Farm Stand Hydroponic Garden Tower
Lettuce Grow
$399.00+
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I think we spent longer reviewing this particular product than any other item in this year’s guide. We’ve been playing with the Farm Stand since August and it’s kind of a life-changing thing. Imagine literally being able to have a full garden in your kitchen. This hydroponic grow tower can be customized to hold anywhere from 12-36 plants at any given time and it can be used outside or indoors. We tested out the 24 plants, indoor version. It only took up around 2 sq feet against the wall in the kitchen and it only needs around 5 minutes of attention a week. This is a closed system, hydroponic garden. That means you don’t even have to water it. You start it off with 23 gallons of water and that is enough to take it all the way through the growth cycle. We have grown several types of lettuce, Basil, Cilantro, Tomatoes, strawberries, and multiple types of flowers in the Farmstand and it’s changed the way we eat. We don’t have to buy lettuce at the store anymore because it’s growing in the kitchen! And, if you are wondering how forgiving the Farmstand is if you forget to feed it or if something goes wrong? Well, our’s went through two hurricanes, each with a power outage and it never impacted the final result. If everyone in the world had one of these in their kitchen or in their backyard, it’s a fair bet that we’d all be a lot healthier. This is a big gift, but it’s one that anyone who loves vegetables would cherish. In just a couple of short months, the Farmstand has become as important in our kitchen as any of our major appliances. Beyond the benefits of having plants growing in your home and having a simple source of fresh, organic produce, this is also an amazing learning tool. If you have a child and you want them to have a better understanding of food, you can’t do much better than giving them a way to literally watch it grow in front of them. It’s a classroom inside your home that teaches kids and adults the fundamentals of botany and agriculture. It’s an amazing jumping-off point for teaching kids how to eat better and cook for themselves. And, with the light ring attachments, you can even grow food in the middle of the winter. We can’t recommend The Farmstand enough to anyone. It’s just an amazing gift!
Gourmia FoodStation™ Smokeless Indoor Grill & Air Fryer
Gourmia
$119.00
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We’ve been bringing you air fryers from Gourmia for a few years now because they make some of the best and most affordable ones that we’ve seen, but this is something new and better than we were expecting. The foodstation is not just an excellent air fryer with a great basket (we miss having a basket with the air fryer ovens that have been coming out the last couple of years), but this guy is a fully-functional smokeless grill! We tried grilling steaks. They were perfect. We made burgers. They were perfect. Our tater Tots were as crispy as you could hope to have them out of an air fryer, and we even tried the baking function to see how it handled cupcakes. They were perfect too. We were extremely impressed with the smoke elimination system that kept the kitchen from getting smoky and the fire alarm from going off like it normally does when we make steak on the stove. It was also super easy to clean with most of the parts going right into the dishwasher. If there’s one thing that might make this questionable for you, it’s if you or the person you are buying it for has a tiny kitchen. The downside of having a 14”x 9.5” grill grate is that this appliance is going to have a pretty big footprint. The good news is that it’s easy to store, but if you use an air fryer as much as we are using this, you are not going to want to put it away.
Ninja Creami Deluxe
Shark Ninja
$249.99
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If there’s one piece of restaurant equipment that we’ve always coveted it’s the Pacojet, a $6,500 machine that makes the smoothest ice cream and sorbets that you’ve ever experienced. However, since our last name isn’t Musk, a Pacojet isn’t in the cards for us. Enter Ninja. They’ve been making excellent kitchen appliances for years and they have now done what we thought was impossible. They have created a device that does everything that a Pacojet does, but for only $250. When you think of a traditional ice cream maker, you think of a churn. This is not that. With the Creami, you start by freezing your base solid and then putting it in the machine. It scrapes down through the frozen base so finely that you end up with some of the smoothest and creamiest ice creams that we’ve ever tasted! Is it a little more than a typical ice cream maker? Yeah, but it’s easier to use. You don’t have to worry about over-churning or under-churning. You can freeze whatever you want as a base and let the Creami do its thing. Some of the recipes we tested out were the Salted Triple Chocolate Creamiccino, Frozen Hot Chocolate, and Triple Chocolate Gelato. Please do not ask us to choose a favorite… ok, it’s frozen hot chocolate, but only by a nose. We also had a lot of fun going off in our own direction, playing with some frozen custard bases, and then enjoying how simple it was to add in mix-ins like nuts, cookies, and chocolate chips. The Creami comes in two versions, the standard and the Deluxe. For our money, go for the deluxe. For only $20 more than the base model, you get an extra container and several additional functions including the ability to make delicious frozen drinks! This is the kind of appliance that lives on the counter because you’ll never want to stop using it. It’s the perfect gift for anyone who has a family or anyone who just loves a good scoop of ice cream.
