Foxy's Domestic Side

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Instant Pot Stew

Hi Foxy Friends! I'm so excited to participate in a recipe blog hop today. So if you're coming from Jamie's blog, thank you for hopping on over! Our them is Soup/Stew/Chili recipes, as soon as I heard this, I knew I wanted to try to make my favorite stew recipe Instant Pot friendly. I hope after you're done reading all about my recipe you'll hop on over to Dani's blog to see what yummy thing she created.

I decided for those that are a very visual learner, I would film the recipe for you. If you are more of a reader, skip the video and go to the written out directions. Thanks for stopping by!

Ingredients You'll Need:

2-3 pounds of beef chuck
4-5 small Potatoes (I like using Yukon, but red ones would work too)
2 carrots (you can use more, but I don't particularly like car rots)
1 Onion
1 tablespoon Tomato Paste
3 Garlic cloves
1 tablespoon Flour
1/2 - 3/4 cup of Red Wine
1 cup Chicken or Beef Stock
2 Bay Leaves
1 teaspoon Thyme
Cooking Oil
Corn Starch
Peas

What To Do:

Step 1 - Brown Meat

Set Instant Pot to Saute, once hot add a small amount of oil to IP and add meat to brown. When browning don't try to turn too early, if you try to turn and it sticks, it's not ready, wait a bit and it won't stick once properly browned. I had to do mine in two batches. Put in bowl off to the side when done.

Step 2 - Add a little more oil and add diced onions. Let brown before moving on.

Step 3 - Add tomato paste and garlic, cook for 30 seconds or so, then the flour and stir.

Step 4 - Add red wine and scrap up any brown bits.

Step 5 - Add in chicken or beef stock, thyme and bay leaves.

Step 6 - Add meat back in to the pot and pour potatoes and carrots in and stir to combine as best as you can.

Step 7 - Set Instant Pot to 25 minutes of manual pressure.

Once it's done, let it naturally release for 10 minutes.

Step 8 - Release the pressure valve and open Instant Pot. Turn off Instant Pot and turn on the Saute function. Make a corn starch slurry, add a teaspoon of corn starch with enough cold water to make it a liquid. Pour into the Instant Pot and stir. It will take a minute or two for the liquid to thicken.

Step 9 - Once the liquid has thickened a bit, add in frozen peas and stir.

Let sit for a few minutes and your stew is ready to serve!

Yum!

Let me know if you try it below and what you think! I think the whole thing took a little more than an hour. Most of the work was browning the meat! Once you hit pressure cook, smooth sailing. Don't forget to go check out Dani's blog and see what she's cooking up! Let her know that I sent you over!

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Deer Make Up For A Beginner

Hi Foxy Friends! Today I am bringing you, a little late, a deer make up look. I did this for two events I went to with the kids, it was super fun to be dressed up for Halloween, without actually having to wear a costume. Make up does wonders! As I was looking around for Deer make up looks, they were all using things that I didn't have, nor did I have time to go buy, or want to buy. So I took bits and pieces here and there and put together what I thought made you look like a deer.

*Some of the links are affiliate links and I will either receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you click on it or if you make a purchase from one of these links, I may also receive a commission on the sale of the product. Click here for my disclosure page.

Make Up Used:

Other Things Used:

Deer Antlers

Fur Vest

Flowers - Hobby Lobby

I ended up wearing a short sleeved top because it was 90° outside...no way was I going to wear pants, a long sleeve shirt and a fur vest...

Sorry the pictures are off centered, we were late to our Halloween function and Mr. was wearing his costume and wearing this funky wig and he couldn't see anything...haha!

Black Jeans | Black Top | Fur Vest | Deer Antlers | Shoes

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Sentence A Day: October Edition

Hi Foxy Friends, it's been a hot minute, but I finally remembered to fill in my dates. I love looking back at these and remembering everything we did. Check out the other ladies participating in the link up down below.

1 - Wow that workout was unexpectedly hard/good, now to keep it up...fell off the workout wagon a bit.

2 - Another workout, super sore from yesterdays workout, but felt good to get back at it.

3 - Much need MNO...forgot to take a picture with everyone, oops!

We got this one, the street was really pretty, and we got lost trying to find the restaurant, so what do you do? You take a photo.

4 - Full day of errands, dentist and then dinner at our house with friends.

5 - Had to miss soccer games so I could help set up for Thomas House gala, so happy we raised a ton of money to help families get back on their feet.

6 - Fun birthday party at the pumpkin patch, then dinner with Aunt and Uncle makes for a great way to end the weekend.

7 - Almost took the kids to piano and as we are walking out the door remember that we changed it this week to Wednesday, phew glad I remembered.

8 - Baby Fox went to his first Cotillion class and both kids started up this season of their religious education. (Going to write a post on Cotillion next week!)

He got paired with the tallest girl there.

9 - No school today, so of course I planned for Mini Fox to go to her 6 year check up and then got both kids their flu shots, they weren't particularly happy with me.

10 - Got some hill runs in while waiting for Mini Fox's soccer practice to end, ended up being a pretty good workout in.

11 - Great way to end the day with dinner with friends.

12 - Full day of soccer, Mini Fox has her game at 11:30am while Baby Fox's game was at 5pm then take out at my favorite place.

13 - Baby Fox went to a birthday party, so we took Mini Fox and a friend to see Abominable, it was super cute and Mini Fox loved getting some time with just us.

14 - Love that our gym is next door to the kids piano class, so they get enrichment and I get to go workout.

15 - Mini Fox was Star of the Week this week at school, and today was family day, she got to show us off in her class, Baby Fox even left his class to come participate.

16 - Both kids had their parent teacher conference today both kids are doing great, learning a lot and their teachers love them, then we headed to my aunt and uncles to spend the night so we can catch our flight early in the morning. (airport we are flying out of is about an hour away from us, our flight was at 7am, yeah that's early for the kids to get up, Aunt and Uncle live 5 minutes from the airport).

17 - We're leaving on a jet plane, getting to see Curtis's family was so much fun!

18 - Mini Fox lived her best life and got to hang out with some horses for the afternoon and I'm pretty sure I've never seen her more in her element.

19 - It rained most of the day, but we still had a blast seeing my cousin play in the University of Washington game and he scored a touchdown, the kids did great sitting a quarter of the game in the rain and even though they lost, we still had so much fun.

20 - Last day in Seattle, one last breakfast with my aunt and uncle and saw Mr.'s dad one last night before taking off.

21 - Didn't go to work today, that's nice after coming back from vacation.

22 - New routine of my parents taking the kids to their church class, while I go to a circuit class then go pick them up, perfect evening.

23 - Back at my favorite workout class.

24 - Mini Fox didn't go to soccer today she had a slight fever and with it being 100° out, thought it would be best to stay home, we snuggled and watched TV instead.

25 - Kids Boo Bash (Halloween Carnival) at school and they outdid themselves, so much fun hanging with friends.

26 - One soccer game, followed by Baby Fox's belt for blue with a green strip, then Trunk or Treat at my parents church.

My dad was cooking the hot dogs, we snuck back into the kitchen to say hi.

27 - Friends Oktoberfest, was so much dang fun, I have amazing friends.

Still need to work on my front of the picture squat.

28 - 5K run while the kids were at piano lessons, I actually stopped at 3.16 miles...then realized how close I was and turned that treadmill back on.

29 - Man that workout was butt kicking, love how hard Karen pushes us.

30 - Normal Wednesday, soccer followed by my favorite workout class.

31 - Another Halloween in the books, lots of parades at the kids school, lots of candy and trick or treating and the kids didn't have school the next day makes for one amazing day.