Finally seeing some sunshine here in Tennessee. Wonder how long it will last? Sunshine has got me like….mmm, I need TACOS!  I whipped up some delicious 100% plant-based Mexican cauliflower tacos topped with a super easy Mexican slaw, and I’m sharing it with you today! This preps so well and keeps in the fridge for 4-5 days. Make it on a Sunday and enjoy it later in the week to make your busy week a little easier! (If you can wait that long to eat it, that is!)

I had a yard sale yesterday and it was interesting to say the least. I personally love yard sale shopping, but it brings out some mighty strange characters.  One guy ripped into the driveway with an overflowing truck full of junk. He looked like Uncle Fester and talked in a gruff voice like he had a mouth full of marbles. He handed me a plastic cup with a Taco Bell dog on the front and asked me for black coffee. “No coffee here,” I said. Then he proceeded to tell me how pretty my smile was and he would like to take me home. I told him I come with a husband. Then he went around and made a huge pile of stuff (including a box of nursing bras) and struck a deal with me. He said he would come back with the money. He didn’t, but he left his dog cup.

Another young girl asked if she could just buy a whole tub of baby clothes for $25. I told her I wasn’t ready to sell it like that, but if she came back at two pm I might be feeling generous. She came back and by that time all the clothes were mixed up in the various tubs. I told her she could go through them and make a big pile of items she wanted. As she worked on her pile, she told her friend she didn’t want coats, anything over 12 months, and nothing stained. She made a pile and asked me how much. I said, “$20?” (There were 38 pieces of clothing.) She said, “Well, I thought I was gonna come back here and grab a tub for $25.” I said, “Well you can add more clothes if you’d like to your pile and pay $25.” She was really stuck on grabbing a tub. I asked why she would want to grab a tub of mixed up clothes when I’m letting her pick the pieces she wants. Again, I told her she could add more clothes to her pile and still pay just $20. She said, “But I only brought $11.”  Um, ok. “Alright, you can have that pile you picked out for $11 then.” She said, “But I thought I’d be getting a tub full,” she said. I replied, “I’m trying to follow your logic. You wanted to grab one of these tubs ‘as is’ and pay $25, but you only brought $11. And now, I’m letting you pick the clothes you actually want instead of a tub full of junk and agreeing to accept $11, and you clearly aren’t happy. What do you want exactly?” She said, “I don’t know. I just thought you said you’d be feeling generous, so I would get a tub.” She was pretty ticked off, but she gave me the $11 and took the clothes that I let her hand pick. Her friend later came back to buy something and told me that she was upset because she felt I misled her. I am still mystified by the whole thing. I truly thought I was being generous by letting her hand pick the clothes she wanted rather than take a random tub of mixed up sizes and conditions.

Anyway, I do understand that money is hard to part with, especially when you only have a little. For that reason, I’m sharing a cheap and easy Instant Pot recipe that is tasty and versatile. You can add hot sauce, top it with chicken or smoked sausage, or roll it up in a burrito. It will makes several meals, and stretch your hard earned dollar so that you can buy more at your next yard sale.

Here is a video to see how I did it:

I feel like a lot of people psych themselves out by making food prep way too complicated. There is a saying called KISS that I love and follow: “Keep It Simple, Stupid!” Especially when you are new to meal planning, you don’t have to pretend you are a master chef and cook things that have a 100 different ingredients and take 3 hours. Choose recipes that are easy and quick, and that have enough servings to make multiple meals.

I have many people in my monthly fitness challenge group that are doing the 21 Day Fix and searching for easy ways to use their containers. I came up with this simple Instant Pot prep that makes at least four meals with chicken leftover for other meals. I suggest serving the chicken and black bean salad over two cups of chopped romaine lettuce with a 1/4 avocado. If you are using the container system, that would calculate to a red, yellow, 2 greens, and a blue container. Not only is it low fat, low calorie, and delicious, but it all comes together in roughly 15 minutes including the time your Instant Pot needs to come to pressure!

Check out this video to see the prep in action! Make sure to subscribe to my youtube channel too!

I’m just over one month eating a Whole Food Plant Based diet, and I’m loving it! I have lost six lbs already and I feel great. I’ve put aside counting calories and containers, and I’m just focused on eating unprocessed whole foods. After a year and a half of primarily eating a Paleo diet, I never thought I’d be able to cut meat out of my diet. Truthfully, I’m not missing it at all! On Jan 8th, my next fitness challenge begins and I’m pumped. I took it easy with exercise while I transitioned to this way of eating in December, just mostly doing Yoga and Pilates. But now, I’m ready to hit it hard with Autumn Calabrese’s new program 80 Day Obsession. Hit me up on Facebook if you want to join me!

On of the day I’m writing this blog entry, it is New Year’s Day 2018. I attended a New Year’s Eve party last night. Instead of worrying about what I was going to eat and setting myself up for failure, I decided to whip up a delicious three bean chili in my pressure cooker. I also made a huge container of brown rice and brought whole grain tortilla chips and salsa. I was happily noshing all evening, and everyone enjoyed what I brought as well. I found most people were amazed that it was “Vegan.” Many people automatically assumed “vegan” or “whole food plant based” means tasteless, and nothing could be further from the truth.