Kitchen Cube
Kitchencube
$24.95
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The Kitchen Cube is one of those items that anyone with a kitchen can appreciate. One of the biggest pains in the butt of cooking is finding all of your measuring spoons and cups when you need them. They take up a ton of room in your drawers and you can never seem to find the one you need. Kitchen cube has fixed the problem by creating one cube that tackles 19 different measurements including 1 Cup, ½ Cup, 1/3 Cup, ¼ Cup, 2 TBSP, 1 TBSP, ½ TBPS, 1 TSP,½ TSP, ¼ TSP, 120 mL, 80 mL, 60 mL, 30 mL, 15 mL, 7.5 mL, 5 mL, 2.5 mL, and 2 mL. Experienced cooks will appreciate the way this cube helps them save space in their kitchen, and new cooks will love being able to find every measuring tool they need when they are cooking. Throw one of these in the stocking or under the tree of everyone you know who is culinarily inclined.
Aarke Carbonator Pro
Aarke
$349
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Soda is great, but Coke, Pepsi, Mountain Dew… all of the big bottled sodas are killing us. If you know someone who loves soda, but is looking for something a little healthier, or if you just know someone who enjoys a good bottle of bubbly water, the Aarke Carbonator Pro is the best, and possibly classiest option available on the market. It’s sleek, stylish, available in stainless steel to match the fanciest of kitchens, and it works perfectly! Just fill the glass (no more plastic bottles) carafe with water, bring down the cover, and press the carbonation button. In just a couple of seconds, your boring old water has now been transformed into an effervescent delight. Mix it with any of your favorite flavor drops or even with some juice for a soda that doesn’t shave hours off your life with every sip! The Carbonator Pro from Aarke is a fancy gift, that’s for sure, but with all the money you save on soda… and doctor’s bills, it’s definitely worth it!
Microwave Ramen Cooker
Fasta Pasta
$14.99
If you’ve got a ramen lover in your life, this is a great gift to give them. It’s hard to believe it, but you can actually cook your ramen noodles in the microwave and they come out great. Plus, who wants to boil water every time they want a cup o’ noodles? Just pop the noodles and the water into the container, cover, and microwave. It even has a built-in strainer to dump out that hot water when you’re done. The noodles cook evenly, they don’t boil over, and there is just a heck of a lot more convenient than putting up a pot of water on the stove.
Microwave Pasta Cooker
Fasta Pasta
$17.99
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Pasta has to be one of the top three most popular meals in the world, but it’s a hassle. You’ve got to put up a pot of water, wait for it to boil, and watch it so it doesn’t boil over. It’s a lot of work for what you get out of it. This is a great gift for the cook in your life who doesn’t have time to spare. They can cook up pasta in the time it normally takes for water to boil. It doesn’t stick or clump. It’s great with any kind of pasta, including stuffed pasta like ravioli. It’s the kind of thing that doesn’t look like it would work, but it actually does.
Aqua Pure Produce Purifier
Aqua Pure
$79.97
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Vegetables are tasty and good for you, but unless you’ve grown them yourself, you have no idea how dirty your veggies are when you bring them home from the store. We want to make sure you get the most out of your veggies without the pesticides, and that’s why we think the Aqua Pure produce purifier is a great gift for anyone you know who eats things that grow in the ground. The device looks like a blue tooth speaker, but this is for beets, not beats. You just pop it in a bowl of water with your veggies and turn it on. Using tap water, a little salt, and an electric current, the Aqua Pure uses electrolysis to not just help clean your produce, but also neutralize harmful pesticides and bacteria. In fact, they claim that lab tests have shown reductions of the following: E. Coli Bacteria (99.9%), Cypermethrin Pesticide (94.8%). and Chlorpyrifos Pesticide (95.6%). It’s easy to use and a great gift for anyone you know who wants to bring a little more clean into their kitchen.
Easy Shake Breader Shaker XL
Cook’s Choice
$15.95
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Everything tastes better when it’s fried and almost all fried food tastes better when it’s breaded. It’s science and we’ll fight anyone who disagrees. What you also can’t disagree on is that breading things is a pain in the butt. It takes forever. You have to go piece by piece, and one of your hands always ends up looking like you’re turning into Ben Grimm. If you’ve got a fry master in your life, this is a great gift to consider. Just put your breading in the bottom and then add your food above the grate. Give it a couple of shakes and you’re good to go. No mess, and no handling of the food because the grate they sit on pops out so you can move food directly into the fryer, and the whole thing is dishwasher safe. It makes the process of frying so easy that we think this could be a dangerous product for anyone trying to lose weight… but a perfect gift for anyone wanting to add flavor!
