cooking

*Disclaimer: All opinions are our (Zach and I’s) own and we purchased these Ninja Kitchen products using our own money. We use and love them which is why I am doing this post!*

Most important part: How to get Ninja Kitchen products cheaper.

• Ninja Kitchen sometimes has sales. Be sure to subscribe to their newsletter and follow on their social media 
• Bed, Bath and Beyond allows you to use 20% off coupons (we bought all our Ninja products from here.)
• Kohls has sales all the time and coupon codes, plus they also do their Kohls cash.

I recommend price shopping and comparing the cashback and coupon codes. Also, don’t ever forget about Rakuten, Coupon Cabin, and Retail me Not. I literally do extensive research on how to stack deals to get the best price before buying a product.

Let’s get started!! This is a post that should have been done forever ago, because we love Ninja Kitchen products, however I had bought a new product and wanted to have enough time to use it for a good review.

The three products I will be talking about are:

1. Ninja Foodi 5-in-1 Indoor Grill with 4qt Air Fryer, Model AG302
2. Ninja Intellisense Kitchen System, Model CT682SP
3. Ninja Foodi 6.5qt Pressure Cooker with TenderCrisp, Model OP302

Ninja Foodi 5-in-1 Indoor Grill with 4qt Air Fryer

I’m getting Zach’s help with this one because he is the main user of this Ninja appliance. He recommends this indoor grill to everyone because he really likes it and how easy and quick it is. There are a couple cons to this product, but the pros outweigh them.

Pros:

• Everything is easy to cook and always comes out juicy and delicious from the grill setting.
• Can grill from frozen (huge pro!)
• Fits enough food for 2 to eat a meal and have leftovers most times.
• Great air frying and quick. Has a preheat function before you can cook anything.
• Doesn’t take up as much space as I thought it would. Fits perfectly on the tiny counter next to the oven that we never utilized anyway!

Cons:

• Smokes – states it is smokeless, but ours does smoke. It has never made our alarms go off, but we do have doors open and fans blowing when we use the grill.
• Some parts are hard to clean – this probably ties in with the first bit about smoking. Everything does come out and can be cleaned individually. I know for sure the splash guard on the top of the grill is completely covered and no matter how much we scrub, it still is discolored in places. We debated even spending the 9.99 to get a new one, but it’s been out of stock.
• Would like to be able to fit a little more in it.

*Edited in 2021 – We upgraded to the Ninja Foodi Smart XL Grill and love it. I would say it doesn’t smoke as much and it’s easier to clean. 

Ninja Intellisense Kitchen System

This version I own is from 2018 and absolutely LOVE it! My version came with the spiralizing attachment, so look for different kits as I have seen some that have an extra cup instead, or just the food processor and cup attachment. So there are different varieties! I LOVED the ability to use this for so many different combos and once again to eliminate multiple appliances. With this I get a dough mixer, food processor and a smoothie maker. You get a lot more, but those are what I mainly use this for and would have other appliances for if I didn’t get this setup.

Pros:

• Touchscreen/flat buttons. This makes it so easy to clean. The touch IQ also brings up different settings by acknowledging what attachment you have on the base.
• Dough kneading. This comes with a soft attachment and blade attachment for the bowl and you can knead dough or switch to the blade for chopping.
• Small base. I keep the base out on the counter and all the attachments in cabinets (except the cup because I make smoothies almost daily.)
• Spiralizer – this was a pleasant addition and is so much faster than using a hand tool.
• The food processor is amazing. We use it to chop meat mostly. For instance we make chicken thighs and then the leftover ones we take a couple and toss in there and chop them down for chicken nachos. Literally less than 5 seconds and it has them chopped down. This amazed Zach as he spent at least over 5 minutes cutting one thigh into small pieces.

Cons:

• Honestly, I don’t really have any. I guess some of the parts are difficult to clean, but for the most part, every capability is great!

Ninja Foodi 6.5qt Pressure Cooker with Tendercrisp

This was our newest addition. It was a late add to our wedding registry and after our wedding, I ended up buying it because there was a great deal at Bed, Bath and Beyond. 

I waited so long to make this purchase (seriously almost got during Black Friday,) because I already own an InstantPot and we have a regular air fryer and the Ninja Foodi grill that has an air fryer. So why did I need this? The same reason we love Ninja Kitchen products, to minimize appliances. I am getting rid of our first air fryer and the InstantPot, to replace two appliances with this new beauty!

I mainly use the pressure cooker for hard boiled eggs and this works exactly like the Instantpot, so I was very pleased. We also use this for air frying.

Pros:

• Does everything. I seriously love that it took the place of my pressure cooker and air fryer and has both capabilities in the one appliance. There are a lot more settings, but those are the two I use the most.
• Keep warm button and also counts up once done, so you know how long it has been complete for. 
• Easy to use!
• Delicious and perfect hard boiled eggs.
• Delicious frozen fries and fresh diced potatoes in the air fryer.

Cons:

• No preheat setting for airfrying (unless I am dumb.) Normally you can preheat the air fryer separately, but it’s recommended around 4-5 minutes to preheat, so we end up adding that to our airfrying time and then add our food after the allotted time.
• Bigger than I expected it to be. I ordered the smallest one, since we are just two people and I was shocked with how big this thing was when I pulled it out and put it on the counter.

The Future of Ninja Kitchen in Our Household

I received an email with some new products that will be coming out. I tried to find more details, but couldn’t yet. Based on photos, here is what Zach and I discussed we probably will end up getting!

We air fry….a lot. This Ninja Foodi 2 basket air fryer is a game changer. We are excited for this product. (edited to add: we bought this and LOVE it! Use it daily!)

This Ninja Foodi Smart  XL Grill looks aesthetically more pleasing, more sleek, but also it is larger. Ours also is so gunky and I am hoping this new one may have less smoke too.

The new pots look intriguing because of the non stick, no chip, and like I said, we love Ninja products for their quality, so they must be good. However, we did just get a new set of pots after our wedding.

The Ninja Foodi Power Kitchen System is also interesting to me, but I’m not sure based on the photos how much different it would be to my touchIQ intellisense kitchen system. I have had it for over 2 years now, but if I can’t justify the upgrade, I won’t be spending my own money on it.

This is the same with the new pressure cooker. The sous vide is an additional feature, but I just bought my new one a few weeks ago. So I don’t see myself spending money to upgrade.

The Ninja Foodi XL pro air oven looks great and I hear tons of people rave about these convection ovens, but I have never owned one to know what I am missing out on. We don’t have much more counter space in our current home to be able to have that product. But maybe we will just own all the products when we get to our new house in the future.

I hope you enjoyed this review and the tips about saving money. I just think these are great quality products and affordable, especially once you utilize coupon codes and cash back!