How I Make Frozen Treats Using My Vitamix Blender

How I Make Frozen Treats Using My Vitamix Blender

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If your kitchen counter is currently housing a Vitamix blender, you know that you can whip up some serious soups, sauces, and nut butters in that thing. In fact, my Vitamix's hot soup function is one of my favorite ways to use it. But it is almost summer, and I am no longer in the mood for soup. Now I crave chilled treats. Can my favorite blender, the Vitamix Ascent X5 go from hot soup to sorbet? Yes, and surprisingly well. Here’s how to make yourself a frozen dessert in this amazing blender.

The Vitamix is not an ice cream machine

It’s important to note that the Vitamix is a blender, and not an ice cream machine. Most ice cream machines have some sort of cooling mechanism (whether coolant, a compressor, or a frozen bowl) to chill the mixture while a dasher or auger incorporates air—the smaller the air bubbles, the creamier the texture. 

The Vitamix doesn’t have a cooling system. The blades create heat, so instead it uses them, and speed, to its advantage. This means you need to work in reverse—add already frozen food to the blender and it will whip air into the mixture as it chops up the ingredients. Then all you have to do is freeze the resulting soft-serve texture into a more solid state. 

As much as I enjoy a specialty appliance like the Ninja Slushi (it’s pretty badass), the multipurpose Vitamix Ascent X5 blender truly caters to my tiny kitchen's space limitations. I need to do a lot of different things with a select few appliances, and the Vitamix's frozen dessert capabilities add a whole new category to my home menus. (While the Ascent X5 makes things easier, you can use any Vitamix—I'll add those instructions at the end of this article.)

How to use the frozen dessert function on the Vitamix Ascent X5 

1. Consider the ingredients

The most important thing to consider is the ratio of your frozen to liquid ingredients. Since this blender doesn’t have a cooling system to make frozen desserts, you need to add the coldest stuff you can, while still providing enough liquid to move the frozen stuff around so the blades can catch it. 

A Vitamix blender container with bananas, vegan cream, and peanut butter.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

The Vitamix website gives the guideline of 1 cup frozen to ¼ cup liquid. This amount of liquid, along with some vigorous tamping with the plastic tamper bat, will result in a thick, soft serve-like consistency that you can enjoy immediately, or freeze to a more solid, ice cream-like state. To experiment, I used two cups of frozen banana slices, and a half-cup of a sweetened vegan cream. (Forgive me, but I have a lactose intolerant Italian-American partner who would be furious if I used regular heavy cream.) Add everything to the blender container and secure the lid. 

2. Pick your preset

Turn the power on. Press the three line “burger” button and you’ll see an array of food icons appear on the digital display. Use the rotating dial to select the one that looks like a tall stemmed glass with a pompadour and a little spoon handle. 

A person selecting a preset on the vitamix blender base.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

Have your plastic tamper ready—this part only takes 50 seconds.

3. Blend and tamp

Press the start button. Take out the lid’s central plug and start tamping the ingredients with the tamper. The machine will start at a slower speed and ramp up pretty quickly. Your only job is to force frozen objects down into the blender blades. Once they all finally disappear into the mixture you can end your tamping session.

4. Look for the “quadrants”

Remember when I mentioned making hot soup in this thing? Well, the reason the soup gets hot is because of the heat that builds from the friction of blades running at high speeds. You want that heat to happen as little as possible for your frozen dessert. This setting only runs for 50 seconds but if you see four humps, or quadrants, forming in the mix, then that’s the tell-tale sign that your dessert is completely smooth and finished blending. It should look like this:

The inside of the vitamix while blending a frozen dessert.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

Once you see the quadrants, stop the preset, even if there’s time left. My mixture was finished after 40 seconds, so I stopped the machine and worked quickly to decant it into a metal loaf pan that I had chilled in the freezer earlier. I sprinkled some chopped chocolate on top and popped it into the freezer for a couple hours to set. 

A metal ice cream scoop in ice cream.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

Not only does this frozen dessert scoop like a dream, but the texture and flavor are incredible. While it's technically not true ice cream, it eats like ice cream. I was afraid after freezing it solid that it would be rock solid, but no—the mixture is nicely aerated and the consistency is creamy and smooth.

How to use a Vitamix without a cold treat preset

If you don’t have the Ascent X 5 model, you can still use any Vitamix blender the same way, you just have to control the speed with the dial yourself. Start on a low speed so the blades can catch the ingredients and then ramp up to the top speed within the next 10 to 15 seconds. Look for the same quadrants to form, and then turn off the blender. Get ready to spend the summer exploring any frozen dessert flavor combination you can dream up.



