Budget Bootcamp Week Three: Assess the Situation

As we wrap up the month of January and have totaled our expenses over the last month, it is important that we take a few minutes to review. By assessing where we are now, we can prepare for a better and more accurate February.

• What did you learn in weeks one and two?
• Were your budgets for each category realistic? 
• Were you spending significantly more or less than you realized?
• Did you find that you needed to add categories because you had expenses that you hadn't previously accounted for? 
• Any other light bulb moments as a result of inspecting each receipt?

If this is your first time ever creating a budget or reviewing your expenses like this, you probably experienced a lot of the above. If you've been doing this for a while but are using this series as a way to hone in or find new methods, you may not have had as many of these things occur for your situation. Either way, reflection is an important part of learning, no matter what area of life or topic you might be dealing with. Budgeting is no different.

In our home, Jason refers to me as "in charge of the money" - his words, not mine. And while I am the one who creates the spreadsheets, enters the expenses, pays the bills and assesses our investments, it doesn't mean he's completely off the hook. We still talk about our budget on a regular basis. We choose to plan ahead for purchases we would like to make in the coming months and space them appropriately. We work together to deem where our money is best spent and what we want to achieve together down the road for our family.

This week, I'm challenging you each to review and reflect on your budget. Are there areas that your desired budget was way out of touch for what you really are spending? If so, you need to decide either a plan of action to get back within budget, or reevaluate whether your budget was a little too ambitious. I want you to include other adults or family members that share in these expenses in your budgeting. Talk with them about why you're creating a budget, get their input on what is feasible, discuss together the areas you feel you're overspending in and agree on a plan to reduce that spending. Once you've reflected and discussed the situation, get ready for a clean slate for February. If you are using the printable budget sheets, print a blank copy and fill it out. If using the Excel spreadsheet, make and save any changes you've deemed necessary. Wednesday is a new month, and a new opportunity to buckle down and cut back. You've got this!

Source: Pinterest

Recipe: Garden Salad

If you follow me on Facebook, you probably saw me share a photo of my lunch last week. What I love about salads is that they are

1. Quick
2. Colorful
3. Packed with Nutrients
4. Versatile and Customizable
5. Filling, but don't leave you feeling stuffed and bloated
6. Cost Effective

I use the name Garden Salad here to reference the fact that we like to pile our salads high with all types of veggies and plant based goodness that comes from the earth, and even better, that we grow ourselves during the months that will allow it. I've included the costs and measurements based on what we consumed as one meal. Obviously you are welcome to add, subtract or substitute ingredients based on your own liking.

Here's what we did as pictured:

• 2 generous handfuls of organic mixed greens ($0.36, Aldi)
• 1/2 organic hard boiled egg ($0.125, Costco)
• 1/2 avocado ($0.45, Aldi)
• 1/8 cup chopped organic carrots ($0.06, Aldi)
• 1/4  organic bell pepper, chopped ($0.29, Aldi)
• 1/8 cup organic croutons ($0.22, Costco)
• 3/4 oz. balsamic vinaigrette ($0.16, homemade)

  The total cost of this meal is $1.67 per serving. We usually mix up our inclusions based on what fresh ingredients we have on hand, and will sometimes add leftover shredded or chopped chicken, nuts or seeds, tomatoes, or other produce. As if this price point wasn't already VERY reasonable (and significantly less than what you could purchase at a fast food joint during your lunch hour) during the summer we are able to grow half of these items ourselves! If you'd like to trim your grocery bill, I highly recommend starting a small garden. Many plants can be grown in little space or even containers. Not only is gardening a fun and practical hobby, but knowing where your food comes from and growing it yourself is super satisfying!

Recipe: Mexican Stuffed Peppers

I love Mexican food and so things like tacos, fajitas, and quesadillas make their fair share of appearances on our menu. We also try to plan at least 2-4 meatless meals each week. Yes, we are omnivores and eat plenty of animal products, however, incorporating meatless meals is a great way to be frugal with your grocery budget while still packing a fair share of flavor and nutrients. I'm putting together an entire post for you about my favorite ways to save money on food, and none of them include eating beans and rice or ramen. These Mexican Stuffed Peppers are a new creation I came up with just recently. They are simple to make, you can customize them if you so choose, and they are delicious!

