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Instant Pot Mexican Shredded Chicken

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This easy recipe takes just a couple of ingredients and can be thrown together in mere minutes, but produces flavorful shredded chicken that’s perfect for tacos, burritos and burrito bowls, and taco salads.

If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you may have noticed that we tend to love dark meats, such as chicken thighs. But chicken breast can be delicious too! This recipe is suitable for most gluten-free, grain-free, paleo/primal diets. I most often eat this on the THM (Trim Healthy Mama) plan as part of my E meal.

For those of us coming to THM from the traditional foods world, eating some meals that are higher in the slow carbs, but lower in fat is a real transition. However, look at how satisfying this meal is below!

What’s in this bowl: Brown rice, pinto beans, Mexican shredded chicken, cabbage slaw tossed with a teaspoon of oil and lime juice, fresh garlic and salt, salsa, and nonfat Greek yogurt.

If you are interested in why I decided to start combining what I had learned from other experts in the holistic world with THM, you can read my story here and learn about my coaching as well.

For an S meal, or other Mexican-inspired recipes, check out this juicy Carnitas recipe as well as my Simple Mexican Coleslaw. Delicious!

But regardless of your dietary lifestyle, this recipe is delicious!

Instant Pot Shredded Chicken

  • 2-3 Chicken Breasts
  • 1 and 1/4 cup salsa or Picante sauce
  • 1 teaspoon each chili, cumin, garlic powder
  1. In a 6 quart Instant Pot add the salsa or sauce. An IP needs at least 1 cup of liquid, so if your salsa is dry, add chicken broth. Add the chicken and spices.
  2. Secure lid, set steam release valve to closed, and program for ten minutes on high on manual.
  3. Let rest for five minutes, and then release. Check to make sure chicken is cooked all the way through.
  4. Shred chicken, then pour the sauce over it. Enjoy!

Autumn Roasted Vegetables (with Sweet Potatoes, Cabbage, Squash, Cranberries, and Potatoes)

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This delicious side dish can easily be made into a main one, and has many Thanksgiving and Christmas flavors in it. Yum!

As the holiday season encroaches on our fall schedule, I’ve found myself often making sheets of roasted vegetables for dinner. I love this simple process of cutting up several types of vegetables and allowing a hot oven and time to produce tender, slightly caramelized vegetables. 

This version was especially delicious, and so I had to share it. Really, it’s almost like having Thanksgiving flavors on one sheet. You don’t have to use the cranberries – our kids didn’t like them as they are quite sour – but my husband and I loved the sour punch they gave when eaten with a bite of sweet potato. I really adore the mix of vegetables in this dish, plus, you can make it a main dish, by roasting some chicken thighs or breasts with them as well. 

This recipe is highly adaptable, so don’t feel like you have to follow it exactly. That said, this mix of vegetables was so delicious, I am going to be making it again soon. Here’s a thought – why not add some fresh green beans to it as well? That would be delicious too!

This makes two full sheets of vegetables. For our family of five, it fed us twice. At first, we ate it with beef patties and a salad, and the second time we fried eggs and placed them over the reheated vegetables. Delicious! (It would make a wonderful breakfast or dinner!) 

You can use whatever type of sweet potato you like best for this recipe. I cover some of our favorites in this post. 

Autumn Roasted Vegetables (with Sweet Potatoes, Cabbage, Squash, Cranberries, and Potatoes) 

  • ½ green cabbage, cored, and thinly sliced into ½ inch pieces
  • 1 delicata squash, washed, cut in half lengthwise, seeded, and then cut into ¼-½ inch slices 
  • 2 largish yams/sweet potatoes, Washed,(peeled, if desired), cut into thin slices, and then halved or quartered
  • 1-2 pounds of potatoes (I used small yukon gold), washed (peeled if desired), and either cut the same as the yams, or if using small potatoes, cut into thin slices lengthwise 
  • 1 onion (white, yellow, or sweet), peeled, cut in half, and then thinly sliced
  • 2 handfuls of fresh cranberries (optional)
  • Oil or melted fat of choice
  • Salt and Pepper
  1. Preheat oven to 425F. Prepare vegetables as listed above.
  2. Line two sheet pans with parchment paper (optional) 
  3. Evenly mix the vegetables on the two pans and then toss generously with oil/fat, and salt and pepper. You want all vegetables to have a light layer of oil on them so that they roast correctly, without drying out. 
  4. Put vegetables in preheated oven, and after 20 minutes switch racks the pans are on for even heating (I didn’t bother stirring them, but you can). Cook for another 15-20 minutes, or until vegetables are tender, and lightly browned. Serve and enjoy!

