Pot Green Chili Mexican Pork recipe. You would need to use 2 cans of sauce if using this variety.

So exciting to have a completely on plan, store bought enchilada sauce!

Ingredients for Instant Pot Mexican Pork

Like all my favorite dump and pressure cook meals, you only need 3 ingredients for this shredded green chili pork.

Pork Tenderloin (2 pack)
Green Chilis
Enchilada Sauce

Pressure Cooking Green Chili Pork Tenderloin

The instructions for this recipe couldn’t be easier! Dump in 15 oz of Enchilada sauce, 1 can of chopped green chilis and two pork tenderloins into the Instant Pot. I use the pork tenderloin that comes 2 to a package.

Select the manual pressure cook option and set it for 35 minutes. Allow pressure to naturally release for 10 minutes and then quick release after that.

Shred the pork and allow it to soak up some of the leftover enchilada sauce. You can add additional sauce if needed. I usually get the big can and then save the extra for these no tortilla enchiladas.

You can serve it with shredded cheese to make it Keto/Low Carb or a THM S meal. Or you can eat it as written as a THM FP or low fat meal.

Here we made it into enchiladas by just adding the shredded green chili pork and shredded cheese into a low carb tortilla. Then topped the pan of enchiladas with more enchilada sauce and additional cheese. Bake for 20-25 minutes until hot and bubbly.

Another option is to stuff this shredded green chili pork into a bell pepper for an E meal. Add in a 1/4 black beans and corn. Place the stuffed pepper into the instant pot with trivet and 1 cup of water at the bottom of pot.

Cook on manual pressure for 10 minutes. Add a small sprinkling of cheese on top and let it melt so that you don’t go into XO.

Does It Freeze Well?

Instant pot green chili Mexican pork freezes beautifully!

I use the package that has two tenderloins per package. One of those tenderloins feeds my family of 4 so I use this recipe as an easy meal prep and freezer prep opportunity.

Shred the first tenderloin and feed your family dinner. We love to take this pork and use it to make enchiladas or stuffed bell peppers!

Shred the second tenderloin and let it cool in the leftover sauce in the Instant Pot. Once cool place the pork and about 1/3-1/2 a cup of the enchilada sauce that it cooked in, into a gallon freezer bag.

When you are ready to use it, place the shredded pork in the fridge while you are at work. Once you get home it should be thawed and ready to use.

I hope you enjoy this Instant Pot green chili Mexican pork low carb recipe! Let me know your favorite way to use the shredded pork.

Zevia Cola Memphis Style Pulled Pork, Crockpot Recipe – THM FP

Leftover Rotisserie Chicken Instant Pot Bone Broth

Instant Pot Green Chili Mexican Pork - THM FP

Servings

people

Ingredients

1 cup Enchilada Sauce (more to toss in after cooking if desired)
4 oz Green Chilis
2 pork tenderloins

Servings

people

Ingredients

1 cup Enchilada Sauce (more to toss in after cooking if desired)
4 oz Green Chilis
2 pork tenderloins

Instructions

Place the pork tenderloins into the Instant Pot.
Dump in the enchilada sauce and green chilis.
Set the pressure cooker to high pressure and 35 minutes using the manual setting.
Allow the pressure to naturally release for ten minutes and then fast release after that.
Shred the pork and toss it in the remaining enchilada sauce (adding extra if needed).
Freeze any leftovers in a gallon zip bag for future meals that will be very easy to prep.