AIR FRYER FRIDAY - YouTube Fried Chicken

This week, I want to share a recipe from Youtube that I tried. Booger500us tried a recipe from another YouTuber. I will leave her video down below.  I'm also sharing a video I found after writing this post: check it out here:

First off, I didn't delineate from the original recipe except for two things. I left out a lot of the spices - using only Seasoning Salt, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder and a dash of Black Pepper. While Bob loves KFC Original Recipe, he is not a 'spice' fan.  The other thing is that instead of the traditional pot styled air fryer, I used my Emeril 360.

When it comes to 'air frying' in the Emeril, I've not been happy. That said, I'm not giving up. I'll keep playing.

I rolled, I dipped and I spritzed with non-stick spray for moisture.  As you'll see in one of the pictures below, I still had flour residue that didn't 'fry'.

Air Fryer basket. Note the flour spots still visible

don't let the color fool you. The skin never did get 'crisp'

From the baking sheet on BAKE. 

This is after we'd removed the pieces from the pan so you'r seeing the side that was down. Still almost soggy.

You can tell the difference from the pieces to the left/ bottom that came from the air fryer basket

and the ones more on top/ left from the baking sheet.

The other thing I wasn't happy with is the overall texture. 

The legs were tough. They were cooked through and reached a temp of 165* but I couldn't pull most of the meat from the bone with my fingers.  I fought my way through one, ate way too many carbs (and my sugar number showed the result the next morinng)

I'm planning to toss the rest into a pan with some low-carb BBQ sauce and that will be my Air Fryer Friday post on March 27th.  I'll be using the slow cooker setting. 

In the mean time, I'm going to be looking at some of the recipes I get in my email from Emeril and see what happens in April. 

Do you have an Emeril Oven? What's been your experience?  Please share you stories in the comments below. 

Enjoy the Journey!

WEIGH - IN

185/180/135

The culprit this week was PASTA. Bob wanted something different to eat yesterday while we were out for a day of shopping and relaxing so we went to Fazoli's. Pasta is one thing I can eat and we'd never been there before so thought we'd give it a shot.

OMG! The food is fantastic! And I didn't go overboard. I think it's just the fact that I ate carbs the day before weigh in.

We both thought the best way to experience their menu was to have the Sampler.

                                                 

840 Calories

The meal came with six breadsticks. I ate one and I didn't eat the spaghetti. too hard to keep the strands from creeping up under my bottom denture.

After walking lunch off at a local strip mall then Menards, I determined I needed protein... and here I believe lies the damage. 

Original Recipe KFC chicken on the buffet. I ate 2 legs and 2 thighs.

Green beans and potato salad.

And topped the meal off with an unsweet tea then something I don't drink much of anymore...

A Pepsi for the road. Some days I just want carbonation.

Today we're eating out at a local Kings Garden buffet then I'll be cooking at home the rest of the week.

I'm also keeping better track of my steps so that I can give a weekly up-date on Fridays.

Whatver you do, Wherever you go...

Enjoy the Journey!

Still on the Journey

It's been a really busy few weeks. The good news is, I'm still hanging in. Bob got off the boat and a week later we took a 3-day vacation. Well, you know what happens on vacation. Typically you eat all the foods you shouldn't, don't pay any attention to the calories and gain all your weight back. Such was not the case with us.

Bob and I were diligent about ordering off menus. Although we couldn't stick exactly to calorie counts like we would at home (mostly because Bob does NOT do vegies - for the most part) and because we did want little treats. It was vacation after all.

I don't know what Bob did, but I only gained 1 pound while we were gone. But somehow managed to add another one after we got back! Not sure how that happened at all.

I've not weighed in at the BL challenge for the past 2 weeks so I need to do that on Friday. I am determined to get back to at least the base line of 177 by weigh in on Friday. Then I can really push through the final four weeks.

One thing we have been doing is really looking at the nutrition information on the websites of places we used to eat out all the time. Things we thought were 'safe' are far from it! Example, I ate at KFC last week. Just dying for some fried chicken. I know.. not a good thing. But I thought I was doing okay by only ordering the 2 piece and a side. I got a chicken and thigh with green beans and didn't eat the biscuit. As it turns out, what I thought was a safety (our KFC doesn't offer the grilled options by the way) turned out relatively lethal. Not deadly, but not the safety I thought it was going to be.

1 Original Recipe leg - 120 cal.

1 Original Recipe thigh - 250 cal.

1 ser. Green Beans - 25 cal.

1/2 a small Pepsi - 90 cal.

485 isn't bad if you're going to count it as your major meal for the day but I still had dinner to do later in the day.

My tip for the day, make use of the nutrition information provided. There are books out there that carry the calorie count of all our favorite fast food places so we can be making smart choices.

Next time I get a KFC craving, I'll get an extra helping of green beans, pass on the pepsi and go for the unsweet tea instead.

Wherever you choose to eat along the way....

Enjoy the journey!