1. Begin by cooking your quinoa in the liquid of your choosing. Combine the quinoa and liquid, then bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and cook for 10-15 minutes, or until the grains have spiraled open.
2. While the quinoa cooks, boil a small pot of water to cook your corn. Frozen corn only takes 5-6 minutes to cook on the stove top. Once cooked, drain and set aside. 
3. If using canned beans, drain and rinse them. Add them to the corn, then add the cooked quinoa and spices. Stir to combine.
4. Cut your peppers in half from top to bottom, then remove and discard the seeds and any white fibrous core. Place the pepper halves on a foil lined baking sheet, using the foil to keep them steady if need be. 
5. Fill each pepper with equal amounts of the quinoa mixture, then top with the shredded cheese. 
6. Place in a 350 degree oven for 12 minutes or until the cheese has melted and they are warmed through. 
7. Time to dive in! We enjoy ours served with a little sour cream. 

Both Jason and myself feel plenty satisfied with just one half of a stuffed pepper. After all, they are filled with delicious whole grains, fiber, and protein. Here's the cost breakdown for this recipe and you can print this recipe here. 

• Organic Bell Peppers (2 pk): $1.99 (Aldi)
• Organic Quinoa: $0.78 (Costco)
• Water or Stock: FREE! (by making your own like this!)
• Organic Black Beans: $0.64 (Costco - $0.85 per can, 3/4 can used)
• Organic Frozen Corn: $0.70 (Costco)
• Cheese: $0.50 (Aldi)
• Spices: $0.50 
• Sour Cream (if used): $0.22
• TOTAL = $5.33 or $1.33 per serving

And, in the summer the cost of this meal will go down even further thanks to seasonal produce. We grow our own peppers, and if I remember right I paid $3.99 last year for my organic plant. We had at least 100 peppers so you can do the math on that savings :)

Budget Bootcamp Week Two: Evaluate and Implement

So how is everyone feeling after our first week? Was creating your budget outline and categories easier or harder than you thought? Well now that we have an outline, it's time to start utilizing it!

Remember how I had you keep all those receipts since the beginning of January? Now this is where you make use of them to determine whether your habits are within budget and whether your budget is realistic. What we are going to do is go through those receipts one by one and enter our purchases into the category they belong to. This might seem overwhelming at first, but it doesn't have to be, I promise. Like most daunting projects in life, if we break them down into smaller, more manageable tasks, suddenly they are easier to accomplish! So here's how I do it. I grab my basket of receipts, and I separate them into small piles. I like to do this either at my desk or at the dining table so that I have room to work. Many times, just looking at the store name at the top of the receipt will quickly indicate to you which category/pile it belongs to. Things like Home Depot, Pet Smart, and Old Navy are almost always going to belong to Home, Pets, and Clothing respectively. Stores like Costco, Walmart or Aldi, however, might have purchases from multiple categories all on our receipt - Groceries, Home, Personal Care, and Gifts might all have a part of this receipt's total. Following me?

So what I do and find simplest, is to flip through my receipts and start creating little stacks that I can quickly identify, like Home Depot, Menards, and Lowes - all go in a stack together. Any fast food or restaurant receipts go together. You getting it, right? And then for those "one stop shop" type stores, I glance quickly over them to determine if they are a combo of things or just one category. Aldi receipt shows milk, spinach, oats, carrots, apples, hummus and pasta sauce - Great! Straight to the grocery pile! But if that same receipt had things like batteries, trash bags and toothpaste on it, then it would start what I call my "combo" pile. I hope all this is making sense, but just for good measure, here's a visual of what that looks like. :) The stack at the top of the right photo is my "combo" pile.

Once my receipts have been sorted, it's time to total. I've changed my method of how I do this part a few times over the years, so I'm going to show you a few options so you can use whatever works best for you.

• Option One - Calculator and Pen. This is probably the most straight forward of the ways. Just grab a calculator, take each pile of receipts (Home for example) and add up what your receipts show you spent. Write this number down on a blank sheet of paper or a notebook. 
• Option Two - Hand Itemizing. This way is probably the most time consuming, but is a happy medium between Option One and Option Three. You're still using a calculator and pen, but you're more making a better record of how many purchases were made and where they were made every month. For example, if I saw that we spent $67 eating out in December, that's one thing. If that $67 is comprised of 8 trips to Taco Bell totaling $54, that I see an issue with. See how knowing the details makes a difference? So grab a notebook or legal pad and under each category, jot down the date, store and total. 
• Option Three - Letting Excel do the work. Have you realized I like letting Excel make things easy on me? This method gives all the details from option two but without the hand cramps or paper waste and, bonus, Excel adds it all up too, so no calculator required. And if you have entries that repeat, *cough* 8 trips to Taco Bell *cough*, Excel will auto-fill the store name after only typing the first letter or two, like "Ta..." You can see what I mean by this below where Costco is being entered. Click here to download a spreadsheet that I use. Be sure to do the FILE >>> DOWNLOAD AS steps just like last week before entering any information. 