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What People Are Getting Wrong This Week: Fake Police Bodycam Videos

What People Are Getting Wrong This Week: Fake Police Bodycam Videos

Another week, another "gotcha" video debunked. This time it's "Cop Pulls Over Black Judge and Lives To Regret It," a piece of pseudo-documentary street drama that's been viewed millions of times on YouTube and TikTok (and elsewhere, I'm sure). The video is part of a growing online video genre based on documenting cops' confrontations with public, either through police-worn body camera footage or citizen-filmed footage. Some of these videos are real, but many of them are not.

Here's the "Cop Pulls Over Judge" video:

The tells: bad improv in a Florida parking lot

If you have a smidge of media literacy, it's easy to spot this as fake.

  • The acting is sub-community-theater level.

  • The improved dialogue is laughably on the nose.

  • I'm pretty sure judges don't wear judicial robes when they're running errands.

  • The taillight the cop supposedly broke is intact at the end of the video

That's just the surface. If you dive deeper, you'll learn that the watermark for the bodycam isn't right and there is no city of Sunny Springs in Florida.

The rage-bait cinematic universe: Who even makes these videos?

The description of the channel the judge video comes from, bodycam declassified, reads, "In our channel, we bring you real, unfiltered bodycam footage, offering insight into real-world situations. In some cases, we may reenact some elements to clarify key aspects of certain encounters."

I can't find any video on this channel that features real footage; Cop Slaps Arrogant Prince in Ferrari and Gets Suspended, Black Female Lawyer Vs Arrogant Cop, and the rest of these videos are fake, unless all these encounters happened in the same building's parking lot.

Looking a little deeper into YouTube revealed a ton of these rage-bait vids, from different creators, with different stories. We got cops pulling over FBI agents, cops harassing people for taking their shoes off in the park, and my personal favorite: Dumb Cop Mess with the wrong FBI agent On Plane. Watch this and try not to laugh:

I actually like the earnestness of the creators of this video. It reminds me of the delusional incompetence of b-movie king Ed Wood: God bless them, they tried. But that is so not an airplane cabin. And that is so not a stewardess uniform. That is so not an FBI agent. And that is so not how people talk to each other on Planet Earth. The same fake plane was used in this video, too.

The "Cop vs. Judge" video is basically a reboot of a real video of Florida police pulling over Aramis Ayala, Florida’s first elected state attorney, for no reason. Comparing them makes it obvious what real body-cam footage looks like, compared to fake, but also highlights why people are drawn to the ersatz over the genuine. We don't get to see what happens to the real cop beyond momentary embarrassment. (Spoiler: nothing.)

Why are these fakes so successful?

I've been digging into the sub-genre of fake confrontation videos, and they seem, like the fake political confrontation videos I posted about last week, to point to a collective desire for Justice. Cops are often bastards, and we want to see them face consequences when they do wrong, so there are a lot of popular channels devoted to videos depicting just that. (Thanks for all the free, body-cam-based entertainment, Police of America!) But real police confrontations are generally murkier than the fakes (maybe the cops shouldn't have manhandled this guy but dude seems drunk to me), and even when the cops are clearly wrong, any "conclusion" to these stories takes years of legal wrangling. The fakes, though? Instant justice!

Why people believe in fake cop videos

The successful formula for these videos is a cop pulling someone over who is "higher" in the Justice hierarchy than a street cop. That way the offending party can face instant karma, instead of their comeuppance coming years later, in a legal filing no one will read. We want a thuggish cop to be owned by a judge in full gown while we watch. We want to see the good guys win, now, and if it's not going to really happen, we'll pull the wool over our own eyes. Real justice usually isn't exciting, it's a slog through layers of moral relativism and triple-filed paperwork, but fake justice hits hard. The biggest giveaway that these videos are fake isn’t the bad dialogue or the dodgy production design, it’s how true they feel.

(Also: the stewardess uniform.)



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Use This Redditor's Trick to Move and Store Your Adjustable Dumbbells

Use This Redditor's Trick to Move and Store Your Adjustable Dumbbells

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Adjustable dumbbells are incredible space-savers compared to full dumbbell sets, but still, they're heavy and awkward to reposition. And look, I get it—the point of weights is to lift them, right? When testing and reviewing dumbbells like the Nüobells or REP Quickdraws, I quickly discovered that the genius of adjustable dumbbells is exactly what makes them so hard to lug around: In order to adjust from 5 to 80 pounds, they end up weighing, you know, at least 80 pounds. And not every dumbbell user has built up to that strength yet.

You can buy a specialized dumbbells storage cart, but that'll run you anywhere from $112 to $350 to even $595. Enter this hack from the home gym enthusiasts of Reddit (specifically, Redditor stalechocmuffin): Use a miniature furniture dolly to roll your weights around.