Roasted Frozen Broccoli

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This is not only a simple recipe, but it's delicious and kid-friendly too. Yes! Even frozen vegetables can taste good!

We have a problem. If we don’t like how I prepare vegetables, they are pushed around on our plates and barely touched. This is no good, as I believe that vegetables are not only important for our health, but they can also be a delicious part of our daily diet as well. 

So when we made our big move to South Dakota, I faced a new problem. Back in Portland, Oregon, I had a large array of options for vegetables. Here? Not so much. Don’t get me wrong, there are still plenty of stores and some good options, but I found that I was eating less vegetables, they were costing a little more, and I wasn’t getting as good of a variety into our diets. Because of the climate here, we simply don’t have as many local options for produce. 

I needed to change my game plan, and that meant being willing to try more frozen vegetables. I have, admittedly, long eschewed frozen vegetables, and we mainly used them as a stop-gap. But I realized that there were many great frozen vegetables options here and I needed to figure out how to make them a little more delicious. I’m proud to say that we now eat them on a regular basis and all of us love them. Why? 

Can You Roast Frozen Vegetables?

Well, it turns out that you can roast them just like you do fresh vegetables! Why does roasting make fresh and frozen vegetables so much better? For a number of reasons: It helps crisp vegetables while they cook and if you leave them in long enough they will start to caramelize and give you a savory depth of flavor. 

Steamed frozen vegetables can sometimes have a mushy texture once cooked, or be very bland in flavor. I did find that the recipe I used for my cooking like a Roman day, using a spiced wine sauce with frozen broccoli, was really delightful. So you can absolutely have good steamed frozen vegetables. 

However, roasting them is a more fail-safe way for delicious vegetables that takes very little hands-on time. 

It’s also very versatile. We’ve done frozen Brussels sprouts, a carrots, broccoli and cauliflower mix, and both cauliflower and broccoli. The only thing we haven’t really been fans of is the frozen carrots. They were far better when roasted than steamed, but we found we preferred the other vegetables. 

Basic Method for Roasting Frozen Vegetables

Basic Method: Roasting vegetables is very easy. The basis concept is to toss frozen vegetables (don’t defrost) with oil, salt and pepper and roast in a hot oven until they are browned and crispy. I often don’t even set a timer. 

Additions: You can also toss them with dried herbs, fresh garlic before they go in the oven, or toss with a splash of balsamic vinegar and fresh herbs right after they come out of the oven. Or, roast with chopped bacon. This is the type of recipe where knowing the basic method is helpful, and then you can have fun trying a variety of vegetables and herbs and spices. 

But to get you started, here is a basic recipe for Roasted Frozen Broccoli

Roasted Frozen Broccoli

1 package of frozen broccoli (16 oz) 

2-3 tablespoons of oil or melted fat of your choice 

Salt and pepper 

  1. Preheat oven to 425F. I use parchment paper because I use sheet pans that are aluminum, but you can an unlined sheet pan as well. 
  2. Toss broccoli with oil/fat and salt and pepper. Place in oven and cook until browned to desired doneness. (between 15-35 minutes). 

Variation: My favorite variation is adding some sliced fresh onions to the broccoli before it cooks and then tossing with chopped fresh basil and a splash of balsamic vinegar once it’s out of the oven. Fabulous! 

What the Ancient Romans Taught Me About Eating Well

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We recently sat down to a flavorful dinner, every dish well seasoned with fascinating spice combinations. Our meal was relatively simple, full of “whole food” ingredients, and fun. Why so fun? Our meals were inspired by our history studies on Ancient Rome. 

While our scenery has changed from the lush greens of the northwest to the open range of the prairies, our school has continued. I love making history a central part of our homeschool, and we’ve picked up where we left off – Ancient Rome. I thought it would make history come alive to eat like a Roman for a day. 

How Did the Ancient Romans Eat?

This time period has the potential to inspire lush and delicious meals. I should well know as my husband and I once went to a delectable four-course dinner at a pop-up restaurant in Portland with a guest chef who cooked us a meal inspired by traditional Roman food. Yum! 

How well an Ancient Roman ate varied by their social status. The very rich could eat ridiculous and precious food items, and the poor could eat repetitive and nutritionally deficient meals. But generally, their diet was full of nourishing, varied ingredients, and well spiced. I joked that I wouldn’t be surprised if someone capitalized on how healthy their diet was by writing a book entitled something like, “Eat like an Ancient Roman for Health.” But let’s be honest, it’s true! Most people would eat a healthier diet if they ate like the Ancient Romans. 