Here's some visuals of what each of these methods look like in action. For those who have opted to go digital and are using Excel for their budget, I'll be posting a video in our Facebook group later today that helps walk you through this week's Excel workbook.

Remember that pile of "combo" receipts? I do those last, after I've listed out/entered all my other receipts. So say that you have a Costco receipt that includes eggs, flour, dish soap, paper towels, and shampoo. For my categories, that would mean that Groceries, Paper & Cleaning, and Personal Care all get a portion of this total. So break those up (and don't forget the tax paid!) accordingly. In my hand written examples, you'll see red ink is where I listed the "combo" expenses. And no, I don't usually do this in different colors, this was just for clarity on examples. :) Also be sure to input any of your expenses that might be auto-drafted from your bank account. For us, this would be dog food, because we use Amazon Subscribe & Save to have it delivered to the front door every month. **This is a great trick for saving money. We found that by using this service, we pay $12 per bag less for the exact same food versus buying it at the pet store. Our two dogs go through about 1.75 bags of food each month, so that's $24 worth of savings!** After all my receipts have been totaled, I place them in a small clasp envelope (I get packs of 8 for $1 at the Dollar Tree) and label with the month. I keep these envelopes in my file cabinet, which comes in super handy should I need to make any returns.

One thing I want to stress here is that typing all this out and reading it step by step makes this whole budgeting thing seem way more complicated and time consuming than it really is. If I were to come to your house, and we walked through this together, we would have your categories created, your budget set and all your receipts tallied in under an hour, regardless of whether we were doing things by hand or in Excel. In fact, I did all three methods so I could photograph them for you in just about one hour. An hour a month that could save your family hundreds... I think its worth it.

So now that all your expenses thus far in January have been assessed, how do things look? Are you on track to stay under budget this month? Is there a category you maybe need to freeze your spending on for the rest of the month? Look things over and see where you stand. We've still got over a week left in the month, so be sure to continue keeping receipts and add them in. January serves as a nice warm up for us; we get to work out some kinks now so that we can stick to the budget come February!

"Eating Healthy is So Expensive!"

Have you ever heard anyone say that? Have you ever said it yourself? I'll admit it... I have! Generally when I have said these things, its usually in this context: "It's annoying that because junk food is so ridiculously cheap, real food seems expensive by comparison!" And I stand by that statement. I can see how someone on a tight budget might look at a 10/$10 sale on Lean Cuisine as a steal compared to $4.99/lb chicken breast and $1.99/lb broccoli. I used to be that person. And then I learned to think critically about my purchases.

As part of my efforts to help show how healthy eating can be done very affordably, I'm including a cost break down of all the recipes I share from now on. And I'll gradually start going back and adding these breakdowns to recipes that are already posted. Some of us are very visual learners, and numbers don't lie. I did this with my General Tso Drumsticks recipe not long ago. You can see all the details by clicking on the recipe name.

But today, I want to talk about being smart with your budget. Jason and I recently went to Culver's for lunch. Even using two $1 off coupons, we still paid $16.55 for lunch for the two of us. Some of you might be thinking "that's not terrible", but the first thing I thought was "do you know how much food I can make at home for $16.55??" Now, don't get me wrong, I'm a foodie after all. I love trying new restaurants and have no objections to paying top dollar for a quality meal. In fact, I would MUCH rather go pay $30 per person plus tip for a sit down meal. Why? Because I see a lot more VALUE in the quality, care, and experience of dining than I do from the "Value Meals" found on fast food menus. See what I did there?