How to move and store your adjustable dumbbells

Sure, you can drag and shove your adjustable dumbbells around in their cradles, but that sort of rough handling isn't ideal. A mini furniture dolly provides a quick, easy transition between exercises or storage positions. Plus, you'll be protecting both your dumbbells and your flooring. And if you're like me, it's stressful to drag 80 pounds around the tiny apartment you rent for way too much money. Even if I'm not worried about scratching my floors, lifting too heavy increases risk of injury.

  1. To make the most of this dolly hack, here are some tips to keep in mind:

  2. Place one dolly under each dumbbell stand for independent movement.

  3. Consider securing the dumbbells to the dolly with removable hook-and-loop straps if you have children or pets.

  4. Add rubber matting between the dolly and dumbbell base for extra protection and stability.

  5. Store against a wall when not in use to maximize floor space.

The key to this hack working effectively is using the right-sized dolly. Standard furniture dollies are too large, but here are some options that should fit adjustable dumbbell bases perfectly:

Ironton Carpeted Mover's Dolly ($22.99)

  • 18" x 12" platform

  • 1,000 lb capacity (far more than needed, but ensures stability)

  • Carpeted surface provides cushioning

Heavy Duty Furniture Dolly ($24.99)

  • 16.3" x 11" platform

  • 500 lb capacity

  • 360-degree rotating caster wheels

Global Industrial Hardwood Dolly ($65.06)

  • 24" x 16" platform

  • 1,000 lb capacity

  • Solid deck for extra stability

Compared to a storage unit that costs hundreds of dollars, a mini dolly is the obvious choice to move your dumbbells around your home. You can make your workout flow more smoothly while protecting both your investment and your home.



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These Older Fitness Watches Are the Best Value Garmins, and They’re Always on Sale

These Older Fitness Watches Are the Best Value Garmins, and They’re Always on Sale

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If you're looking for a Garmin watch at a great price, the recent drops of the Forerunner 570 and 970 is excellent news—not because you should pick up those models (they're fine, I guess) but because the older generations of Forerunner, which remain excellent watches, are now going for ludicrously low prices.

The previous models, the 265 and 965, are great, but you can go back one more generation to the 255 and 955—released in 2022—and save hundreds of dollars without sacrificing any major functionality. I truly can't think of any fitness watch that is a better deal right now, given the prices we're seeing on these two: currently $247 for the Forerunner 255, and $373 for the Forerunner 955, which is the upgraded version with maps and a few extra training features.

Why am I recommending three-year-old watches? I'll get into the specs below, but the important context here is that Garmin's Forerunners have serious longevity. Running app Strava releases year-end trend reports that consistently show older Forerunners among the nation's and the world's most popular running watches. The most recent report, for example, had the Garmin Forerunner 245 in third place, after the Apple Watch and Apple Watch SE. That's a five-year-old watch. Not long ago, the Forerunner 235, then an eight-year-old watch, was the most popular worldwide. These things last!

What the 255 and 955 are missing compared to newer models (not much)

Forerunners 265S and 255
Left: 265S (the smaller, newer model). Right: 255 (the larger one with the MIP screen that's currently on sale). Credit: Beth Skwarecki

The numbered models can get confusing, but I promise you’ll be able to follow along. All the watches that start with a 9 are the top-of-the-line Forerunners (the 955 was replaced by the 965 and most recently the 970) and most of those came with a little sibling that starts with a 2 (respectively: the 255, 265, and in a break from tradition, 570).

The 9xx series have onboard maps that let you see exactly where you are and where you're going. The 2xx watches have breadcrumb navigation that shows you the general shape of the route you've already taken. If you need a map on your wrist, you probably want to go for a 9xx.

I wrote about the newest models here, so you can see what the 970 has over the 965 (and what the 570 has over the 265). The big feature is that the 570 and 970 support voice calling and voice texts, and the 970 has a built-in LED flashlight. If those features aren't must-haves for you, take a look at the next generation back.

The 265 and 965 are excellent watches with important functionality, like dual-band GPS. you can read my review of the 265 here:, and note that the 265 is my own personal running watch, the one that I bought with my own money because I love it. The 265 has a ton of great features for runners. Some are concrete and functional: physical buttons, lots of options for data screens, and a dual-band GPS for extra location accuracy. Others are more software-y but still arguably useful: training status, daily suggested workouts. The battery also lasts between one and two weeks, depending on how many workouts you do. 

The 965 has all that, plus onboard maps, so you can see where you are relative to roads, bodies of water, and so on. It's also got a few extra training statistics, like an endurance score and a heat acclimation score.

