Prepping for the challenge ahead...

London_1

There's a smashing YouTube video by a lady called TracyMouse who does lots of videos for people unsure about batch baking and how easy it is .She's great and very down to earth annd uses all the ordinary stuff most folk have in their cupboards .She also does great 'shorts' about soup making Well worth a watch if your just starting out thinking about how to streetch your pennies this coming winter

JackieO xx

Longwalker

So far, and it is early days I admit - 24hrs in fact But Im loving the air fryer

A whole roasted chicken in 50 mins. No pre heating, just in the basket and away it went - tuned once. Skin really crispy, flesh moist. Had some last night, some tonight and will finish it off in the next day or so. Even reheating it in a sauce for pasta it was still moist and flavourful

Today I cooked bacon, 6 mins, and once again, really moist bacon with crispy fat. Even mum managed to eat a bacon sandwich without pulling bits she couldn't chew out of her mouth

Mr L does like a Gingsters for lunch, he usually nukes them which makes them soggy, because he doesn't want to use the oven for one item = 10 mins and a good hot flaky pasty 

Looking forward to seeing how Sunday dinner turns out tomorrow 

JKS$(

I adore my air fryer. I was sceptical at first, but needed something as my gas oven takes ages to not cook things very well. I got a small Lakeland one (on offer ) & wouldn't be without it. It's usually just me at home, so it's much easier & far less cleaning. Baked potatoes are wonderful! I'm experimenting with nuking them for a while first, then finishing in the air fryer to cut costs. Anyone tried this?

BBC Sounds have a programme called Sliced Bread & they investigated the energy costs of air fryers recently. Still available to listen to on the app.

Longwalker

JKS$( said:

I adore my air fryer. I was sceptical at first, but needed something as my gas oven takes ages to not cook things very well. I got a small Lakeland one (on offer ) & wouldn't be without it. It's usually just me at home, so it's much easier & far less cleaning. Baked potatoes are wonderful! I'm experimenting with nuking them for a while first, then finishing in the air fryer to cut costs. Anyone tried this?

BBC Sounds have a programme called Sliced Bread & they investigated the energy costs of air fryers recently. Still available to listen to on the app.

Yes I listened to that last week, that kind of swung it for me and I ordered

I always nuke jacket spuds first, then crisped in the oven so will defo be doing the same with the air fryer

Today Im doing steaks, onion rings and not sure if Im doing jacket spuds or chips - air fryer with the peas, corn and pepper sauce nuked 

Oh the joys of near on zero washing up as well

GaleSF63

I'm planning on getting an air fryer but not sure about the size. What size cooks a whole chicken? It will give me some idea, and can you bake in the smallest ones? There's only me but I don't want to find that I get one too small and end up using the oven just because of its size. On the other hand I don't want an enormous thing taking up a lot of space. 

Floss

I had a small A/F first, now I have the Tower 5-in-1 which can cook a chicken.

bellabella

Well ladies i dont know what i did wrong with my chicken in the air fryer it was awful i  had to throw it away tasted funny and went very rubbery and tough

YorksLass

JKS$( said:

I adore my air fryer. Baked potatoes are wonderful! I'm experimenting with nuking them for a while first, then finishing in the air fryer to cut costs. Anyone tried this?

Another air fryer fan here and definitely yes to nuking potatoes first, then air fryer.

Longwalker - Great for pasties etc - no more soggy pastry!

A well stocked store cupboard has always been a feature here, especially for winter, so it's not too different for me nowadays, although coping with ever increasing prices and out of stock items makes it more challenging to stay within budget.  I've cut our grocery budget down by £12 pm and so far it's going well.  There's usually a little bit of cash left at the end of each month that gets paid into a winter squirrel fund.  The £150 CT rebate has already gone into that along with any loose change that we save.

My focus right now is on energy prices as our fixed price plan finishes at the end of August.  An email from our supplier landed in my Inbox this morning to remind me of that (no, I hadn't forgotten - how could I?).  Unless I can find anything cheaper elsewhere, which I doubt, our choice is their standard variable (DD will be £148 pm) or a fixed plan (DD will be £245 pm) based on our actual usage.  Our current DD is £80.36 pm, so quite a big jump for us but admittedly not as bad as it will be for some.

We're a two OAP household so not the "typical average".  We use less electricity than the average but more gas.  Since most of this is for heating we're concentrating on ways to use less gas eg extra layers of clothing, throws, hot water bottles, lined curtains, draught excluders etc.

Longwalker

GaleSF63 said:

I'm planning on getting an air fryer but not sure about the size. What size cooks a whole chicken? It will give me some idea, and can you bake in the smallest ones? There's only me but I don't want to find that I get one too small and end up using the oven just because of its size. On the other hand I don't want an enormous thing taking up a lot of space. 

I went for the Ninja foodie double basket one, the AF400. And yes you can get a whole chicken into one basket ( on sale on their website, interest free payments and I think you can go via a cash back site )

If you want a very versatile one, then dont go for the round basket types, you get more surface area in a square/ rectangle one, one the you can use existing pans in

There are a few FB groups for the Ninjas , they are excellent resources . Basically anything you can cook in the oven or under the grill, you can cook in the Ninja and use the pans you already have. Just make sure there is clearance around the sides and top so the hot air flows.

Theres 3 of us here, we like different food and mum struggles with things that she deems to be tough ( she can find gristle in a chicken fillet ). So far shes eaten everything Ive cooked in the Ninja so far

My only other outlay for it has been silicone tongs and a sunflower oil spray. Dont use the one cal stuff, it bakes onto the non stick. Get strong tongs, ones with a good grip. Obviously as I get more proficient I may buy more bits but so far, what I have in the house already is doing the biz 

The steaks and jacket potatoes came out fantastically , as did the tomatoes and onion rings - steak and tomatoes one side, spuds and onion rings the other - onion rings added to the last five minutes of spud cooking.

Longwalker

bellabella said:

Well ladies i dont know what i did wrong with my chicken in the air fryer it was awful i  had to throw it away tasted funny and went very rubbery and tough

I have the ninja AF400 and whilst it recommends putting it on the roast function, a colleague in work advised to use the air fry function. Breast down for 25 mins, turn and another 25 mins and it really was/is moist and tasty.  There was a tiny bit of pink in one place, not enough to worry me, but I know in future to use a meat thermometer and maybe give another 5 mins