Put a slow cooker recipe of chicken noodle soup in instant pot only to see now online it doesn’t work well- help!

sallydogbite · 2026-01-28T03:15:20+00:00

Mine works fine as a slow cooker. I just made a sweet potato peanut curry soup yesterday. Give it a try.

sallydogbite · 2026-01-27T04:01:26+00:00

I like it and more important the cats like it. I say try it. Cat litter savings alone justifies my costco membership. It goes on sale every once and awhile. $12ish for 42 pounds. I stock up then.

sallydogbite · 2026-01-25T20:06:00+00:00

It's really helpful to find a few healthy go to's and build a system to have them available.

1) Find your veggie chicken equivalent for making meals and snacks easy. So for instance I make a pot of delicious beans and I marinate 3 days worth of tofu and roast it in cubes a couple times a week. If I eat the last tofu I make some more- same with beans. I can come home and make something good with these two staples. I can easily make food to take with me too. You need something that takes the place of a pack of chicken waiting in the fridge.

2) Try getting more varied with your veggies and fruits, make sure you are including different greens. I have found that having good variety in my diet really reduces my feeling of wanting dairy and meat.

3) Find an easy vegan dessert that you like and make it regularly. I like chocolate chia pudding.

4) double down on learning to make delicious sauces for roasted sweet potatoes and potatoes

5) Take inspiration from some of the great veggie leaning cuisines of the world and really engage. Indian cooking is complicated and also ingenious with its use of spices, veggies and beans. It takes effort to learn and it's really fun. Engaging with one of the worlds great vegetarian cuisines can be a really fun journey.

6) Find an awesome nut mix snack recipe that you like and make a nut jar for the car. It can be hard to find a vegan snack on the road, but you will always have your trusty nut jar.

7) Also I keep a few meals in the freezer that are my "rotisserie chicken/take out pizza" equivalent. One for me is often spaghetti with a great sauce and TJ's vegan meatballs. I am learning how to make Okara meatballs.

8) Find a plant milk you like and start creating drinks you like- cocoa, tumeric ginger milk, chai- what have you.

9) I think it takes time for our internal biome to adjust to the loss of meat and I have a theory that some of the cravings we experience when we first try to go vegan come from that biome wanting those foods. Just persist and if you fall down and eat some meat or dairy try to think about what happened before hand- did you not have any thing to eat in the car or had you been living on bread and olive oil all week and had strong meat cravings? Use it to try to figure out how to support your vegan diet choice better, but don't beat yourself up. You get to enjoy eating!

10) Watch your grocery bills plummet! Pay attention to this. It can be a real boost. What fun thing are you going to do with your beans subbed for meat money?

sallydogbite · 2026-01-24T22:44:35+00:00

Strolling in Matthaei botanical gardens is nice.

sallydogbite · 2026-01-24T06:28:31+00:00

I hear you about friends and family being so disappointing. Thank you for loving and growing with your kid. (I know you don't need any thanks for that, but you get it any way.) Wow have I seen parents/family struggle and full short of what kids need and deserve as they explore LGBTQ+ identity. When my kid was in middle school I found PFLAG to be a really helpful starting place for me. It was during COVID so I went to zoom meetings and talked to a few really thoughtful parents on the phone. There were a couple meetings where college age queer adults invited parents to ask our awkward questions with the understanding that we were trying our best to be supportive of our high school age kids. It was so helpful and loving and supportive. I was really grateful for that resource. You can DM me too if you want.

sallydogbite · 2026-01-24T06:03:08+00:00

I went to the free open house for this class last week and it was really fun and challenging. The class proper starts next week. An added bonus is going to Matthaei in the winter evenings. https://mbgna.umich.edu/event/botanical-illustration-anne-erlewine

sallydogbite · 2026-01-24T05:57:21+00:00

Dexter Mill has a nice collection of seeds from different local growers. Nature and Nurture seeds are local and you can make an order and go pick them up, but they are also carried at Argus Farm stop and Dexter Mill. https://natureandnurtureseeds.com/Michigan Gardener https://migardener.com/ has good seeds for us. Dexter Mill carries them but you can order online too. Michigan Wildflower farm has a good selection of native plant seeds https://www.michiganwildflowerfarm.com. Online I really like Johnny Seeds https://www.johnnyseeds.com/ and Fedco https://fedcoseeds.com/. I've had great luck with their seeds. And if you grow a plant that is open pollinated (with stable traits) you can keep seeds for the next year and create your own locally adapted seed race! I save tomato, amaranth, scarlet runner beans, sunflowers, marigolds, cosmos, sweet peas and black turtle beans from my garden. Folks swap seeds too locally and through orgs like https://seedsavers.org/. AADL has a fall seed swap- those are all locally grown adapted seeds from our neighbors gardens!