The 255 and 955 have all of these same features. The only features that are meaningfully different between the x55 and x65 series are:

  • The 255/955 have the older, always-on MIP screen, while the 265 has a smartphone-style AMOLED screen. I have more here on the difference between those screen types.

  • The 255/955 don't have touchscreens. You’ll use the UP and DOWN buttons on the left side to scroll through options. 

  • The 255 can’t store music, unless you buy the 255 Music version. The 955 has music storage built in, just like the 265 and 965 do.

  • The 255 doesn’t have Training Readiness, but it does have Training Status. (Personally, I never use Training Readiness, so this isn’t much of a loss. You can always look at your HRV trend, which the watch also reports, if you want a sense of how recovered you are each morning.) The 955, 265, and 965 all have Training Readiness.

For the detailed list of every minor feature that’s different between the two, you can check out this comparison page on Garmin’s site

Which Forerunner 255 version you should get

There is only one Forerunner 955, but there are four versions of the 255, and two versions of the 265.

  • The regular Forerunner 255 is the larger size (45.6 mm) and does not have music storage. 

  • The Forerunner 255S is the smaller size (41 mm) and also does not have music storage.

  • The Forerunner 255 Music is the larger size (45.6 mm) and does have music storage, so you can play tunes from the watch while leaving your phone at home.

  • The Forerunner 255S Music is the smaller size (41 mm) with music storage.  

Personally, I always have my phone with me when I run, so I’ve never found the standalone music feature very helpful. If you think you might use it, though, it’s normally a $50 upgrade, but currently only a $20 upgrade on the larger size of the watch.

To help you decide, the photo above shows the difference in screens between the AMOLED 265S (left) and MIP 255 (right). It also shows the size difference between the smaller and larger models; the 265S on the left is 41.7 mm, very close to the 255S at 41 mm.

How old is the 255, anyway? 

The 255 is only one year older than the 265. They were released in 2022 and 2023, respectively. Before that, Forerunner releases tended to be three to four years apart. The quick turnaround between the 255 and 265 makes sense when you realize they’re basically the same watch with a different display.

So I wouldn’t expect a 255 to feel outdated anytime soon. The main question you need to ask yourself is: How do I feel about a MIP screen? I’ve written more about the difference between MIP and AMOLED here. MIP screens don’t light up, although they have a backlight that can come on automatically when you raise your wrist. At rest, they are “always on,” in the sense that they’re always displaying something, so you’ll never look down at a blank screen. They’re also brightly reflective in sunlight. 

AMOLED screens are more like a smartphone screen, with glowing pixels, and watches typically turn off the display when you’re not using it to save energy. (You can enable an always-on setting, but it eats battery.) That said, the overall battery life on both watches is similar on default settings—14 days not counting activities for the 255, and 13 days for the 265. 

Some people prefer the MIP screens, and if that includes you, this is a no-brainer: snag the 255 or 955. You can even get a refurbished version for $179.99, which makes this one of the cheapest Garmin watches in any line. 

The bottom line (check prices)

Prices on Forerunners have been fluctuating lately, so I'm hesitant to give any dollar-for-dollar comparisons, but here's what I'm seeing at the moment I write this. Officially, Garmin is selling the 255 and 265 for the same price, $349.99. The 955 and 965 are going for the same price, $499.99. At those prices, you might as well get the -65 version of whichever watch you prefer.

But over on Amazon, I'm seeing prices as low as $247 for the 255 and $373 for the 955. That means a 255 is the same price as the anemic Forerunner 165 (it's OK as a budget watch, but it's missing a lot of features that the 255/265 have) and the 955 is the same price as a 265! Check prices to see if these deals are still live by the time you read this, and ultimately decide based on features.



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You Should Be 'Stacking' Your Peloton Classes

You Should Be 'Stacking' Your Peloton Classes

I am a huge fan of Peloton's various at-home workout offerings, especially the company's classic Bike and its incredibly versatile mobile app. Both of those offer me a gigantic archive of on-demand classes as well as access to live ones, all of which come in various lengths, intensity levels, and structures.

Because I am an iPad baby in an adult's body, I can get bored pretty easily when I do any one thing for too long, so I rely on the 10- and 15-minute classes to spice up my life and keep me engaged. On days when I have enough time, I like to take these back-to-back—especially because Peloton offers warm-up and cool-down rides in the 10-minute length—but it's always thrown me off my rhythm to stop one class, spend time looking for another, and then start that one up. This week, I discovered a feature I've somehow overlooked and it solves this problem handily: stacked classes.

What are stacked classes?

Think of Peloton's stacked classes as a playlist. Just like you might pre-plan your perfect music playlist before heading to the gym, you can create a playlist of classes using Peloton's app, which is accessible on your phone or the touchscreen tablet of your Bike, Bike+, or Tread. (Unfortunately you can't stack classes on streaming devices like the Roku or on the Peloton Row.)

