*This post contains an affiliate link to the Power Air Fryer.**
I’ve been in this blogging game for nearly 11 years and some of you, and by some I mean HI MOM!, have been here with me for a really good chunk of that.
Over the course of those years I’m sure you’ve learned quite a few things about me. Like, I love chocolate, cookies, vampires, and football, particularly if my sons are playing it. I’m not a huge fan of wine, cleaning, or random hugs.
And, when it comes to domesticity, it is not an area of life in which I excel.
Like, I try.
Maybe not with cleaning (I can’t lie, I pay for it or I bribe someone to do it for me), but at least when it comes to cooking.
As a mom to three perpetually hungry, crazy active dudes, keeping them fed well is a requirement of life.
They need energy to perform well in all of the sports they play and, here’s a thing that’s actually not a myth about life with teenage boys: they’re ALWAYS hungry.
Problem is, I am not a big cook.
I CAN cook.
Listen, my mama raised me right,
It’s just, like every other busy, on-the-go, working mom on the planet, I don’t have a ton of time for it and, I get frustrated serving the same meals, over and over, on repeat.
The planning and the prep and the clean up and literally all of it including the eating are just exhausting and the days of having fun in the kitchen are a thing of my very distant, short lived past.
Many days, once I am done putting together a meal for five that could actually feed 10 (because they eat enough for 10), I’m usually so over I can’t even enjoy it myself.
Or I’m shoveling it into containers so the dudes can eat while I drive them to practice. Or training. Or a game.
Finding easy ways to lighten my load in the kitchen is something I spend an insane amount of time and effort and money on.
Which is why, when I find something that works, really, really works, lemme tell you, I never let it go.
And, this is the part where I introduce you to my sweet new kitchen sidekick: The Power Air Fryer.
The Power Air Fryer people reached out to me sometime in the summer asking if I’d like to check out the product.
I will admit, I initially was like, eh, I mean, is this going to be like the Foreman Grill for me?
Because, yes, I got one, everyone who found themselves living away from their parents in the early 2000s had a Foreman Grill.
And, sure, I used it, but did I need to? Did I even like to? Did eating flat sandwiches and dry chicken breast really appeal to me that much?
No.
It did not.
And cleaning it was annoying which is why its reign on my countertop was short lived and it eventually made it’s way into a plastic bin in the back of my basement where it probably remains today.
Don’t ask me to account for things in plastic basement bins that I haul from home to home. Obviously I need those things, they’re in bins aren’t they?!
The last thing I needed was a big, unused machine taking up space on my counter so I imagined the Power Air Fryer would proceed down a similar path.
Quickly.
Also, I was wrong.
Entirely.
This kitchen wonder has entirely changed my dinnertime game!
Total shocker because I’d never even heard of an air fryer before this one was on its way to my house.
If you are in the market for a new kitchen appliance to simplify your life, I strongly urge you to consider an air fryer.
But, before you click buy on that link up there, let’s assume you are me three months ago while I tell you the what and why of life with an air fryer.
Yes, You Should Buy an Air Fryer: 5 Reasons It Will Change Your Life
Air fryers cook your food with, wait for it… AIR!
Celebrated for their convenience, ease of use, and health benefits, air fryers are countertop kitchen appliances that cook your food by circulating hot air around it.
The foods come out similarly (not the same okay, similar) to how they would if you were to deep fry them only without all of the extra fat that process tends to add to the equation.
People love them.
They’re safer than deep frying (no way to get burned by hot oil spills or pops), and they tend to take less time to prepare your food (not always, but often).
I find that air frying things is much easier than pan frying things in terms of time, mess, and attention required. I can bread my chicken and pop it into the air fryer, go help someone with homework, and come back without having to worry if a)my food burned up, or b) my house burned down (look, I’m not saying you should run to Target, I’m saying you don’t have to hover over the thing while it cooks, being in the general vicinity will suffice).
It also frees up space on my stove to cook things I’m not air frying, is pretty easy to clean (all of the trays can be removed and washed and the inside just requires a wipe down), and tends to cook faster and more evenly than I am usually capable of when in charge of a flame.
Pro tip: Cover your air fryer bottom try with aluminum foil and remove the foil for even easier clean up.
As far as I’m concerned, they’re about to be the Instant Pots of this holiday season so if you want one (believe me, you want one), you better get it now before you have to fight some grandma who tries to club you with her cane for one in Walmart on Black Friday.
They can cook pretty much anything.
I use my air fryer at least twice a week and I’ve prepared everything from vegetables to crispy fried chicken inside.
The Power Air Fryer is also a dehydrator (so you can make jerky if you have several hours to hang around) and a rotisserie (without the flame, of course).
Desserts, veggies, meats of all shapes and sizes, breads, apparently you can even cook eggs in them. I’m not trying it, but feel free to give it whirl.
Watch us making donuts in the Power Air Fryer.
They were super easy to make and so, so good!
VIDEO
When it comes to health, air fried food is better for yours.
At least when compared to cooking your foods in oil on your stove.
Foods prepared by deep frying or even pan frying tend to soak up the oil you’re cooking them. When you air fry things you use oil, yes, but not a ton. You just coat your food with oil (so it’s not all dried out. Imagine air frying like standing yourself in the middle of the blazing hot, dry desert while the hot wind blew around you) and the machine does the rest.
The food comes out crispy and juicy.
Which is basically everyone’s life goal when it comes to fried foods, right?
You can achieve this delicious, crispy-ish outside (it’s not the same as like deep fried KFC, but it’s crispy-ish) that covers this juicy, delicious inside.
It’s not soggy, it’s not wet, it’s not soft. It’s not any of the things I was worried it was going to be when I started this whole thing.
In fact, certain foods, like bacon, come out better in the air fryer than they do on the stove.
I will never pan fry bacon again if I can help it.
Not kidding.
If all this thing did was make perfectly snappy bacon without some much mess and time I would still buy it just for that.
So far I’ve made pork chops, fried chicken, fired chicken without breading, donuts, French fries, and bacon, lots and lots of bacon.
Recipes coming your way soon!