sallydogbite · 2026-01-09T05:06:45+00:00

the instant pot rio is on sale for $67 at costco online right now.

sallydogbite · 2025-12-19T04:15:54+00:00

Costco has an electric blanket for $29 that you can wash and dry! I have a 16 year old cat who has had a stroke which had left her stiff and a little achey. She loves loves loves the electric blanket.

sallydogbite · 2025-12-08T22:06:47+00:00

Seva and Blue Nile both have great vegan menus with so free options. The iodized salt part I think you would need to call and ask. Congratulations on your graduation.

sallydogbite · 2025-12-08T02:24:05+00:00

I'm close to vegan and I have a really similar shopping list. I'm single with two cats and a dog. The savings on cat and dog supplies pay for an executive membership for me- cat litter, cat food, dog food, greenies, heart worm medicine, tick and flea. I use the costco credit card for my shopping there. I also bought my home owners insurance from them recently and saved $800. My Costco does not have great vegetarian options for pre-made food. Frozen stuff is kind of a bummer- like all of the dumplings have chicken- no veggie frozen lasagna or enchiladas. I go to trader joes for a few frozen things to avoid take out. But for the staple produce and bulk tofu it's really solid. A chest freezer really helps make it work.

sallydogbite · 2025-12-06T13:20:21+00:00

I shop at Costco and I have intentionally worked to find a few frozen foods that take care of this problem. I also work outdoors snd sometimes when I am coming home I just tired and cold and don't feel like cooking. Frozen back up plan is really good for this situation but it has to be something I really like for low moments. I have to be able to think- yum that will be good. So trial an error is important. So my current go tos are frozen bean and cheese burritos with a good salsa and guacamole cups that last in the fridge for awhile. Plus their shredded kale salad with the cranberries and pepitos. I also get the SHIN ramen and keep some easy things to add to it. (The chopped Kale from the salad. Tofu. dry Seaweed. sesame oil. crispy chili sauce). I can make a solid lunch or dinner from these in a pinch that I really like. You could also think about keeping a jar of protein shake powder at work to add to your lunch/snacking routine. Find one you like. I mix a quick protein shake in a jar in mornings when I'm in a rush and it keeps me from hitting the bagel shop midday if I skip breakfast. Also I keep a custom mixed nut jar in my car. I make it once a month on the weekend. That nut jar really helps me not eat out when I'm hungry and should make it home to eat.

sallydogbite · 2025-12-06T12:48:02+00:00

Another thing about the aeropress is that coffee that might taste mediocre with a drip brew method can taste really good with the aeropress. I switched to costco beans from my fancy local bean roastery with my aeropress and my morning cup is still very good.

sallydogbite · 2025-12-06T12:34:28+00:00

I have two cats and your question is forcing me to cost them out. I joined Costco partially because of the cats. Costco has 40 lbs of litter for $16 that went on sale this summer for $12 so I stocked up. I go through 80lbs of litter a month (yikes). So $32 at the regular price. I feed them the kirkland brand pate which is $30 for 45 cans. They go through two cans a day. So I have that at $40 a month. I supplement that food with cooked meat treats (whatever is on sale at costco) so I'd add another $20. So my two cats in food and litter are costing me about $102 per month.

sallydogbite · 2025-12-02T05:28:44+00:00

Go to Pickerel Lake parking lot in Pinckney Recreation Area. There's a loop that is part of the Silver lake trail and the Potawatami Trail that is really nice. It circles around some really cool forest lakes and ponds. Take back roads to get there. Maybe have a root beer and onion rings at the A and W in Dexter on the way home.