So about this trip to Culver's. Jason had a burger, I had chicken tenders, we both had a small fry and small shake. The reality here though is that I could've made Bacon Burgers with Avocado Smash, milkshakes, and fries for FOUR PEOPLE, all for the same $16.55 at home. Don't believe me? Check it out:

• 1 pound of organic ground beef = $3.99 (Costco)
• 4 strips of bacon = $1.68 (Costco)
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese = $0.50 (Aldi)
• 6 ounces organic mixed greens = $1.44 (Aldi)
• 2 Hass Avocados = $1.78 (Aldi)
• Spices & Seasonings = $0.50 (generous!) 
• 6 organic russet potatoes = $1.79 (Aldi)
• 3/4 pint Culver's frozen Custard = $3.36 (Culver's)
• 1/4 gallon of organic whole milk = $1.48 (Aldi)
• TOTAL = $16.52

And just think if I had those $2 to work with that the Culver's coupon reduced my total by! But in all honestly, this post was equally Jason's idea. As soon as I started spouting these thoughts that were in my head while we drove away from Culver's, he said to me, "You should blog about this. It's true and it's an easy way for people to save money but they may not realize it." So my hope here is that you can use information like this to think a little harder about spending your hard earned dollars on quality rather than convenience :)

Instant Pot How-To: Whole Potatoes (Sweet or White!)

One of my favorite things about the Instant Pot is how it takes tasks that generally require a good deal of time and heating your entire oven and  it turns them into quick, simple results with zero babysitting. Sweet potatoes and baked potatoes are a great example.

It has never been easier to make perfectly tender and moist whole potatoes. Simply place the rack inside the pot, add 1 cup of water and your whole, washed spuds. Set to MANUAL for 14 minutes and allow for the pressure to release naturally. If your potatoes are rather small or happen to be monstrous,  you may need to adjust the time slightly, but 14 minutes seems to be working really each time I have done them.

Once finished you can serve them up however you like! 

Two of our favorites include BBQ Chicken Stuffed or Buffalo Chicken with Avocado (recipes coming soon!)

Budget Bootcamp Week One: Creating Categories

I cannot tell you all how excited I am that this series is OFFICIALLY getting started! I have so much to share with you all in the next eight weeks. Here's a little bit of what to expect over the course of the program.

Every Monday, I'll be sharing a specific Budget Bootcamp post. Much like this post, each one will have a good deal of information and some action steps for you to take throughout the week. Each week we will build on what we learned and implemented the week before. I will link each week's Bootcamp post to our private Facebook group, and we will also use this group to share ideas and aask questions along the way.

You'll also see other posts happening on other days of the week that could tie into budgeting. Things like meal planning, meal prep, cost effective recipes, paying off debt, how to spot great sales, how to save on *fill in a million different things here*.  You get the picture. Monday posts will be building upon one another and focused on creating our budgets, and the other posts sprinkled throughout will be a variety of things that can be inspiration for scaling back. Make sense?

I'd also like to take this opportunity to reiterate that I am NOT a financial advisor, accountant or any other form of professional money manager. I am simply sharing what I've learned and what works for us, and how I budget is by no means the only way to do so. Capiche? Great. Let's get to it, shall we?!

Today we are talking about defining our expenses. What do YOU or your household spend money on? If there's money being spent on it, it needs to be in your budget. So the best place to begin is by listing them out. I like to list our expenses in three categories - Fixed Expenses, Variable Expenses, and Annual Expenses.

Fixed Expenses:
This category includes anything I get a reoccurring bill for. For my family, this category includes:

1. Mortgage
2. Property Taxes
3. Homeowner's Insurance
4. Van Payment
5. Electricity
6. Natural Gas
7. Water/Trash
8. Internet
9. Netflix & Hulu
10. Cell Phones

Yes, I am aware that my electric bill will probably not be the exact same amount every single month, however it doesn't vary significantly and I'm going to have an electric bill every single month. Same with the water/trash and natural gas. But, what I do know is that expected bill amount, so that is the amount we budget for. Our mortgage company pays out our property taxes and our homeowner's insurance from our escrow, so we send one payment each month that covers those three items. We also don't have cable in our home, so Netflix and Hulu are listed because that's what we use.

Your fixed expenses may look very similar to ours, or they may be vastly different. If you are a renter who's water, natural gas, and trash are all included in your rent, then your budget should reflect that. If you have other outstanding debt such as student loans that require a minimum monthly payment, list those here also.

Variable Expenses:
These are the things you spend money progressively throughout the month. Unlike the fixed expenses, you don't get a bill to pay and be done with. These are the categories that most people indicate they over spend on. And why is that? More often than not, its because these expenses get away from us. For example, groceries. $50 here, $40 there, $80 next week, $35 two days later because we forgot things or didn't plan ahead.... see where I'm going with this? These expenses can quickly blow your budget if you aren't paying attention. So in this category, create smaller, more specific categories that everything else you buy will fall into. The more specific, the better. Here are ours:

1. Groceries
2. Gas
3. Eating Out
4. Home
5. Paper & Cleaning
6. Personal Care
7. Plexus
8. Clothing
9. Gifts
10. Garden & Crafts
11. Transportation
12. Entertainment
13. Pets
14. Automotive
15. Miscellaneous 