The goal here is to create the full workout upfront so you avoid the decision paralysis that accompanies having to choose each class right before it starts. When you've just finished a 15-minute ride and are looking for one of Peloton's "extra 10" rides or post-ride stretches, it can pull you out of the zone to have to sort through the hundreds of options available. If you add them to your stack, however, they're queued up and ready to go. They just play one after the other.

Here are some things to keep in mind before you build your first stack:

  • You can stack any combination of cycling, running, strength, yoga, meditation, and stretching classes as well as Lanebreak game levels and scenic rides or runs. That means you can stretch, warm up, complete a run, cool down, and then finish with some yoga, if you'd like.

  • You can put together a series of strength classes for a full-body workout day.

  • Live classes can't be stacked, but once they hit the archive and become on-demand, they can be.

  • You can't put the same class in your stack twice and you can only have one stack active at a time, but it's easy to customize and modify. That leads me to...

How to create and modify your Peloton class stack

Creating the stack is really easy. Under the Start button for any class, you'll see an icon with two stacked rectangles and a plus sign that pretty clearly represents Stack. Tap that to add the class to your stack. Once you add all the classes that you want, find the Stack icon on the Home screen. You'll start the first class as normal and, when it finishes, will see a pop-up prompting you to enter the second one you've lined up.

It works basically the same on the mobile app. Once you create a stack, navigate to the home page and you'll see the stack icon—but instead of having a plus sign in the middle, it will have a rightward facing arrow to indicate "play."

When you tap that icon, you can then hit a big orange play button to start your queue from the beginning or tap the Modify button, which will allow you to edit the order of the stack or remove a class you added by accident, for example. Once you complete a class, it's removed from the stack automatically, so keep that in mind. If you want to take it again, you have to go back and re-add it.

Why I like this feature

I like this feature because, as I said, it keeps your head in the game. When working through a stack, I don't have to pause in between workouts. Instead, my heart rate stays up, I stay focused, and I don't have to think about what I want to do next. After each class in your stack is over, you're given the choice to keep going, so you can stop or make modifications if you want to, but you don't need to do anything but hit Play if you want to keep on.

I also appreciated that this worked so seamlessly. You can go from a ride to a stretch easily, which is pretty important for your safety and cooldown, but most Peloton cycling classes only feature a small stretch at the end with the expectation you'll load up a more involved stretching class after. I also appreciated that each class still counts individually toward the amount of workouts I've completed; I was worried that if I took classes back-to-back-to-back in a stack, they'd show up as one megaworkout in my Peloton account history or in my Apple Health data. I'm very particular about keeping my health data granular and accurate (and am trying to complete 28 cycling classes this month because that's the "May Challenge" my Apple Health app set for me) so this was important to me.

Finally, this keeps you motivated to complete a more well-rounded workout. It's easy to hop on the bike, sort by class length, and call it a day after taking a 10-minute ride. I won't lie: I do that sometimes! But even on days I only want to do 10 minutes, I know I should do more. The stacking feature makes it very easy to do that and gives you fewer opportunities to quit just because your class is over.



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12 Things I Cook in the Air Fryer When I Want to Save Time and Money

12 Things I Cook in the Air Fryer When I Want to Save Time and Money

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If you’ve finally purchased your first air fryer, let me start by saying how happy I am for you. I've been cooking and crisping with mine for a few years now, and during this time I've put a lot of things in that basket. Not everything has worked out (it's not an appliance for steaming, friends), but many of my experiments have been so delicious and reliably repeatable that they're now staples in my household.

Below are 12 of my favorites things to cook in the air fryer that either save me time, money, or both. (If you're still on the fence about whether to get an air fryer and you're reading this as research, allow me to recommend a few of my favorite air fryer models, and tell you why they might be the perfect fit for your kitchen. )

A giant crunchy potato

A crispy potato on a plate.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

Potatoes do particularly well in the air fryer. In fact, if you bought an air fryer solely for the purpose of reheating restaurant leftovers or to make freezer fries, no one would blame you. That’s smart. But don’t miss out on this, the king of air fried potatoes. It's a simple method of roughing up a russet potato so the starchy surface get golden and crispy in the air fryer. It is the best potato-crusted potato I've ever had. And it makes a great side dish for less than a dollar.

Store-bought doughnuts

I don't know exactly what I was thinking that day, but I put Entenmann's doughnuts into the air fryer and what came out was nothing short of a miracle. They changed from dusty and dry to crunchy and caramelized. While I prefer this texture off the bat, I think most folks can enjoy this hack as a way to revive their stale doughnuts after the box has been open for a few days.

