Roasted chicken and roasted carrots. Cooked the bird at 350* for 45+ mins, and the roasted carrots on their own 10 mins. Oil and spices on the bird, oil + salt + parsley on the veg. Simple, and delicious. Just the way I like it.
Author Archives: stacey
Halloween Lunch Idea
Will be making my own version of these this year. I can’t not make them. They are just too damn adorable to ignore.
What I Air Fried This Week
I made a lot of the same things I’ve already made, and I also went back to try the Chocolate Croissants again because I wanted to play with the times.
Instead of the typical 350-400* bake, I dropped it down to 300-320* for ten mins using a can of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls and a crushed up Flaky chocolate bar. Nailed it!
I also saw this video recipe for Lemon-Pepper Wings and decided I needed to try it since the flavourings were right up our alley. I mean, lemon and pepper? C’mon! So I used frozen chicken parts that I coated in seasonings and then in flour. I dropped them in the basket and flipped once half way, cooking them at 400* the whole time ( 8 mins + 8 mins).
The recipe called for rolling them around in some melted butter with the lemon-pepper blend, and they were fantastic. What I didn’t like was how the butter made the crisp texture straight from the air fryer soggy. :-\ I will definitely make these wings again but I will roll them in the lemon-pepper dry seasonings before I cook them and forgo the butter bath altogether.
And if that doesn’t work, I will dust the crispy wings in the lemon-pepper seasonings as a rub after they come out of the air fryer all hot and crispy.
Yes, I know. I need better lighting for my pictures. I agree. I have a ring light but my kitchen is still largely a mess from the unexpected repairs the husband had to do in there, and my ring light is buried in a corner right now. Oh, well.
Air Fryer Italian Meatballs
I made 4 dozen mini meatballs the other night because I needed to use up the medium ground beef I bought two days beforehand. I had other materials I needed to use or lose them at the same time, so this what I decided to make to test out my air fryer.
PS: I paired them with this lovely red pesto sauce I bought a few months back.
Italian Meatballs:
1 kg Med Ground Beef
1/2 C Italian Seasoned Breadcrumbs (optional, for bulking out the filling only)
1/4 C Parm Cheese, grated
1 Egg
3 Shots Hot Sauce (optional)
2 Tbsp Dried Parsley
S&P
I used this meatball tool from my late MIL’s house. It scoops up the perfect mini meatball size portions.
I bought some shallow foil pans from the dollar store that fit my 10″x10″ basket perfectly, and they ended up holding 16 balls each, so that helped speed up this whole cooking process unlike cooking meatballs on the stovetop in a skillet. I am not a fan of making meatballs on the stovetop and finishing them in the oven. Too much splatter to clean up. Not with the air fryer!
I cooked each tray of balls in their first runs at 320*F for ten mins with a gentle shake of the pan (not the basket), and for their second run I blasted them at 400* for the last five mins. I temped them before blasting and again when they finish (to verify they did at some point hit 165*).
PSL Creamer
For Sabrina who asked me for this recipe today at work.
Pumpkin Spice Coffee (Latte) Creamer:
1 1/2 C 35% Whipped Cream
14oz Sweetened Condensed Milk
1/4 C Canned Pumpkin Puree
1/2 tea: Ground Cinnamon / Allspice
Cook 1/2 C of the cream with the puree and spices over a simmer for 15-20 mins.
Cool the mixture about 15 mins before whisking in the other 1 C cream and condensed milk. When fully combined, cool down in the fridge completely.
Use all up in one week. Shake before you use each time.
Air Fryer Round Up
Sorry, been busy at home with some home projects that came up unexpectedly, and work, and… air frying everything that’s not nailed down, of course! LOL
Here are a few things in picture form. I’ll do posts for each item but it’s getting late tonight, so here is round up to look at for now:
Sausage
Pumpkin Pie (warmed up only)
48 Mini Meatballs
Chicken Enchiladas
Lasagna Sandwich
Onion Rings
Lasagna
Crispy Chicken Strips
This was a great sausage, cooked perfectly in the air fryer at 350 for about…12 mins.
This store bought pie was cold when we brought it home, so I dropped it in the basket after I made dinner and unplugged it, just to warm up using the residual heat. Lovely.
Homemade Italian meatballs, cooked at 320*F for about 10 mins, shaken a bit once, temped at about 158*F before being blasted at 400*F for another five mins to finish them off perfectly giving them the deep colour I was looking for.
These chicken enchiladas were the bomb! I loved how fast these came together, and how tasty they were. I made a lot of them over a few days to use up all of the materials and to get it out of my system before turning to other things I want to try in the air fryer.
I saw this idea for a lasagna sandwich on Tik-Tok, so of course I had to make them. I regret nothing! 🙂
These store bought frozen onion rings took me two tries to nail. I sprayed them the first time as I dropped them in the basket, and they were soggy after 20 mins at 400*F. The second time, I dropped them frozen in the basket and cooked them for 10 mins at 350*F, and then flipped them and cranked the temp up to 400* for the last 7-ish mins.
I made a LOT of lasagna sauce for the lasagna sandwiches, so I baked a lasagna in the foil pan to use it all up. The thing I learned was a thick lasagna is NOT the way to go. Two shallow pans of lasagna cooked back-to-back for something like 20 mins at around 350*F would have been a better idea. I will have to test this again in the future.
I love my chicken nuggies, so of course I love chicken strips, too. I love them breaded and crispy, on a bun, with lettuce/tomato/sauce. So good. 🙂 These were also really good dipped in fridge door sauce whipped up on the fly.