Now, the thing to recognize about Variable Expenses is that there may be some months you don't spend in one of these subcategories. For instance, we may not need to purchase toilet paper, razors, toothpaste, or any other similar products in January because we have plenty. So in that case our Health and Hygiene category may have zero expenses. Our transportation category is for things like replenishing our IPass funds and for cab fares/Lyft/Uber when we use them. We very well could have numerous months throughout the year that those categories see little action. My personal rule of thumb is to designate funds toward what we realistically anticipate spending on, and if those funds aren't needed, then great, extra to the savings account that month! If you have a coffee habit twice a week or girl's night's twice a month, you should create a budget for yourself for those things. The miscellaneous category should be used as little as possible and for things that truly fall in no other category. Supporting the neighbor girl selling Girl Scout Cookies would fall under miscellaneous. A parking or spending ticket could go under miscellaneous. Miscellaneous should not be code word for "I went over budget on clothes/makeup/groceries so I'll just claim the rest of it over here." The only way to know where you can and need to cut back is to be honest, transparent, and specific about what you spend on.

And last, but definitely not least...

Annual Expenses:
Annual expenses are those things that you pay for once or twice a year, not monthly. These are still expenses, none the less, and they need to be accounted for. If you don't budget for them, you'll be wondering where on earth that money vanished to. Ours include:

1. Annual Costco Membership
2. Amazon Prime
3. Filing Taxes
4. Truck Insurance
5. Van Insurance 
6. Sticker Renewals  

We pay our auto insurance in full every six months to save an additional chunk of change. If you don't do this and your insurance company offers a discount to do so, I highly recommend it - great way to start saving yourself money easily. However, if you make monthly payments on these things, be sure to list those under fixed expenses instead. Sticker renewals is a subcategory that I didn't use to have listed. But it didn't take many of those little papers in the mail from the state asking for their $101 to make me realize I needed to account for this!

So, this week's task for you all is to sit down and create your budget outline. Define all your categories and be as specific as possible. You can do this on notebook paper or Excel if you prefer, or I've provided a template for both hand written and digital budgeting as well. Whatever works best for you! And those receipts. Keep keeping those receipts. We will be putting them to use next week!

For those wanting to print out a template to fill in by hand, click here! In the "BUDGET" column, write in what you are striving to stay under. We will be assessing those receipts next week and adjusting as necessary to make sure our ideal budgets are realistic.

For those of you opting to use the Excel version, please follow these instructions!

1. Click HERE to open the Google Sheet. The perk to using Excel is that I have pre-entered all the formulas to calculate your spending totals each month for you. For those of you who aren't super familiar with Excel, I'll be uploading a video to our Facebook group soon to help walk you through what's happening here :) 
2. Immediately go to FILE, then DOWNLOAD AS >>>> Then click MICROSOFT EXCEL. If you skip this step, any changes or entries you make to the Google Sheet will save back to MY files. You want to have saved this blank template BEFORE you begin making your own entries. 
3. On the left, you will see all my categories entered. Go through and replace them with YOUR categories of spending. Be sure to SAVE your file after working on it. You'll want to enter your categories on the first page (months January-June) and the second page (July-December) in the SAME ORDER so that the program can accurately calculate for you!
4. In the column just to the right of your categories, you'll see cells highlighted in yellow. In each of these cells, write in what dollar amount you are striving to stay under each month. We will be assessing those receipts next week and adjusting as necessary to make sure our ideal budgets are realistic. You'll see that the top yellow cell in this column will automatically total all your categories for you! Only enter your budgeted totals on the first page; the second page will automatically fill for you!

So get to it! Create those categories, think critically about your spending, and fill in your planned budget for each category. You're on your way to better money management!

Recipe: Veggie Fritters

Most of you know by now that I love my veggies. Zucchini is one of my favorites, but what you might not know is that my all-time favorite way to enjoy zucchini is deep fried. Crispy tempura batter, salt and dipped in sour cream - YUM! Although utterly delicious, obviously not very healthy. So the first time I saw one of the numerous shares on Pinterest about these "veggie fritters" or "veggie pancakes", as they are often called, I thought I would give them a try. I played with the ratios, added some of my own additions, and am happy with where I have landed.

