Eating Healthy With Our New AIR FRYER!

I’ve got a question for all of you:  Have you checked out eBay recently?!?

This is now the third time I’ve partnered with them in 3 months, so I’m obviously totally drinking the eBay Kool-Aid over here!  I’m working with them again today to make sure all of you ladies know about what they have to offer. If you’re anything like me, you might not have been on the site for years, but things are different now and everybody needs to know!

Just a quick review for those who saw my last posts with eBay, and maybe y’all who didn’t see them will learn something new.  Do you know that eBay has approximately 1.1 billion listings at any given time?  Let that sink in.  ONE BILLION ITEMS.  81%  of those 1 billion items are NEW, and most of those are listed as BUY IT NOW!  Personally, I love the “buy it now” feature, because who has time to be always be checking back in on an auction these days?!?

They also have events that can’t be missed!  Like right now they have a KITCHEN EVENT with TONS of electrics for your kitchen (for super discounted prices)!  They also they have another KITCHEN EVENT WITH COOKWARE (also with serious discounts). Both events are awesome, so you definitely need to check them out.

Why An Air Fryer?

If you’ve been following along with me for awhile, you know that every January I get on the HEALTHY EATING train.  Chris and I have been going strong since January, and I think we lost between 15-20 pounds each (not sure, because we never weighed).  Well, just when we were starting to get tired of eating the same things over and over (once we find things that work, we go with it), I got this offer from eBay!

When eBay  reached out, they gave me several ideas of items I could choose to review (ex. coffee makers, cookware, blenders, etc).  HOWEVER.  The second I saw that air fryers were a part of the promotion, I knew that’s what I was getting.  I’d been hearing about air fryers in blog land for awhile now, and I’ve been so curious!  I MEAN, who wouldn’t want to eat food THAT TASTES FRIED, even though it isn’t.  SIGN. ME. UP.

So, I excitedly purchased THIS bad boy. 

What Can You Make With An Air Fryer?

Before the Gourmia FryChef air fryer had even been delivered to me, I hopped on Pinterest and starting pinning air fryer recipes so I could try it out and do a proper air fryer review.  These pork taquitos jumped out at me immediately, and I knew they would be the first thing I would make.  Click HERE for the recipe, but you can see in the photo below that the ingredient list is minimal:  shredded pork, shredded cheese, tortillas, lime juice, and some seasoning is all you need (I used Chili Lime seasoning from Trader Joe’s)!

I rolled the tortillas up, and I was able to fit 5 easily in the air fryer.  The food gets the most crispy if it’s in a single layer in the basket, so if I had been cooking more than 5, I would have done 2 separate batches.  Mine is a 4.5 quart fryer, but they come in different sizes.  If you have a large family, I think a larger size would be worth the investment.

The Gourmia FryChef air fryer is super user friendly.  Some food items have settings (like french fries), but others you just choose the temperature and the time, and then press the start button.  This air fryer really couldn’t be easier.

The top of the food is what gets crispy (I sprayed Pam on the top of everything I’ve tried so far to ensure maximum crispiness), so to get the best results you need to flip your food mid way through the cooking process.

And look at the finished product!  Those are some beautifully browned and crispy taquitos right there!  (Now, full disclosure here, I stuffed my tortillas pretty full….so my taquitos looked a bit more like small burritos.  #whatever) 🙂

Air Fryer Clean Up

And do you want to see how easy clean up was?  I literally just wiped these drippings (some juice from the pork and a stray piece of grated cheese) out of the basket, and I was good to go.  Now, I will say, when I made chicken tenders and breaded them myself (they were delicious!), the clean up was a bit more involved because of the breading that fell off when I was flipping them.  But it was still so easy!  The bottom is non-stick, so you literally just wipe everything out with a paper towel!

LADIES!  Look how yummy they look!  The whole family loved them, and I think Chris (who is not the easiest to please in the food department) was their biggest fan.  While eating dinner, he said “These are seriously good” several times.  And he gave them an overall rating of a 9!  I shared some with some neighbors, and they were huge fans too!

