Kitchen Gadget Disease Chronicles: Air fryer and an upgraded Instant Pot

Bought the whip cream thingy. OMG that looks super cool. I despise store bought whipped cream, and also hate making it. Win win win! Best part is the hubby was all for it, which is very very rare. He is the one that normally makes it, so finally a gadget he will like too!

You will love it, very easy to use. You bought the ISI chargers too, right?

I did, a case of them. Sadly the whip cream maker came yesterday, but the charges won't be here until next week. I am wanting to use the darn thing today since I have a ton of heavy cream. Did you know you can make hollandaise sauce in it? Super easy looking to do! Can't wait to try that too!

Ohhhh...that stinks. After I bought it my son said he used one all the time when he worked at Starbucks. Did not know about the Hollandaise sauce. Yummmm

So what are you making in the Instapot for summer? With all my surgeries and recovery kinda fell off the wagon in testing recipes...

For the moment I am all about fiddling with the sous vide function. The last couple days I have been wanting to sous vide chicken, then add the coating and fini**** in the air fryer. Been to impatient though, and just cooked it all the way in the fryer. Tomorrow is sliders and soup though. There are several ethnic type recipes online that I am looking to try as well. 

One of the Ladies who runs the support group was telling us her Cesear Chicken recipe. Dreges the chicken first in Cesear dressing- might be Marie's something thicker and low carb... then dips in a combo of Whole Wheat panko and those large type parmesan shreds. Not toallyy carb free but sounds delicious and bet would be yummy in the air fryer....

That does sound fantastic! So funny, but I was just telling my hubby yesterday that next week I wanted to switch to boneless chicken breasts/tenders to start making chicken strips. I will have to try that. Not sure if the calories is worth the dip in ceaser dressing though, but I have never looked for a lower calorie option. I had no idea you could buy panko in a whole wheat version, so that is now on my list!

I think today I am going to attempt fried pickles. I just love those things, but since losing the gallbaldder have not been able to order them. Pretty sure the air fryer woulld do a terrific job with that. I am trying to resist buying the bigger sized fryer at the moment. Totally don't need the big one plus what I have. Just realized over the weekend though that the 3 quart version is just a tad bit too small to make fried chicken for two, even with my eating smaller portion sizes. I am hoping with the chicken tenders I can layer them in there to get it up to enough for two. Think it will work since they are flatter. 

In the IP, I want to track down ethnic recipes. In metro Detroit I can get to a variety of international markets. I particularly want to try and put some Asian recipes in the rotation. I have not tried any of the orange chicken or broccili/beef type recipes yet. Normally I hate making stir frys in a wok, so if I can get a few going via the IP or air fryer that would be great.

Holy heck,

I just noticed your surgery dates in your ticker. Was the recovery from your LBL completed for the second surgery, or did you just double up the recovery so to speak? Asking becaue I am toying with the idea of a LBL via Mexico, but soooooo sick of surgery at the moment due to recovery times.

I did them close together for several reasons.... I didn't want to drag it out...and summer was coming, My season and wanted to be mostly recovered by then. Also knew I would need to be wearing compression sleeves after the arms, and who wants to do that when it is hot? Doc normally likes to wait at least 3months in between, but he said as long as my first recovery was doing well he was fine with 2 months.

So I was fully recovered in terms of stamina, daily life etc... that being said I still get some muscle tightness in my abdomen, which he tells me to massage. Still am applying scar cream and massaging my suture line.... 

Edited to add: My first surgery was 8 hours because the hernia was much larger and took much longer than expected. Second surgery was 10 1/2 hours - No complications- he expected 7 hours he just said there was a lot of excess skin. I am 7 weeks out from surgery #2 and just drove 15 hours out to Chicago to visit my son and family. So yes, recovery has gone well.

That is a lot of surgery in 2 weeks, and very glad to read recovery has gone smoothly! Good to read about the LBL- it looks like if I did it at the begninning of a summer I would be recovered sufficiently enough to return to the classroom in the fall.