TV entertainer Jimmy Rees spent a decade putting Aussie kids to bed with ABC Kids show Giggle and Hoot. Now, when the comedian isn’t busy creating viral social media videos, he’s got his hands full with bed and bath time of his three kids, five-year-old, Lenny and one-year-old twin boys, Mack and Vinny, shared with wife Tori.
We spoke to Jimmy Rees about his top tips and tricks when it comes to family life, especially in the kitchen.
Veggies on a pizza
Our kiddos can be pretty fussy with their food intake at times. Torza and I are always looking for new ideas to hide veggies in their meals and one stand out family favourite has been homemade pizzas. We make the tomato pizza sauce and hide lots of blended veggies (carrot, zucchini, spinach) and have a do-it-yourself approach to their pizzas. We put them straight into our AirFry Oven and they are cooked beautifully within minutes – a Rees household favourite!
Think outside the box
We don’t really use the air fryer for ‘fried’ things. We always cook our veggies, meat and even boiled eggs in there – it’s life changing. When I’m cooking a roast, I lightly drizzle a very small amount of oil and some yummy herbs and spices on the veggies, season the pork and lay them flat on the air frying tray. Check out my Roast Pork with Pumpkin recipe.
And the one thing we cook almost every day in our AirFry oven is boiled eggs. We have them for breakfast, sometimes on salads, often as a side to dinner – you have never seen a more perfect boiled egg in such a short time.
Swap ready-made for make-your-own
Rather than getting ready-made donuts, we have been making our own homemade Berry-licious Donuts for the kiddos’ dessert. Without using all the oil that a typical deep fryer uses, our donuts come out of the AirFry oven crisp and golden and delicious.
Go big or go home
A complaint I hear a lot about bench top air fryers is that there just isn’t enough space to cook for a whole family. That’s where you’ve got to get yourself an AirFry Oven. There’s ample space to put an entire meal in there, like Lamb Skewers with Pita Bread, for a big family feast in half the cooking time.
Invest in kids-friendly cooking utensils
We have a kiddie cooking tool kit that we often get out to practise our chopping to get everyone involved. Another thing that my eldest Lenny loves to cook is damper. We mix it together and put it in the Westinghouse AirFry oven and watch as it expands before his eyes. We even sometimes pretend we are outside camping eating our damper, but it’s much easier to cook in an air fryer than the campfire. Ha!
