Make healthy and delicious dinners faster than ever
Between work, school, and extra-curricular activities, it’s harder than ever for working Canadian families to prepare quick, nutritious meals. While parents know how important it is to serve healthy meals, they have less time than ever before.
When designing the new ActiFry Express, T-fal knew that time-constrained families often opt for takeout or the drive-thru, a contributing factor to Canada’s troubling obesity rate. The convenience and innovation of the ActiFry Express allows families to prepare the meals they love at home in a healthier way, without sacrificing flavour.
T-fal asked Canadian bloggers, Natalie Telfer and Catherine Belnap from Social Common and Catriona from Coco&Cowe, to put an ActiFry to the test and see if they could prepare a healthier version of a family-friendly meal.
“As moms, one of our main jobs is to keep our kids alive, which means it’s our responsibility to feed them,” say Natalie and Catherine. ‘It seems simple enough, but let us tell you, it’s not.”
“It doesn’t just involve putting food into our kids’ mouths; there are roughly twenty-seven steps to mealtime and only the basics are prep, cook, serve, eat, and clean-up. In addition to the typical routine, we often have to answer a thousand questions, break up arguments, fix things, change diapers and/or wipe bums, read and sign forms for school, help with homework, watch our kids do something so they stop asking us to watch them do something…the list goes on.”
“Thank goodness we tried the ActiFry. It allows us to continue making the meals our families love (wings, French fries, chicken nuggets, sea food, and stir-fries) without the excess fat and calories. Talk about a win-win situation!”
Now families can make healthier meals they’re kids will love to eat, in a fraction of the time.
The ActiFry Express “cuts cooking time,” say Catherine and Natalie, ”allowing us to get those kids fed faster. It also offers the largest cooking capacity on the market [1kg and 1.5kg], which makes it even easier to prepare healthy meals without having to cook in batches.”
“What’s even better is the lack of monitoring required, because moms have more important things (or people) to monitor. We used our ActiFry the other night and all we had to do was throw in the ingredients, set the time and press start. There was no need to stand over the food to stir or shake the contents manually. Although, we did stand over the machine to watch the little stirring paddle spin the food round and round. We were mesmerized by this magical meal maker!”
“Lucky for us,” say Natalie and Catherine, “the clean-up is just as easy as the meal prep. The ActiFry Express’ lid, stirring paddle, and bowl are all removable and dishwasher safe. We’re so thankful for that, because who has time to wash dishes by hand?”
Herb & Garlic Soy Chicken
“T-fal’s ActiFry Express is our super simple dinner solution,” say Natalie and Catherine. “It’s safe, quick and easy to use and it creates some delicious, healthy meals.”
| Nutrition per serving: | Nutrition per serving traditional preparation*: |
| 422 calories | 502 calories |
| 12 g total fat | 21 g total fat |
| 27 g carbs | 27 g carbs |
| 54 g protein | 54 g protein |
| *prepared in a skillet or wok with 1 tbsp olive oil. |
ACTIFRY ADVANTAGE:
Prepared in the traditional manner requires much more oil to coat the pan increasing the total fat and calories per serving.
Find the full recipe and additional photos at The Social Common.
Founder of the blog Coco&Cowe, Catriona, tried the ActiFry because she’d never really mastered deep-friend foods. “It’s no secret that I love to cook but one thing I haven’t mastered (or really even tried) is the deep fry. Maybe because it looks a bit intimidating or maybe because I’m forever watching my weight, but whatever the case, deep frying is something I’ve really avoided,” says Catriona.
“Being that I love gadgets and the hottest new thing on the market, when I heard about ActiFry, I knew I had to try it. Yep, using the ActiFry you can achieve delicious, crispy, flavorful foods using only a tablespoon of oil,” says Catriona.
“To test out this claim I decided to make two things that not only I love, but that my picky-eating-daughter actually eats! I made Rosemary Parmesan fries and chicken fingers using recipes I found on T-fal’s website. Though I tweaked the recipes a tad (what aspiring chef doesn’t), the food was delicious, full of flavor and so easy to make,” Catriona says.
Chicken Nuggets Pendleton and Parmesan Fries
“To make the chicken nuggets kid-friendly I didn’t add paprika and added only one teaspoon of poultry seasoning and because of my picky eater’s request, made fingers instead of nuggets,” says Catriona.
| Nutrition per serving (1/4 batch nuggets): | Nutrition per serving traditional method* (1/4 batch nuggets): |
| 311 calories | 356 calories |
| 14 g total fat | 19 g total fat |
| 12 g carbs | 12 g carbs |
| 32 g protein | 32 g protein |
| *deep-fried in vegetable oil, estimated values based on weight of breaded chicken nuggets at 10% fat absorbed |
ACTIFRY ADVANTAGE:
Preparing these nuggets in the ActiFry saves 5 grams of fat and 45 calories per serving.
Parmesan Fries
“These recipes are totally good for adults too – when I tested them I swear I couldn’t stop eating the fries! So addictive,” says Catriona.
| Nutrition per serving (1/2 batch fries with 1 tbsp Parmesan): | Nutrition per serving traditional method* (1/2 batch fries with 1 tbsp Parmesan): |
| 381 calories | 578 calories |
| 9 g total fat | 32 g total fat |
| 64 g carbs | 64 g carbs |
| 10 g protein | 10 g protein |
| *deep-fried in vegetable oil, estimated values based on weight of potatoes at 10% fat absorbed |
ACTIFRY ADVANTAGE:
Preparing these chips in the ActiFry saves 23 grams of fat and almost 200 calories per serving.
Find the full recipe and additional photos at Coco&Cowe.
Click here more healthy and delicious T-fal ActiFry recipes.