Most beef pot roast recipes have a heavy sauce with a heavy brown gravy or a soup base. In this Instant pot cola pot roast is cooked in a sweetened stock with the cola and sugar. The beef roast has a great balance of sweet and savory with a pinch of heat and can be cooked fork tender in 45 minutes in an instant pot or 6 hours in a slow cooker. The cooking liquid can be transformed into a sauce or simply spoon the cooking liquid over beef when finished if desired.

So this Christmas season brought me into the crazy world of instant pots, since that is what Santa got me this year. As a chef for many years I have used all sorts of pressure cookers,steam cabinets and combination ovens that to the normal population will scare people but was everyday. These instant pots are all of high dollar equipment that was a day to day tool in my professional life into a small compact cooker that is going to make my life so much easier I believe. So the first thing I was going to do was make this chuck roast chili which will take hours if doing it on the stove top or in the oven, but in the instant pot it takes 35 minutes to cook. The flavors of the tender beef roast meat and the firm but soft beans in the chili infused sauce was incredible flavor and very hearty after a day playing in the snow.

As fall starts to creep in and the temperatures outside start to fall, there is nothing like a great bowl of hearty chili to make you feel warm inside.  This quick and easy beef and bean chili is great way to fill that void. The chili has a great chili taste you expect and is full of beef, beans and vegetables cover by a thick rich sauce. The bonus is that chili is mostly made with ingredients that most pantry's already have and pretty much any of your favorite beans can be used. If you are looking for vegetarian option, just replace the beef with double the beans. Check out the recipe below.

Barbacoa Beef is beef the cooked in deliciously flavored chili packed marinate sauce that is cooked over hours until you can pull it apart with two forks. Barbacoa is typically made with beef, lamb or goat seasoned with dry chilies then cooked until tender. The barbacoa beef is great in all sorts of Mexican-style dishes, on salads, sandwiches or even just served over rice or pasta. The preparation is very simple and can be easily done before work or school and you can come to dinner ready and you home smelling absolutely wonderful. Check out the recipe below in post.

Burritos are one of the most recognizable Mexican-style food. Burritos are found frozen in a gas station to award winning restaurants. The filling is normally rice with some form of protein, beef or beans being the most common. A wet burrito is a burrito that is covered in a chili based gravy that is similar to enchilada sauce but thicker and typically wrapped in a flour tortilla instead of corn which enchiladas are made with. Check out the recipe below in post.

Some of my favorite recipes to cook are the meals that take time cook slowly over a few hours and fills your house with the sweet smell of what is coming out of the oven or slow cooker. I am not sure if the food just tastes better or just the hunger of me waiting for the food to be ready. I like to believe it the the first part. These easy glazed korean short ribs are nothing but great tasting. The sweetness of the brown sugar and honey mixed with the acid of the soy sauce with a bit of heat from the chili paste just make a great combination that the whole family will love. All of the cooking liquid in crusts the meat so it comes out tender and juicy. Check out the recipe below.

For Superbowl Sunday, instead of ordering the number one food for the day, pizza I decided to make a big batch of beef stew.  Beef stew to me is one of those meals that makes you feel all warm inside and with the freezing cold temperatures here, it was a perfect fit. This recipe has all of the classic ingredients with a few changes that I have adapted over the years. Please check out the recipe below and feel free to leave comments below if you have tried my recipe.

My two favorite hoagie style sandwiches are a meatball and a italian sausage sandwich and with this sandwich you get the flavors with it.  For this meatball sandwich, the meatballs are simple to make and are juicy and full of flavor and the simple tomato sauce is something anyone can do.

Beef barley soup is a great flavor soup and is normally made my cooking beef low and slow until it is very tender. This beef meatball and barley soup will give you a similar flavor without the long cook time and still packed with all of the great ingredients that are normally found in the soup. Check out the recipe below.

Now the we are moving closer to the winter months I tend to like to have heartier dishes that make you feel warm inside when it is colder outside. This Beef and Mushroom Ragu is packed with vegetables and protein that will give you energy to get through your day and is the perfect family meal. The time to prepare the dish is short while to cooking time takes longer but its all hands free so you can spend time doing other things while your home fills with the wonderful smell of this dish.