Their diet, very similar to a modern Mediterranean diet, was full of whole grains, lentils, peas, vegetables, fruits, cheeses, eggs, and meats. What sets the cooking style apart for me was their use of spice combination. One article mentioned that the flavors they used – balancing sweet, savory, umami, and sour – were closest to modern Asian cooking. Regardless, there is a lot of inspiration to be had from the Ancient Romans. They also flavored much of their food with a fermented fish sauce. Our closest equivalent now would be Asian Fish Sauces (like this one from Amazon: Fish Sauce). 

Regardless of what people group you look at, I’m reminded how simple many foods were in Ancient times. You will notice the simplicity of the meal plan below. 

Other resources for Ancient Roman Recipes: Around the Roman Table: Food and Feasting in Ancient Rome and Tasting Rome: Fresh Flavors and Forgotten Recipes from an Ancient City: A Cookbook

Our Ancient Roman Meal Plan 

(Note, we weren’t trying to be completely historically accurate in how we prepared all of these foods, but just got as close as we could). 

Breakfast (ientaculum): We enjoyed Milk and homemade Bread or Bread dipped into olive oil and vinegar. If this sounds “light” to you, consider that milk and bread (a standard breakfast for Roman children) was likely more hearty than the typical bowl of cereal with milk we eat now. 

As I researched midday meals, I came across numerous articles discussing Roman street food. Did you know that Ancient Romans were probably the first to popularize street food? (You can read about this historical tidbit here.)

One fact that I have always found especially fascinating was that a form of pizza was likely a popular street food, alongside many other food offerings. How fun that this popular meal has such old origins! 

“Poor citizens of Pompeii could order some of the ready-to-eat specialties of the era, which most likely included a sort of tomato-free pizza (tomatoes were not yet brought to Europe at the time) made of cheese and onions, soups, pickles, eggs, fish, ham, and of course wine.” Source

Lunch: prandium

We went with a simple lunch inspired by this description: “The Roman lunch (cibus meridianus or prandium), a quick meal eaten around noon, could include salted bread or be more elaborate with fruit, salad, eggs, meat or fish, vegetables, and cheese.” Source

Our lunch, eaten on the fly after a hike (which, since most Romans ate on the go at lunch time, was appropriate) included: Delicious wine crackers (you can get the recipe here – I also made a gluten-free version), goat cheese, olives, grapes, and apples. This was an easy and scrumptious meal! 

Dinner: (cena) 

While the rich could eat elaborate and lengthy dinners, we opted for a more moderate feast. I spent some time researching gluten-free grains that would be still authentic to Roman times. In the past, historians assumed that millet was only consumed by the poorest in Ancient Rome. Recent research suggests, however, that it was eaten by a much broader swath of the population. 

Ancient Romans ate many grain porridges, so I thought it would be fun to make a savory millet porridge. (You can see an authentic sweet porridge recipe here.) 

Unable to find a definite recipe for a millet porridge from Ancient Roman times, I improvised adding herbs I knew they used (basil and oregano) and flavoring it with broth, onions and garlic. It may not have been authentic, but it was very delicious. I may make it part of our regular menu. 

We also made a chicken dish cooked in a white wine sauce, spiced with fennel, dried herbs, and pepper… (Delicious!). 

Broccoli steamed in a spiced white wine sauce, and then served with a mint spiced sauce over it (inspired by this version). 

And we also had cantaloupe and cucumber slices on the side. 

After dinner, I asked the kids what they thought about eating food for a day inspired by history, and they were all fans. I was asked to continue the tradition as we continue to read about new people groups and other time periods. 

Ancient Romans reminded me of these four essential concepts: 

  • Eating simply can be very nourishing as well as delicious. Most people from Ancient times, like us now, had little time to make elaborate meals. Simple doesn’t necessarily mean bland or unhealthy. 
  • Many ancient people groups included grain porridges on the menu (I’ve always enjoyed the Asian rice porridges, Congees, for example). These can be hearty, simple, frugal, and delicious. 
  • Produce – such as fruit and vegetables – should be more central on our table. It’s a healthy practice, but it’s also satisfying and delicious. 
  • Use spices and herbs liberally, and make simple sauces to further enrich the flavor of dishes. Roman food was bursting with flavor, and there is little reason we can’t follow suit!