I was happy to find that the result was somewhat similar in flavor to tempura-fried veggies, and a texture somewhat similar to hashbrowns. Another thing I like, so I wasn't complaining about that. If you've ever enjoyed Potato Latkes, these remind me a bit of those as well. They make a great side dish to add a little variety from the traditional steamed/roasted/sauteed veggies we seem to get in a rut of. So without further ado, Veggie Fritters.

1. Begin by grating the veggies. This can be done by hand or in your food processor and should yield you about 4 cups of veggies. 
2. Once the veggies are grated, place them into a large bowl. Add the eggs, mix to coat the veggies evenly. 
3. Add the flour and seasonings, and mixed until evenly combined.
4. Heat about 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. When hot, drop enough of the mixture to create fitters about 3 inches wide.  An ice cream scoop works well for this, then press the top of each fritter slightly to even them. 
5. Cook on each side for 3-4 minutes, or until browned and crispy. Once each side has been cooked, transfer to a plate lined with paper towels to remove excess oil. Serve immediately plain, with sour cream, applesauce, or even ketchup! 

** Any leftovers can be stored in the fridge for 2-3 days. To reheat, use the oven or toaster oven on 425 degrees to warm and re-crisp. 

Print this recipe here!

Recipe: Asian Inspired Salad

This recipe is one that we used to eat weekly, and then for some reason or another, we haven't had it in a while. The original idea was thanks to a former coworker years ago, and while its seen a few tweaks over the years, it continues to add a nice change of pace to the traditional salad game.

Like most salads, some of the things I love about this recipe include that it's super quick, healthy, and easy to make. It starts with one bag of broccoli slaw, which can be found in the refrigerated section of most supermarkets. Trader Joe's carries an organic one and is usually where I purchase mine. Simply dump the 16 oz. bag into a large bowl. Next, chop one head of romaine lettuce into bite size pieces, and add them to the bowl. Follow that with 1 cup of small diced bell pepper and 1/2 of a red onion that has been thinly sliced. Simply toss all the ingredients to combine.

This easily makes enough to serve as an entree for your people. I generally choose to portion it out before adding the toppings of sunflower seeds, crispy rice noodles and peanuts to each bowl. To dress, I use an organic Asian Ginger Dressing from Aldi. I have made my own dressing for this in the past, and need to do so again so I can share that recipe with you all as well. The combination of fresh produce and the chosen toppings make for a great crunch! You could also add leftover chicken for a bit of protein as well! Enjoy! 

Printable Recipe Here!

Instant Pot How-To: Hard Boiled Eggs

Oooooooooooookkkkayyyyyyyyyyyy.... My friend Kelly was the first person who I heard use the words "eggs" and "Instant Pot" together about a month ago. And she can probably attest to the fact that my head spun and I said, "EGGS??!! Seriously??!!" We both laughed at how while we love adding hard boiled eggs to our salads, we both butcher them when it comes to the peeling process. And because I know how frustrating that is, I sometimes would talk myself out of making the eggs altogether because I just didn't want to deal with that disappointment I had come to expect. So when she said to me, "Yes, eggs in the Instant Pot. You'll never make them any other way ever again," I knew I had to give this a try.

Kelly's never steered me wrong with anything since the day I met her. And her track record continues because this. is. phenomenal. I simply placed my eggs on the rack of the IP with a bit of water underneath, then closed the lid and set the timer for 3 minutes on Manual. The IP did it's thing, and once the cooking was complete, I quick released the pressure. When I opened the lid, they pretty much looked exactly the same as when I put them in. I *carefully* took them out and popped them into some ice water in the fridge. I let them sit for about 10-15 minutes while I prepped the rest of our soon-to-be salads.

When I finished assembling the other components of the salad, it was time to tackle the eggs. Moment of truth - was this about to change my life? Would I no longer be mumbling curse words under my breath while peeling the shells? Would I finally be able to present eggs that didn't look as though an infant nibbled little bites out of them?? And then it happened. I tapped and rolled the eggs the way I always have before. I went to peel that first little bit of shell back, still skeptical that I would some how screw this up. And as I peeled, the shells just released with such ease. They came off cleanly and in less pieces than ever before, and what I was left with were these beautiful, unmarred hard boiled eggs.

But what about inside? They peeled great, but were they perfectly cooked?? Uh, duh they were. They were cooked in the Instant Pot. Seriously though, my hard boiled eggs on the stove were always over cooked or under cooked in past attempts. It wasn't an exact science I had ever figured out. But these. These with perfect, soft, easy to cut, and tasted fabulous. So from here on out, I will forever be making hard boiled eggs the Instant Pot way.