I buy salmon that’s frozen in individual portions from Costco. I think they’re 15 for about $22, and the little filets are not insubstantial – about 3×5″, so just one can actually yield some leftovers.

I put jasmine rice (2:1 rice to water ratio) into my rice cooker. After the rice was cooking, I coated the salmon fillets (I made 2) with olive oil, basil, lemon pepper, garlic powder, and lemon juice. I put enough water into the pressure cooker to cover the bottom of the pan but remain below the trivet, placed the fish directly on the trivet, then placed a whole head of broccoli (no need to cut it up, just pull off the leaves) and a sliced bell pepper (would have added a second pepper) on top of the fish. Lit the stove, let the cooker come to pressure, and had it remain at pressure for about 10 minutes. I let the pressure drop on the stovetop (no quick release) and it came down at about the same time the rice was done.

Rachel put some salt on her fish (I don’t cook with salt in the pressure cooker because I find that a little seasoning goes a long way, and that it generally works to season to taste when the dish is served) and some butter on her broccoli, but I enjoyed mine without that stuff. I think putting wine in the bottom would also help but I’ve had trouble with scalding since I started using the cooker on a gas range rather than an electric stovetop. I want to note to cut the peppers larger than you might otherwise so that they don’t fall between the holes of the trivet – I had very little loss this time.

I’m going to try to get a few more “one-pot” recipes down. Rice cooker cleanup is easy because the pan is nonstick, and the pressure cooker cleaned up easily from this too. It was really good! I guess the total prep time is the amount of time it takes for my rice cooker to run a white rice cycle, which I’ve never actually timed.

So, in the spirit of writing more, I’m going to start documenting the meals I’m replicating consistently (bonus: mom can read this post and know that I am feeding myself like a reasonable person)

ingredients: chicken thighs, pasta, jar of pasta sauce, assorted spices, vegetables of your choice
serves: 2
cost: about $5

I’ve been overly pleased with myself for figuring out how to prepare a 20-minute meal for 2 (before Costco changed up their chicken thigh packages, blerg, you used to get a lot more meat in those, I feel). I buy the pre-packaged chicken thighs in the Costco meat section: there are about 8 sealed packs that sell for about $16 as a unit (depending on the weight, I think they charge just under $2/pound). Here’s the deal:

Open the package. Cover chicken with spices (I use a combination of basil, lemon pepper, garlic powder, oregano, whatever, it really doesn’t matter). Put about 1/2 cup of water in the bottom of the pressure cooker then place the trivet on the bottom. Put chicken on top of the trivet. Cover the chicken with the tomato-based pasta sauce of your choice ($2).

Cook for 10 minutes under pressure. Prepare pasta ($1) on stove as chicken cooks. They will finish at the same time. There are only 2 pots to clean, and whatever dishes you use.

You can make the pasta more delicious if time/enthusiasm allow. If you are a civilized person, I recommend using fresh garlic on the chicken in place of the aforementioned garlic powder. You can also add whatever vegetables you want on top of the chicken. Lorna Sass uses wine in her chicken recipes but lately I’ve been scalding wine on the bottom of the pan and that makes for rough cleanup – maybe because I’m cooking on a gas range now instead of the electric stove I had at my old apartment. Also to be avoided: onions on the bottom of the pan.

Recipes will call for you to brown the chicken in oil on the bottom of the pan, and you can totally do that, it does come out wonderfully and adds maybe 5 minutes to the prep time, but I don’t really need a crispy outside and I’ve had the same issue with using oil as I have with wine. The chicken comes out TOTALLY FINE without browning it first.

This is 2 meals for about $5, for those of you keeping track at home (probably less if you buy stuff on sale). I don’t feel like total shit after eating this, so that has to count for something. If, like me, you are bad at eating vegetables, you can put spinach in the pasta and it doesn’t come out too stringy.