Gnocchi and meatballs

You can make an entire well-rounded meal in one air frying session. Not to mention that there are even dual basket air fryers made exactly for this purpose. (Here's one of my favorite dual-basket air fryers.) One of my go-to examples is air fryer packaged gnocchi and frozen meatballs. They happen to cook at the same rate so you don't have to be fussy about different temperatures and fan modes. Just throw them into a 385℉ air fryer for about 10 minutes, and toss the tasty morsels in some warm tomato sauce for a lovely meal. 

Pork tenderloin

A weeknight roast usually has “long cook time” written all over it, but the air fryer can make short work out of a bulky cut of meat in no time. Pork tenderloin is one of my favorite roasts to make because it’s an affordable cut, is relatively small (compared to a ham or a chicken), and it takes no time to whip up in that countertop convection oven. Simply marinate it a few hours prior to cooking, drop it into a 350℉ air fryer and roast it for about 20 minutes. A juicy and impressive pork roast is ready in the time it takes you to change from “work clothes” to “chill clothes.”

Peppers

I adore roasted red peppers. They’re great in dips, tossed in salads, or blended into soups. Sadly, roasting them in the oven for 40 minutes, or blistering them over the flame of my gas stove was all a complete chore. Luckily, the air fryer cooks up tender roasted peppers in a fraction of the time. Throw an entire pepper or two into your air fryer basket, no need to add oil or anything, and air fry it for five to seven minutes. You’ll have perfectly blistered peppers ready to use. 

Egg rolled leftovers

Egg rolls on a plate.
Lasagna egg rolls. Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

One of my favorite ways to make leftovers fun again is to roll them up in egg roll wrappers. Almost any type of leftover dish is a delicious egg roll filling and you can get a deep-fried crunch with the air fryer. Just fill and roll the egg rolls and swipe a thin layer of oil onto the outside of the shell. Air fry them at 375℉ for 12 to 15 minutes.

Kielbasa and other sausages

I can’t say that hot dogs, kielbasa, and other sausages are difficult to make. The hard part is done for you, so you could boil them or even microwave them, but there's something to be said about air frying them. My partner and I have air fried both fridge-cold and near-frozen hot dogs, and they take about the same amount of time to warm up—roughly three minutes. Three. When making thicker sausages like air fryer kielbasa, I suggest making diagonal slices all around the sides and letting it get really brown and crispy in the air fryer for a solid 10 minutes.

Most of the freezer aisle

This is no revelation, but air frying freezer snacks is the biggest time saver when I need it the most. The freezer aisle of any grocery store is packed with premade meal pockets, frozen veggies, breakfasts, and desserts. Many of which are perfectly sized to cook well in a standard oven. Well an air fryer is like a miniature oven on steroids. All those delicious midnight snacks cooks faster in the air fryer—but now I don't have to wait 40 minutes. I can have my air fried fish sticks, mini pizzas, tater tots, jalepeño poppers, mozzarella sticks (honestly, any frozen TGIFridays item), garlic bread, or tiny White Castle burgers promptly at the stroke of 12. 

Canned mushrooms

My favorite air fryer snack lately is the mushroom chip. They’re full of umami and as crispy as a pork rind. You can make a bowl of this crunchy, salty snack with a simple can of mushrooms. Just drain them and toss with a light coating of oil. Air fry them for a few minutes at 390℉ until crisp and brown. 

Seafood

Lobster tail on a plate.
Credit: Claire Lower

Seafood cooks well in the air fryer too, and I don’t just mean breaded shrimp (but of course, breaded shrimp). I can air fry frozen shrimp to tender, seasoned perfection in just a handful of minutes. Air fry a lobster tail in under 10 minutes for a weeknight treat. My Instant Vortex air fryer is a beast when it comes to cooking these sea creatures. It happens so quickly they don’t have time to dry out. But be sure to set the timer and check on them early, because they’ll be finished before you know it. If you're looking for a great, reasonably priced, medium-sized air fryer, the Instant Vortex is one of my favorites. Read my full review here.

Soggy fried chicken

Technically, yes, soggy fried chicken can fit in the “leftover food” category, but it can also be a special case. If you’ve ever gotten takeaway or delivery from Popeye’s then you know some soggy fried chicken isn’t leftover or cold. It’s simply humid. Luckily the air fryer allows me to revive this nearly defeated chicken. Unwrap any disappointingly soft fried chicken (this includes sandwiches, just take the chicken out of the bun first) and drop it into the air fryer for five to ten minutes at 400℉. Your fried chicken will be better than ever. 