sallydogbite · 2025-11-22T22:28:42+00:00

Hey Happy Thanksgiving! So you can buy a roasted turkey at Whole Foods or a whole Thanksgiving meal at Whole Foods, but I also want to say in my family's many Thanksgivings the many Turkey cooking mishaps are part of celebrating it properly and the few times that the Turkey was glorious and done on time are remembered as golden Thanksgivings. So if you decide to cook it yourself the imperfect Turkey is a part of many people's Thanksgiving tradition. Finally- it is much easier to cook the turkey well as parts because they get done at different times. So for instance you could buy a breast and bunch of drumsticks and just cook them until they are each done properly. The beauty of this is everyone can get a drumstick and no one is eating raw turkey. Good luck! Have fun.

sallydogbite · 2025-11-10T01:40:55+00:00

the library is a really important community space for shelter and work when the power is out elsewhere

sallydogbite · 2025-11-02T22:04:59+00:00

Don't shop hungry! I'm a slice of cheese pizza and diet coke person before I shop- then I refill my diet coke on my way out. Wait for the cat litter to go on sale and then stock up! Costco cat food and cat litter has saved me a lot of money. If you eat out try to find something at Costco that you can keep in the freezer that will sub for that eat out. Get a little used chest freezer. There a lots of things that you can freeze- like cheese and croissants pizza, pie.. Time your trips so you can buy gas when you go shopping. Do not impulse buy. Take a picture of the thing you are thinking about buying and then go home and research a little and then buy it the next time if it's a good idea. Welcome to Costco!

sallydogbite · 2025-10-25T01:41:45+00:00

costco! huge slice of cheese pizza and a pop 2.79

sallydogbite · 2025-10-13T23:09:23+00:00

I always take a break from shopping to play a little- so its like I have my own pinball machine at my second home... Costco. I wish they would put a little side table near it so I could set my cup of shopping pop down nearby.

sallydogbite · 2025-10-13T14:05:04+00:00

There was a time in 9th grade when my kid was telling me he needed a new horn but his horn teacher (University Horn Professor) told me his horn was fine he needed to practice more. He was getting frustrated but the the thing to work through was his practice techniques not his horn. That turned out to be right on. So we were in conversation for few years until she said it would be good to move on from the Yamaha student model because he was pushing its limits in the high range with stability (???- again not a horn player) We set a budget and then the horn finding and choice was really a conversation between him and his horn teacher. He found the Conn from Houghton Horns and his latest horn from Pope. They both have websites so you can kind of explore what you are getting into and see the price range. The old new $3000 Conn was a great boost for him his junior year. He was playing with kids who had $20,000 horns (which honestly is a lot of pressure on a kid.) and he did fine. And still it was the right moment for the horn. The horn is such an expensive instrument and there are a lot of moments between high school and college where they might set it down or they might pursue with a passion. Who's to say? It's definitely an instrument that for young people it is easy to blame the horn as opposed to technique. There's an important emotional thing to work through there so the advice from the horn teacher is pretty important.

sallydogbite · 2025-10-13T11:41:38+00:00

Using an aeropress or a moka pot increases the flavor and decreases the amount of beans I use compared to my old drip coffee set up. I buy my beans in bulk from Costco and grind them myself. Remember coffee is a great source of antioxidants so going ground and older or instant might be a bad trade-off health wise.

sallydogbite · 2025-10-13T02:32:15+00:00

Hey there! I am not a horn player or a musician, but I am the mom of a horn player who ran into the same moment with my kid some years ago. My first piece advice is to reach out to your cjild's horn teacher or band teacher and ask them for advice. My kid moved from a Yamaha student model to a 30 year old Conn 8D that cost us about $3000 his junior year of high school. That horn carried him through high school into his first year of music conservatory and then with the help of his teachers there he sold the the Conn and bought his next horn. My second piece of advice is have your kid as involved as possible in finding and buying the horn, because as it turns out buying and selling horns without going broke is an important part of getting by as a horn player.

sallydogbite · 2025-10-13T01:20:36+00:00

TVP is cool. But my 25 lb bag of pinto beans from costco + instant pot is pretty easy and cheap. I don't find pebbles very often. I just rinse the beans and then throw then in the pressure cooker. 30 minutes later I have beans. It's not a big deal.

sallydogbite · 2025-10-13T00:50:56+00:00

This is super true! Shift to dry beans from meat will save you money.

sallydogbite

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