Kelly Brown Says: Review & Giveaway | T-fal ActiFry: Healthy Deep Frying alternative

I'm always searching for ways to improve what we eat here at home. A lot of people have the misconception that healthy eating is just a lot of boring salads and weird foods that you can't buy in a normal grocery store. Well, that is certainly not the case in this house! I keep it interesting by trying all sorts of new recipes. But one thing my husband and I both miss is the occasional fried foods. We do our best to avoid deep-fried foods. Deep-frying can double or triple the number of calories and/or fat in its baked equivalent. And did you know that eating deep-fried foods significantly increases your chances of developing certain cancers? EEK! In light of that information, we've swapped out my husband beloved mini deep-fryer with the new T-fal ActiFry.

So I know what you might be thinking: "Frying is frying. How much healthier can the Actifry be?". Well how does one billion percent healthier sound? I KNOW RIGHT? THAT'S AWESOME.

Okay, that's not a real statistic but what I do know is if I were to make french fries in a traditional mini deep-fryer, I'd be using anywhere from 4-6 cups of oil to submerge the food. In the Actifry, all I need is one of these:

That's one tablespoon of oil needed to make 4 servings of french fries. If you were to eat a large french fry from McDonalds (and we know you are getting the large), you'd be consuming 25 grams of fat. The recommended daily average fat intake, based on a 2,000 calorie diet is 44-78 grams a day. If you are shooting for the low end of that spectrum, you've practically blown it for the rest of the day! But if you were to slice your own potatoes and cook them up with the Actifry, you'd only be consuming about 3 grams of fat!

If you can trim the fat on a treat like french fries, imagine what else you can do! The Actifry is incredibly versatile. We've made stir-fry, Sesame beef and brocolli (with egg rolls, all in the Actifry!), meatballs, garlic parmesan green beans, and I made some apple cinnamon wedges for Christian and Izzy that would also have been amazing in a pie.

The Actifry uses pulsating heat technology - which, honestly I have no idea what that is. But what I do know is that I don't need to buy oil by the gallon to use it and even better, there is no crazy splatter (in fact, there is no splatter at all!). All I have to do is insert the ingredients into the non-stick pan, add the oil, close the transparent, steam-free lid, set timer, hit the on button and walk away. The Actifry does all the work for me with it automatic stirring paddle. Izzy got a huge kick out of watching the food spin around and around inside and waiting for the beep. And just so you don't feel like you are missing out on the decadent deep-fried experience, the ActiFry still puts off that yummy deep-frying smell...except you won't be smelling it in your kitchen curtains a week later like you would with a traditional deep-fryer.

The thing I love most about the ActiFry is the easy clean up. Every part (excluding the base) is dishwasher safe. Everything from the spoon to the lid easily comes off and can be thrown into the dishwasher.

I've cleaned up my husband's deep-fryer on many, many, many occasions and I always have to pre-clean it before putting the few parts that fit into the dishwasher. There is no pre-cleaning with the Actifry and every part fit neatly into the dishwasher with room to spare.