Meatloaf

Another low-cost, satisfying, comfort food main course is a meatloaf, and (surprise!) the air fryer has this on my plate in record time. I make sure to shape the meatloaf into a size that fits within the confines of my basket or oven-style air fryer. Set the air fryer to 375℉ and roast for about 10 minutes (flipping halfway), or until the internal temperature matches the doneness for the meat mixture you used. Say hello to dinner for four, in record time.



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The Best Deals on Fitness Equipment During Amazon’s Memorial Day Sale

The Best Deals on Fitness Equipment During Amazon’s Memorial Day Sale

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

If you're looking to upgrade your home gym or fitness gear without breaking the bank, look toward Amazon's Fitness Memorial Day sale. I know Memorial Day isn't for another week, but naturally, the retail giant is kicking off the festivities early.

Especially with summer right around the corner, now is the time to buy all the equipment you need to keep you motivated through the dog days. I know I've personally got my eye on massage guns and foam rollers to help me survive my upcoming marathon training. So, with Amazon's Memorial Day Sale is in full swing, I've done all the leg work for you using price-checking tools to bring you the best fitness deals you can find right now.

Cardio equipment

At-home cardio equipment feels like a major investment—not just in terms of space and money, but your lifestyle. I usually hate the treadmill, but when I'm training in peak summer heat, it's necessary. And if you're going to buy a treadmill, it's worth spending the money to get one that feels sturdy and safe. Right now the NordicTrack Commercial Treadmill is 20% off, bringing a true gym-quality machine (with interactive training features) into a far more affordable range.

For apartment dwellers like me, the classic Original Peloton Bike also marked down 20%, offering studio-quality cycling without sacrificing space. Pelotons are the most popular indoor exercise bike, but they're notoriously expensive and don't go on sale often. While they're still expensive, the discounts are historically good, down to $1,145 (originally $1,445).

Strength training essentials

I'm a huge advocate for adjustable dumbbells; a good set eliminates the need for 30-some individual dumbbell pairs. Right now the adjustable Bowflex SelectTech 552 dumbbells are seeing one of their deepest discounts of the year. After testing the Nüobells and REP adjustable dumbbells, the Bowflex are next on my list; their reputation is pretty much the gold standard in the adjustable dumbbell world.

The TRX All-in-One Suspension Training System is 25% off, perfect for bodyweight exercises that engage your entire core. Or if you're just looking for one addition to your home gym at just $20, this Vinsguir ab roller wheel is 40% off.

Massage guns and foam rollers

Don't neglect recovery in your fitness journey. The Bob and Brad D5 Pro Massage Gun is marked down by 30%, bringing you professional-grade percussion therapy at home. I'm personally a fan of this brand, if you're looking for alternatives to the (understandably) popular Theragun or Hypervolt at half the price.

The highly-rated Lifepro vibrating foam roller is 15% off, helping you roll out those post-workout kinks with added vibration technology for deeper muscle relief.

Fitness trackers

If you've been holding out on a new watch, now is a great time to finally snag some discounted wearable tech. Your classic Fitbit Charge 6 is available at 25% off.

And anytime you're looking for a good smartwatch, Garmin's name is bound to come up. Right now the Garmin Instinct 2 is discounted by 33%, and the Solar version is down 44%. What's extra cool about the solar version is its potentially unlimited battery life, and it comes with Garmin Pay and plenty of customizable watch faces.

Headphones and speakers

Finally, it's worth mentioning there are solid deals on earphones and speakers, which are always a must-have in some way when you're working out. The Beats Studio Pro are a whopping 50% off, down to $169.95. For anyone who wants spatial audio, Apple-first integrations, and a good-looking pair of over-ears that feel comfortable over long sessions, this is a good deal.

Also noteworthy: You can snag the AirPods Pro 2 at 24% off, and the JBL Go 4 portable (and waterproof!) speaker at 20% off.

Whether you're just starting your fitness journey or looking to fill gaps in your existing setup, now is a great time to take advantage of significant markdowns through the holiday weekend.



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I Used 'Cover Your Tracks' to See What's Following Me Online, and Yikes

I Used 'Cover Your Tracks' to See What's Following Me Online, and Yikes

The internet is not a private place. Every time you connect to a website, ads and beacons—both visible and invisible—attempt to follow your every move. They'll even take the anonymized information they collect and build a profile that other trackers can use to identify you as you surf the web. It's pretty bleak.

Luckily, modern browsers are fighting back. While there are certainly better options than others, most browsers have privacy protections built in. If you know what you're doing, you can max out these protections and install some third-party boosters to retain some (if not most) of your privacy across the internet.

If you're curious how your browser stacks up to the competition, check out Cover Your Tracks. I gave it a shot, and was surprised to find out that my super-private setup wasn't as anonymous as I thought.