How do you like the glamour shot with the air fryer?  😉

I served them with some queso (my favorite is from Tom Thumb with a little of their fresh pico sprinkled on top!) and some of my favorite Chunky Light Guacamole from Trader Joe’s, and we were all set!

Dinner was super easy, the clean up was a breeze, and my people were full and happy!  SCORE!

As I mentioned before, I also made chicken tenders (it was a recipe that was in the cookbook that came with the air fryer) and they too were absolutely delicious.  I bought tenderloins, coated them in a dijon and low fat mayo mixture, and then coated everything with panko bread crumbs and some additional seasoning.  Look how crispy!  Carter said I needed to make chicken like this every time from now on.

More Air Fryer Recipe Ideas

And when I found this healthy Mozzarella sticks recipe, I flipped.  Now, I will say that I need to work on the Mozzarella stick presentation.  I didn’t pay close enough attention to make sure that all of the cheese surface was appropriately covered with the panko mixture, and I didn’t freeze them prior to cooking as long as the recipe said (because I was too excited!), so lots of cheese leaked out.  But I’ll say this, they might not have looked great, BUT THEY TASTED PHENOMENAL!  HEALTHY FRIED CHEESE, Y’ALL!!!

I’m already dreaming up ways to tweak the above recipes too.  Like, I think I’ll use corn tortillas and fill them with refried beans and shredded chicken and cheese for a different take on the taquito.  And next time I do the chicken tenders, I’m going to slather them in my favorite low fat honey mustard dressing before coating them in the panko.  YUM!  We’ve also popped frozen tater tots in the fryer for tots that seriously tasted fried (and they took 1/2 the time they do in the oven)!  We attempted french fries once too, but we were cooking for a crowd since we had friends over, and we put too many fries in at one time. You can find more of my pinned air fryer recipes on Pinterest here!

And this weekend we did “fried” pickles.  Y’ALL.  Everything we’ve made in the air fryer has been so tasty.  AND SO EASY!

Other Kitchen Tools on Sale

So we’ve obviously been cooking up a storm with our new air fryer, and I’m officially in love.  In fact, I joked to some girlfriends that I’m going to marry it.  I’m thinking about registering at eBay. 😉  Save the Date cards will be going out soon.

Here are some other kitchen electrics that caught my eye as I was browsing around.  And remember, these items are SUPER DISCOUNTED!  Most items are over 40% OFF, and some are as much as 60% OFF!  For example, the Kitchen Aid Mixer is 45% OFF and the Cusinart coffee maker on the left is 73% OFF!  WHOAH!  And don’t forget, most of the items also have FREE SHIPPING!

You seriously need to just click HERE and take just a couple of minutes to browse around.  These prices can’t be missed!

If you haven’t looked around on eBay in awhile, I encourage you to do so today!  Maybe you’ll find something, and you too will be able to say “I found it on eBay !”.  I’ll tell you this, since doing my Dyson vacuum post, I haven’t been able to get their hair dryers out of my head.  They have refurbished options available  for Dyson haidryers (where you can save $100), and they are realllly tempting me!  They are still super expensive, but I’m actually thinking of getting one myself.  I used my friend’s Dyson dryer at the blogging conference I went to last month, AND Y’ALL. THIS DRYER IS LEGIT. After one use, I swear my hair was silkier and shinier.  I mean, you can’t put a price on shiny and healthy hair, right?  ?  And yes, it’s realllllllllly expensive for a hairdyer, BUT I LOVED HAVING SHINY HAIR.  That might be worth $300 to me.

So much goodness happening over on eBay right now!  A huge thank you to eBay for sponsoring this post!

P.S. Check out reader questions if you missed them last week, and now that we’re about to start Bachelor season again, you might want to visit The Bachelor Finale recap from last season!

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