Making The Case For The Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer (Or, How We Manage Dinnertime With A Newborn)

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Sponsored by HSN & ShopStyle Collective

Hi my name is Emily, and I’m here to eat my words. No no, wait — first I’m going to air fry them. Then I’m going to eat them.

That’s right. Kitchen minimalist me, who has resisted buying into the air fryer hype for the past few years, is now here to — let’s not mince words — essentially sell you on a gadget I really thought I could live without.

Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer

Worth It: The Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer Is A Mealtime Game-Changer

And I could. I lived without it. Thrived without it, even. And then we had a baby, and suddenly I couldn’t resist the promises of easy weeknight meals and crunchy, golden-brown foods that my Instagram feed kept swearing an air fryer could deliver. And now I’m the proud owner of a Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer, and there is most definitely no looking back. The hype is real. The convenience is real. The golden-brownness is real. And yes, friends. Yes. It is worth the counter space.

The proof is in this 15-minute meal of Mustard and Brown Sugar Glazed Air Fryer Salmon + Crispy Sweet Potatoes, but we’ll get to that.

Right now, HSN.com is offering the Ninja Foodi 8-Quart 6-in-1 DualZone Air Fryer with Racks & Kebabs for $159.99, down from $199.99 — and when you use code HELLO10, you get an extra $10 off any order (exclusions apply) of $20+ at HSN.com, too. Based on the amount I’ve used the air fryer in the past week, alone, I can already attest that it’s a deal worth pursuing.

But here’s the thing. I don’t think I’d be so easily sold on any ol’ air fryer. But this one feels worth the investment — and worth the cabinet and/or counter space.

My New Mom Mealtime Hack: The Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer

First off, it can handily cook two courses simultaneously and time them to complete cooking at the same time, even if they are cooking at different temperatures. It seriously takes the guesswork out of getting dinner on the table in a timely manner. (Case in point: this salmon cooked at the same time as the sweet potatoes. While it cooked, I cleaned up the prep and made the salad, so this truly was a 15-minute meal.)

Or, it can cook double the quantity of your favorite air fryer recipe so you’re not cooking batch after batch just to feed the whole family hot fries. (This was easily the top reason I had put off getting one until now — many early home air fryers had a small capacity that required batch cooking, thereby doubling or tripling the actual cooking time.)

Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer

And it’s gloriously easy to clean. Think: extremely nonstick baskets and inserts that practically wipe clean, zero elbow grease required. Because this mama ain’t got time for soaking and scrubbing. (Heck, I barely have time to stay on top of my own laundry, which explains why the sweater I’m wearing here — and nearly all the tops I reach for these days — are conveniently spit-up hued. Yay, fashion!)

Perhaps most importantly: while, yes, it takes up a fair amount of counter space, this air fryer is actually more compact than it seems. In fact, it takes up considerably less space than the countertop oven it evicted from the same spot — an appliance I swore by until recently. But truthfully, with the exception of maybe toast or garlic bread (the former of which I can make in a slot toaster, the latter of which I can pop under the broiler of our standard oven), the Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer can do everything my countertop oven can do, and then some. It’s changing how we’ll prep meals in this house.

Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer

It’s also just dang fun to use.

The same day I made this meal, we also made:

  • the crispiest roasted broccoli;
  • crunchy homemade taquitos (I just tucked leftover taco meat into tortillas, lightly sprayed them with avocado oil and air fried them at 375F for 10 mins, turning once — I’ll now be taquito-ing all the leftovers, thank you very much!);
  • hard “boiled” eggs;
  • and even freaking DONUTS!

Each in 10 minutes or less. Meaning, even with a 6-week-old at home, dinner time is feeling manageable again.

In short: if you’ve been putting off getting an air fryer like I was? Well, friend: this is the air fryer for you. I’m not going to go as far as to say it’s too good to be true, but it’s surpassed my expectations at every turn. And the fact that it happens to be such a deal at HSN.com right now simplifies the decision all the more.

If you haven’t shopped HSN.com before (full transparency here, that was me before this post), there are so many great deals to be found there — and just a tremendous selection of goods, in general. Late last night while nursing Eleanor, I went down the rabbit hole big time looking at gifts for Lana’s birthday, Mother’s Day and my mom’s birthday (all of which fall within a month of each other) — and was sorely tempted by plenty of finds for myself, too.

I was super excited to find my favorite bronzer (Bare Minerals Faux Tan; I’m going on, gulp, 18 years of use now?) reliably stocked. Their selection of baby and kiddo feeding accessories is great. (This style of feeding mat was our favorite when we were doing baby-led weaning with Lana.) And these classic huaraches would be so easy to pair with all the summery dresses.

And with FlexPay, you can divvy any of your purchases up over several payments, too. Easy.

Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer

Now, should we talk about this easy salmon supper situation? Let’s do it.

15-Minute Meal Idea: Mustard and Brown Sugar-Glazed Air Fryer Salmon + Crispy Sweet Potatoes

I wish I could take full credit for it, but I followed this recipe as written for the mustard and brown sugar-glazed Air Fryer Salmon — it’s just a handful of ingredients, but so, so flavorful. And the crispy, roasted sweet potatoes air fried right alongside the salmon so everything was done in 15 minutes. (I just tossed about 1.5 lbs of cubed sweet potatoes with a glug of olive oil and salt + pepper and used the air fry function at 400F for 15 mins, shaking the basket every 5 mins.)

Both dishes would have easily taken twice as long (if not longer) in a conventional oven. And because there’s no preheat time, dinner can literally go from fridge to table in minutes. I’m seriously impressed.

Shop All My Picks from HSN.com

Oh, and in case you need the rundown of everything that caught my eye during that late-night nursing session, here’s what’s currently hanging out in my cart. (Unless, of course, I was so groggy that I checked out without realizing it. Not saying it’s happened before, but, uhhhh, not saying it’s…not.)

Can’t you just picture it? Me in a summer dress, baby on my hip, huaraches on my feet, AIR FRYING ALL THE THINGS.
This is the life, friends.

xo,
Em

Thanks to HSN and ShopStyle Collective for sponsoring this post. It was too fun learning that I do, in fact, need an air fryer — as much as I hated to admit it. And I loved getting to know the ins and out of shopping HSN.com — there are truly SO many great products to be found. And, of course, thanks for hanging out and supporting our brand partners here at The Mom Edit. It’s so appreciated!

Friends! Follow me on Instagram for accessible, easily adaptable recipes; sneak peeks of The Mom Edit content (and sales!); and more snippets of our life on the Northern California coast. And if you feel so inclined, pop over to my personal food + lifestyle blog, The Pig & Quill, where I share salty scribblings from my kitchen and home life. Byeeeeee!