What is Cover Your Tracks?

Cover Your Tracks is a project created by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a non-profit digital rights group, and aims to educate users on two key metrics: how unique their browser is, and how effective their tracker blockers are. The site pretends to load a series of trackers on your browser, and measures which trackers are actually able to load. If your protections are strong, more trackers will fail to load. If they're not, well, trackers galore.

The site will load fake trackers like the following:

  • https://trackersimulator.org/?action=tracking_tally&ad_url=123456

  • https://eviltracker.net/?action=tracking_tally&trackingserver=123456

  • https://do-not-tracker.org/?action=tracking_tally&random=123456

The first link acts like an ad you might encounter on any random website. If your browser blocks the "ad," it passes that test. The second link pretends to be an invisible beacon (or tracker). If you browser blocks the "beacon," it passes. Finally, the third link acts like a domain that respects the EFF's Do Not Track Policy. If your browser unblocks the domain's scripts, it passes. (Why unblock the scripts at all? According to the EFF, so few sites choose to voluntarily abstain from tracking visitors, that it's worth unblocking ads on these sites to reward them.) Partial credit is awarded to browsers that allow the ad or beacon to load, but block their respective cookies: Allowing the ad or tracker means you can be followed, but blocking cookies means the tracker likely can ID you.

Those trackers are only effective if they have a sense of the profile they're following. That's where browser uniqueness comes in: Cover Your Tracks takes a look at your browser fingerprint and compares it against its database of recently scanned browsers. It then generates a uniqueness score—the more unique your fingerprint, the more difficult it is to track you across sites. Cover Your Tracks anonymously collects and stores browser data like your timezone, screen resolution, system language, and system platform, among other data points, to compare against other users' browsers.

How did I score?

I'm not necessarily a hardcore privacy enthusiastic, but I do enjoy protecting my privacy wherever I can online. As such, I use Safari whenever possible, with all of the privacy settings I can enable. That includes hiding my IP address from trackers and websites, as well as preventing cross-site tracking. I combine that with an ad blocker (I'm using AdGuard, but would love if uBlock Origin would make a Safari extension) for a private, ad-free web experience.

Those minimal steps do appear to have paid off—at least according to Cover Your Tracks. After processing my browser, the site concluded I have strong protection against web tracking. The tests confirmed my browser blocks tracking ads and invisible trackers, which is reassuring. The bad news, though, is that my current setup isn't protecting me against fingerprinting—a practice where trackers build a profile to make it easier to identify you across the web. Cover Your Tracks said my browser had a unique fingerprint among the more than 250,000 browsers they had tested over the past 45 days, which means I stick out like a sore thumb on the internet. While the trackers my browser blocks won't be able to see me, the ones my browser misses will, and they'll know it's my browser reading that article or watching that video.

I'm actually pretty surprised by this: Safari has "advanced tracking and fingerprinting protection," which I keep enabled for all browsing. The fact Cover Your Tracks thinks I have a totally unique browser profile is a bit concerning to say the least.

When I tried the test in my Firefox browser—with all of its privacy protections enabled, coupled with uBlock Origin—it scored the same, save for the fingerprinting test. Unlike Safari, my Firefox browser is nearly unique: one in 125,883 browsers have the same fingerprint as mine, which, to my eyes, means my Firefox browser is twice as anonymous as my Safari browser, though that isn't saying all that much.

How can you avoid fingerprinting on the web?

So, it turns out that any trackers that do break through my browsers defenses are able to see me in full view. That's not great. Where do you go from here?

Unfortunately, this is tough. Fingerprinting is pretty difficult to avoid, because the more trackers you disable, the worse the web becomes. As the EFF explains, it's a bit of a paradox, but after a certain point, you stop blocking the trackers that exist to track you, and you start to block elements that make websites work. If you disable JavaScript, you might stop a website from tracking you, but you might not be able to use it at all. On the flip side, using too many protections may actually inadvertently identify you, as trackers and sites see that you're the only one constantly blocking everything all of the time.

There's far from one way to be totally private on the web, but according to the EFF, the simplest way to attack fingerprinting includes the following:

  • Using Tor for your browsing, as the browser has a number of advanced anti-tracking features

  • Using a hardcore privacy extension (EFF recommends Privacy Badger and Disconnect, or NoScript if you're using Firefox. Sadly, none are compatible with Safari.)

That all said, I did attempt the test using Tor with "Safer" privacy settings enabled, and earned the same unique browser score I did with Safari. So, I cranked up the settings to "Safest," which, among other things, disables JavaScript on all websites. I tried to run the test again, and broke the website. Perhaps you really do need to give up a little privacy in order to use the internet at all.



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