My New Obsession and some Walmarche Finds

My in-laws bought me a pressure cooker for Christmas and it is the namesake of the title. This appliance is my new kitchen obsession!!

People, chicken tortilla soup was cooked to perfection in 12 minutes!! That includes the 4 minute warm up to the pressurization. So 8 minutes of cook time, and a couple minutes for cool down. So, seriously less than 15 minutes. I added zucchini, it was delish. I am pretty convinced you can add almost any vegetable to this soup and it will taste great.

Tonight, I made teriyaki chicken (for the second time in a week) in 10 minutes on the poultry setting (plus the warm up time). I used boneless skinless chicken breasts that were still partially frozen. I poured my favorite teriyaki sauce all over it, added about one cup of water and pressed start. The crazy thing about this pressure cooker is when I cut into the super moist chicken, the marinade appears to be almost all the way through the chicken, like it was marinating for days, which I love. There are roughly a million health benefits to cooking with a pressure cooker. Vegetables retain way more nutrients compared to other forms of cooking, here is a blog with a lot more nutrient oriented details, LINK.

So, I am hooked and am excited to pin some recipes and get creative. The time saving element of this machine is close to priceless to me.

Moving on, Levi and I wandered around Walmart a bit. I have some Crate & Barrel gift cards that are burning a hole in my pocket, I planned on buying some more Aspen dishes, but I've also been eyeing the small footed dessert bowls. As crazy as this may sound, I wanted to see what Walmart had. Walmart can be a surprising place to find some little gems. Walmart does have a dessert trifle dish, only $1.97, Crate & Barrel's is $2.95. Not too much of a price difference, C&B has an obvious high quality, but I think overall, it is just a decision on silhouette. I may be that crazy lady who brings a Walmart footed bowl in my purse to compare to at C&B... And, since we are on the topic of footed bowls, I have to share these soup bowls, love them. I am thinking rather than completing my Aspen bowl set, I may just go miss-matchy and finish it off with the footed ones instead. I feel like if they are all white I can swing it. First world dilemmas I know.

I realize Pioneer Woman has been selling and selling out for sometime, but I just had to snap a few pics of things that popped out to me. The glassware, love me some character.

These mason jar lids, a set of four for under $3. They were out of coordinating reusable straws. Can you tell I am already dreaming of dining alfresco? Once mid January hits, I am basically ready for Spring flowers and straight on till Summer. But, I live in the PNW...

While Levi and I were antiquing (unsuccessfully) the other day, I saw one overpriced glass jar after the next. Granted, these are not antiques, but the same look can be achieved at a much lower price point. I pretty much only buy my glass jars here.

And now, for what I feel like is the creme de la creme of my most recent Walmart finds.

Moscow Mule Mugs. $6.22.

Now, if you know me well, you may be laughing to yourself a bit, wondering why I am so excited about Moscow Mule mugs?? True, I am not much of a Moscow Mule girl myself, but couldn't I put my cranberry juice and sparkling water in one of these little beauties?? I follow @jennycookies on instagram, and she had a few posts throughout the holidays with similar mugs and I just fell in love. Of course the quality would be different, but as a novelty mug, I think I would at least try the Walmart version. The ones she posted about are here, they are actually copper and quite eye-catching, but I just think this is an item that not directly next to each other you may not really notice the difference. I could be wrong, but for an $18 difference per mug, it's worth contemplating.