Photo 187044871 © Pixelarchitect | Dreamstime.com

Like many of you, I definitely have lockdown fatigue, especially when it comes to cooking. I miss the days of dining out in a carefree environment, having a delicious dinner at our favorite neighborhood spots, accompanied by a beverage or two (maybe three). Since my fiancée and I are still not super comfortable dining out, we’ve gotten creative in the kitchen and decided to put previously unused appliances to the test. First, I consulted with several blogs I follow, like skinnytaste.com, thecountrycook.com and @traderjoeslist (Instagram) to find a couple recipes utilizing ingredients I already had on hand.

For the first culinary adventure, we decided to bust out the air fryer that hasn’t gotten much use since we bought it last winter. Next, we surveyed the freezer and realized we had a bunch of frozen stuff from Trader Joe’s like Chicken Spring Rolls, Kung Pau Tempura Fried Cauliflower and Vegetable Fried Rice. After some research, we found most of our dinner could be cooked in the air fryer (aside from the veggie fried rice), and we quickly got to it. With an air fryer it’s important to remember to preheat; we bought the Vremi Skinnytaste Airfryer XL and like its ease of use and large basket size.

Photo 39430856 © Dolphfyn | Dreamstime.com

Once we preheated the fryer, the spring rolls went in first, cooked for 14 minutes at 380 (as an FYI, I think I’ll cook them next time at 400 for 12 minutes). Following the spring rolls, we cooked the cauliflower at 400 for 14 minutes. The veggie fried rice cooked on the stovetop in about 20 minutes. I added sesame oil for an authentic touch, just a ½ teaspoon, along with two eggs that I scrambled in the same dish as the rice (just push cooked rice to the side when it’s almost done and cook the eggs). In less than 30 minutes, the dinner table was set and a delicious meal was served. I have to say (and not to toot my own horn, but I will, haha), it was better than some of the Chinese takeout we have gotten recently. This definitely makes the rotation, and next time pictures will accompany the blog post, but this time, we were too hungry.

Join me next time as we air fry a whole chicken, soaked in buttermilk, another recipe from Skinnytaste!

— Sarah Ward, account executive