This Instant Pot recipe is adapted from one I found on Clean Food Dirty Girl. Check out the inspiration recipe here, but be beware that the blogger uses colorful language. If that bothers you, then just quickly scroll to the bottom of her post for the recipe. I hope you enjoy my version of this meatless chili. Feel free to add your own tweaks and spice it up with cayenne pepper or hot sauce! It’s sure to please all your meat-lovin’ friends!

This post contains affiliate links that help to directly support the life of this blog. When you use my links to purchase, you are supporting Modern Day Fox! All opinions are my own.

I love cooking pork in my Instant Pot. Pork happens to be my favorite meat, and I make it for my family regularly! The Instant Pot has made it a much faster process. Pork Carnitas is my favorite way to prepare the meat, but often the recipes are a bit too spicy for my little guys. Because of this, I decided to throw together my own version and share it with you. Feel free to spice it up with extra cumin, chili powder, and even some habanero peppers if that is your jam!

Remember that the cut of meat is very important depending on what results you want get from your pork. In my video below, I chose a slightly leaner cut of meat with a pork tenderloin. But, a pork shoulder roast has much more fat and makes for a more tender dish. I’m trying to watch my weight a bit right now due to the holiday temptations in every direction, so I opted for a cut less fatty. I don’t recommend trimming the fat on a pork tenderloin. You need the fat to keep the meat nice and tender!

Check out a video of this prep here:

I hope your family enjoys this dish!

xo Jaime

I love rice. I think it constituted about 90% of my diet in college. The other 10% was Fruity Pebbles. Lately, I have been craving that Yellow Rice that you get in the grocery store. You know, the kind that is like 65 cents, full of sodium, and looks like this…

But, I’m not in college anymore. So, I care about things like my blood pressure.

During a recent vacation, my friend whipped up her version of Yellow Rice in her Instant Pot and I was intrigued. I took her recipe home and tweaked it out to fit my taste preferences. I thought you might enjoy it too! This recipe is very, very basic and can be enhanced with additional seasonings like onion power or curry. You can also opt to toast your basmati rice in the oil before adding the other ingredients. Go crazy and throw in some diced onions sautéed in the oil too! Or, be lazy like me and follow the easy recipe below.

If you are a visual person, here is a how-to video complete with Paw Patrol in the background. Yay!

Enjoy!
xo Jaime

This post contains affiliate links that help support this blog. All opinions are my own. When you use my links to purchase products I recommend, you help keep Modern Day Fox going!

Wow! This recipe took off fast in the Instant Pot Community! So happy to see so many excited about how EASY using the Instant Pot can be. There is nothing to be scared of, folks! Not only is this soup easy though, it’s also healthy, gluten and grain-free, and fits perfectly with the 21 Day Fix nutrition plan.

A little warning – this soup has some kick. If you are sensitive to spice or have little ones who go crazy with the slightest hint of heat, sub the Rotel for another can of diced tomatoes. You may also consider cutting the chili powder to a half tablespoon and the pepper to a half teaspoon. As for me, I love a lot of flavor in my recipes so I love all the spices.

Check out my video on how to make this soup:

This post contains affiliate links that help support my blog. When you make purchases using my links, you help me keep it afloat! All opinions are my own and I only recommend products I actually use.

Print Recipe

Modern Day Fox Instant Pot Tortilla "Dump" Soup

Course

Soup

Prep Time

5 min

Cook Time

15 min

Passive Time

8 min (time to pressure)

Servings

servings

Ingredients

• 1 lb fresh chicken breast
• 1 can black bean drained and rinsed
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 can Rotel (Mild) (Rotel is diced tomatoes w green chile peppers
• 1 TBSP Cumin
• 1 TBSP Salt
• 1 TBSP Chili powder reduce to 1/2 TBSP if sensitive to spice
• 1 teaspoon Black Pepper reduce to 1/2 teaspoon if sensitive to spice
• 1 TBSP minced garlic heaping
• 6 cups Chicken broth

Course Soup Prep Time 5 min Cook Time 15 min Passive Time 8 min (time to pressure) Servings servings Ingredients 1 lb fresh chicken breast 1 can black bean drained and rinsed 1 can diced tomatoes 1 can Rotel (Mild) (Rotel is diced tomatoes w green chile peppers 1 TBSP Cumin 1 TBSP Salt 1 TBSP Chili powder reduce to 1/2 TBSP if sensitive to spice 1 teaspoon Black Pepper reduce to 1/2 teaspoon if sensitive to spice 1 TBSP minced garlic heaping 6 cups Chicken broth

Instructions

1. Dump in all ingredients and stir.
2. Set pot to manual HP for 15 min. You can either do a quick release or let steam release naturally. I find the chicken is a bit more tender with a natural release.
3. Remove chicken and shred well.
4. Return to broth and stir.
5. Serve with tortilla chips! Or, save the calories and just sprinkle on cilantro, a little cheese, and a slice of avocado!

Recipe Notes

If you use frozen chicken, I would do 20 min HP to be safe (although 15 min has worked for me in the past. I've found it depends on whether I laid my chicken flat to freeze.) Note that if your chicken is frozen in a big ball, it may not cook thoroughly in the center. If you find your chicken is not cooked through, my quick trick is break it apart and set pot to Sauté. Chicken will finish cooking in the boiling broth.

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