Air Fryer Chocolate Croissants
Made these tonight. Brilliant hack to get the materials assembled quickly, too. I watched a video online that illustrated if you buy store grade puff pastry, roll it out a bit, and crush up a Flaky chocolate bar to sprinkle over the middle of it, you two can cut up the triangles and roll the croissants in no time at all.
I baked five in the air fryer as a test of temps and times, and while I was doing there, three were sitting on the counter the whole time. What I didn’t realise was how much bigger they would be once I baked them because they had 20 mins to proof. Nice.
I used a liner in the basket and sprayed a bit of oil down for the bottoms to brown, and added a bit to the tops while using a pastry brush to make sure I got good coverage.
I baked them at 350* for 12 mins, jacked up the heat to 400* and baked them another 6 mins to get them to an internal temp of 205* – 210*. (This ensures the middles don’t come out undercooked.) But I think the next time I do these, I will bake them at 325* for 15 mins and then play with the temp for a bit of browning. I think I went too far with this batch.
Don’t overdo the time and temp because you will burn the chocolate as you attempt to brown the outside. The goal is to cook the croissants about 170*, and then go after the colour.
Air Fryer Intro
So, I bought an air fryer.
I picked up a 5.8Qt basket style Cosori Air Fryer from Amazon.ca, and so far, I’m liking what it can do. I’ve only figured out three things (four if you include ice cream making) things you can’t do with an air fryer (cook pasta noodles, make rice, and pop popcorn properly), so the world is still my oyster. 🙂
I resisted getting another air fryer for years but after I realised they had changed so much, I was open to the idea of getting one. This time, instead of someone else picking a hot new small kitchen appliance for me as a gift, I wanted to do some research, set a criteria, and find a machine that satisfied my budget of the $100-150 mark. And I did it.
I was looking for a small in height, but big in capacity, machine that allows me to do loads of different food types and to do a lot of each in one go. I love to cook once, and eat at least three times.
I was also looking for something with easy dials I could move with my hands versus pushing buttons. Pushing buttons all day at work has me longing for the old days of dials for some reason. And I wanted a basket versus a toaster oven style. I wanted to shake up my food at the half way mark, not take a whole tray out and flip food. I also carefully looked at the clean up for both styles out there, and for me, the basket was a no-brainer. This machine is very easy to clean. And I have loads of accessories kicking around I can use in the basket when it comes to food types like baking an egg in a silicone muffin cup as I roast tater tots in the basket around it.
First night I had it, I made toast first (to check out any hot spots, and to rid me of that new machine smell. After that, of course I made frozen French fries in it. D-uh! I managed to burn AND dehydrate them because I’m not a big fan of cooking or baking fries, so I got the temp and time all wrong. Hee.
And then I tried my hand at the only recipe in the manual that interested me: apple fritters. There weren’t bad, but they could be so much better! The don’t store well, so if you make these, share them with others as soon as you pour your glaze over top. Tasty. the texture needs work, but the flavours are good enough.
I’ve had this fryer for just shy of two weeks, and I tend to do things like grilled cheese sandwiches (a fave in this house), roasted tots using smoked baked potatoes the next day (amazing), and muffins using a mix and some add-ins (dead easy). I also tried to cook dumplings in it but I overshot the temp and time, and it came out like so frail Pavlova cookies. Ugh.
A couple of days ago I tried my hand at jammy and hard boiled eggs. The first attempt didn’t produce fully cooked yet jammy eggs, and the hard version had brow spots on the egg white after the shell was cracked open. I am not deterred. I will crack this mystery. (See what I did there? Oh, you did? I’ll show myself out now.)
Today I made enchiladas after I roasted a jalapeno, a Shepard’s pepper, and a yellow pepper to make a very good salsa. I used the salsa to hold the filling together and then I smeared a bit on each tortilla before laying down the filling and cheese. I will do a post on this separately soon.
Tilapia & Chopped Corn Salad
As the last breath of summer days gasp out (for me, at least), I’m still obsessed with my corn salad. Today I made what might be the last one of the season (we’ll see), and I paired it with some delicate tilapia white fish. Perfectly seasoned and cooked, it flaked into lovely chunks easily before I tossed it with my beloved chopped corn salad for a nice summer lunch with the husband.
I swear, this is going to be the last meal I request on my deathbed. 🙂
Bacon Corn Salad
This is some bbq chicken, peppers and corn salad I made a few weeks. It was delicious. I can’t stop making each of these things. But that corn salad…? I couldn’t not put bacon in it, so that’s what I did. 🙂 (See below pix for that version.)
Grilled Bacon Corn Salad:
2-3 Bacon Strips, 1/2″ cuts
2 Smoked corn cobbs in the husks, cooled enough to hold
1/4 Red Onion (can be raw or pickled – I use what I have on hand)
1 Jalapeno, seeded, fine diced
1/4 Smoked Sweet Pepper, fine diced
2 tbsp BBQ Dry Rub (of choice)
3-4 tbsp Italian Dressing
1 small bunch Parsley, chopped
Parm grated or Queso crumbled
In a pan or on a griddle, heat up bit of oil and lay the bacon over it to render out the fat. Add the veg and shuffle it around so nothing sticks to the surface and it gets cooked evenly. Add the dry rub and keep cooking the mix until the bacon gets crispy and the veg softens, about 5-8 mins.
Off the heat, dump it into a big bowl and roll it around with the dressing and parsley. Plate with the cheese of choice on top. Serve room temp or warm.
If making ahead of time, lay the corn salad in one even layer on a big sheet pan to rapid cool for up to 20 mins before storing in the fridge.
