Husband unreasonable air fryer demands

[Anotherdayanotherairfryer]

So. Can anyone solve an argument …
husband is demanding a ‘ ninja foodie flex drawer’ becuase he thinks it will be a good investment. on the other hand I think it’s a waste of money….. I mean we can afford it … but it feels extreme, we have an oven already ! Any one say it’s a life changer … if not I’m not interested !

I find the opposite. It's fantastic for fish, veggies, seasoned chickened breasts, loads of things actually so I've found the opposite to you.

That all sounds banging…
Can I please ask how you make the croutons 😋

Does he do much cooking? If he cooks his fair share id say ok if he doesnt seems like a waste of money if you dont want one

They are amazing for roasting vegetables. I find the skin on roasted red peppers just slips off, which save lots of time when peeling. I love using mine for roasted carrots and parsnips, roasted Mediterranean veg, parmentier potatoes, roasted baby new potatoes with herbs, stuffing balls (made my life a lot easier at Christmas as we always run out of oven space), baked fish / chicken breast / thighs. It also makes great chips from scratch. Even heating up a quiche for example just takes minutes without having to preheat the oven

We have a Ninja dual machine and use it more than I expected. The good thing about the dual is that you can cook two lots of things that need different temperatures, cooking times etc. it’s also useful if you want to cook small quantities.

Think of it as a small oven.

Air fryers are a game changer and I'm not much of a gimmick kitchen appliance person but got one in the new year and cannot imagine life without it. However starting with a pricey Ninja is not necessary. Get a simple one drawer £40-60 range one and see if you like and use is regularly. We did this and use it multiple times a day, the oven is rarely on. When we need to replace it I will feel confident that a more expensive one is a good investment.

I have a Ninja Foodie Dual Zone. It's OK. My DD and her boyfriend love it and cook most of their meals in it.

I quite like it but really just can't quite make it my "go-to" appliance. It isn't the food that is produced, it is the cleaning of the machine drawers afterwards. I do have silicone liners and racks, but still find it a total faff.

Do it!!

I had my DS 7 weeks ago and the Ninja arrived 5 days later….I actually think having it is the only way I ate hot food for the first few week. It’s brilliant! Same as you, I brushed people off when they said to get one and now I can’t be without it…

It’s a game changer. Get it. We cook chicken, roasts in fact everything ! Can’t remember the last time we put the oven on

Thanks I will tell my husband that tomorrow. We cook from scratch and I really don't want another bloody thing on the worktops

Thank you all for your replies really helpful I think the way to resolve this is to invest in the silicone liners and hold on to the thought of an easier Christmas dinner ! I will leave the post here , but do continue to thrash out the pros and cons of the air fryer offerings

I am a "proper" cook taught by my grandmother. I'm so old school that I still give myself cramp using a rotary whisk rather than an electric one.

I told my DH "I do not want an air fryer, it's another fad gadget, I hate kitchen gadgets" repeatedly.

DM then bought me one for my birthday, ninja dual (we are larger family of 5) and I side eyed the clunky chunk of gadget taking up so much space on our kitchen surface.

"I'll humour it, I'll try using it," I told DH.

That was 3 weeks ago. Today, I had a frozen chocolate and hazelnut croissant in it for my breakfast. Some bacon, delicious and crispy for lunchtime BLTs. DS threw in some curly fries. Did a quick nuggets and waffles tea for DTwins. Made Chinese salt and pepper chicken for our dinner.

I love it. Wish we'd got one sooner. Have now joined the Ninja Dual FB group for recipe inspiration.

I wasn't ever bothered about getting one (DH also wanted one and kept sending me links to sales etc), didn't care about it cooking things quicker etc and we are lucky that we can afford our energy bills without panicking (too much!). Then my FIL replaced his air fryer for a bigger one and gave us their old one. It's a Ninja dual one with two side by side drawers.

I bloody love it. I use it at least once every day. We don't have a lot of counter space so I've binned my toaster to make space for it to live on the side as it was a ball ache to be constantly getting it out and putting it away with the amount of use it was getting. I literally only use the oven if it won't fit in the air fryer. When making the children dinner, I can pop a chicken breast and frozen broccoli in one side and a chopped up large potato in the other - 10-15 min later; perfectly crispy homemade chips, juicy chicken and 'roasted' broccoli - quicker than boiling pasta (aka our go-to quick dinner).

I bought one a bit disbelieving of all the hype. We use it several times a week so it has turned out to be a good buy.

Let the man buy what he wants, why do you get to decide?. Controlling much?

I bloody love ours. We have a Ninja Dual AF400, got it November last year and I only use the oven for cakes, lasagne and pizza now!

that’s crackers someone off FB marketplace would come and get it within 5 minutes

I get the “where would it go” argument though, I have enough kitchen clutter as it is

I hated ours and sent it back to Amazon.
It was awful.
It couldn't make chips!

Even wet things like pasta bake go in the AF!

Love our air fryer - we got the Aldi dupe of the ninja dual.

Whilst I do really love the two drawers and ability to cook two separate things and sync finish times, I’m slightly jealous of my sisters who both have the other type of ninja that you can do a whole chicken in etc. In a perfect world of unlimited funds and counter space I’d like both. Would also quite like the one that has multi functions with slow cook etc.

One thing the Aldi dupe doesn’t have is the max crisp function - I’m unclear actually what difference this would make but often when looking at recipes/ timings they say to do ‘5 mins max crisp’ at the end - I tend to just whack it up to full temperature but not sure if that’s quite the same thing.

Love the air fryer for roast potatoes, roast veg - harissa roasted butternut squash this evening, fish, homemade granola (current obsession), quickly heating flatbreads etc without having to turn oven on, making bread - I have two loaf tins the perfect size for the drawers, scones, and yes it’s good for the occasional fishfinger or veggie sausage from the freezer but that’s genuinely once in a blue moon. It also makes great toasties, and we do mini pizzas in it with either homemade bases or sometimes use a pitta/ flatbread.

Not sure it particularly does anything a decent oven can’t, and not sure how long it would take to recoup the initial outlay in saved energy costs given the average oven costs about 20p an hour to run or something.

BUT - we have a shit oven, I hate it. It’s uneven, temperamental and makes a ridiculous noise if you don’t preheat it for long enough before you put the fan on. Probably we should have replaced it long ago but we’d always get into a debate of well we will want a new kitchen soon anyway/ well we might move soon anyway and then we never did either but now we have the air fryer. Also there’s something that just feels so much easier about it to me - less faff preheating, just whack whatever in the drawer, dead easy to take out and wash (sometimes use silicone liners depending on what’s cooking which are easier still to bung in dishwasher). No bending, trying to slide hot trays in/ out - maybe it isn’t actually any easier or less effort but it feels it somehow!

Quite! What an awful waste to just dump it!

People have, you’ve got your answer. Let the poor man have an air fryer.

To be honest I'm nervous about selling it in case it turns into more hassle than it's worth. I've had a few problems with selling stuff on eBay and I'm worried market place would be the same except the buyers are local which makes it worse!

We only bought it when DH was refitting our kitchen last year. He removed the oven and then nearly sliced off all the fingers of his left hand with a circular saw whilst cutting an end panel. Obviously the kitchen had to go on hold and we panicked and bought a totally unsuitable Ninja as a temporary replacement!

Well it’s total nonsense, so I wouldn’t bother - I cook most things from scratch and it’s great.

I don't want people coming to my house, or faffing around deciding whether they want it or not. I worry that if it goes wrong (or they break it) they'll be knocking at the door! I've never sold on market place, only eBay, and that's bad enough!