The Amazing Bacon Wizard
SCS Direct
$13.99
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If we had to sum up this product in one sentence it would be One lb of bacon, fully cooked, in less than five minutes. No wonder they call it a wizard. While some people will never be ok making bacon in anything other than cast iron, it’s time to move into the future and the age of the microwave. We liked the Bacon Wizard for a few main reasons. It holds a pound of bacon, while most other microwave bacon cookers only hold 4-5 slices. It holds the bacon up in the air, keeping it out of the grease and helping prevent splattering. It has an easy clean-up tray. And, the whole thing is microwave safe. Oh, and let’s not forget the 5-minute thing. We are used to spending much longer bringing the bacon up to temp in a cold pan, watching it to make sure it’s crispy, but not burnt before we flip it, and almost always screwing it up. This is a game-changer. Get it for any bacon lover in your life. Or, if you want some real fireworks, get it for your favorite vegan.
Smart Knife Cutting Board, Chopping Board Kitchen Tools Drying Holder with 4pcs Cutting Boards, 4 knives
Charmline
$159.99
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Who would have thought that a cutting board and knife set could be so greatly improved? The people at Charmline did, and they outdid themselves with this smart 4-in-1 drying and storage unit for cutting boards and knives. The set features 4 color-coded chopping boards and knives designed with the ideal size and surface for different types of food (raw meat, raw fish, vegetables, or cooked food). Each cutting board features crumb-catching edges and nonslip feet and is dishwasher-safe. Once you’ve finished using the cutting board and knife set, you simply wash it and put it back on the stand, click the button, and the holder automatically enters the timed drying mode to keep the cutting boards and knives clean, dry, and hygienic.
Levo II
Levo
$299.99
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The Levo 2 might be magic and it also might be one of the first appliances that were designed with both Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart in mind. At its heart, it’s an infuser. That means you can use it to infuse oils, soaps, butter, honey, and just about anything else you can imagine with the essence of herbs, whether they are basil or marijuana. If it just did that, we’d already be impressed, because this is one hell of an infuser. It was simple to use and everything we tried to infuse really felt like it was fully permeated into the finished project. One of the things that take the Levo 2 to a whole other level is the “dry and activate” mode. In some circles, people know this as decarboxylation. It’s when you use very precise temperatures to fully activate the important compounds in an herb so that it becomes completely bioavailable. This is important when it comes to anything from flavor to extract the beneficial compounds out of an herb. This can not only give you a much better final product, but it saves you a ton of money on the back end because you get much more bang for your buck when it comes to what you buy. In the end, I think one of the things that really makes this such a great appliance is that it’s precise. So many infusers and decarbs lack the ability to create the same recipes with repeatable results. The Levo 2 not only gave us amazing infusions every time we used it, but we never had a problem making the exact same thing more than once. This is the kind of gift that’s good for anyone you know who is interested in infusing their own oils, butter, and honey for cooking or health reasons. It’s also an amazing gift for any 420-friendly friends on your gift list.
Pokémon Grilled Cheese Maker
Uncanny Brands
$44.99
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It’s crazy when you think that Pokemon has been around for over 20 years now and it’s one of, if not the biggest brands in gaming and pop culture. If you’ve got a geek in your life, they probably have some Pokemon cards, toys, or plush somewhere in their home, and there’s a good chance they still love to cruise around their neighborhood playing a bit of Pokemon Go! For those people, what could be better than a sandwich maker that can give them two grilled cheese sandwiches with Pokeballs and Pikachu’s head on them? Sandwich makers are one of the best convenience items you can have in the kitchen and this one works great. We consistently got sandwiches that were hot and gooey on the inside and toasty on the outside, with the added bonus of having a cool design toasted right into the bread. This is a great gift for anyone who loves a grilled cheese sandwich and can still list all 151 of the original Pokemon!
Marvel Spider-Man Mug Warmer Set
Uncanny Brands
$29.99
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Do you have a Spider-Man fan in your life who loves a hot beverage? This is the gift you want to give them this holiday season. It’s a sculpted mug of Spidey’s head that is cool enough on its own, but it also comes with an electric base that you can set the mug on to keep your beverage perfectly warm. Now that we’re heading into the winter, it’s not just about the morning cup of coffee. People are surviving on their cuppa tea, their hot cocoa, and even their mug of soup. A good hot beverage is like a hug from the inside out on a cold day. Now it’s even cooler because you get to sip it out of your friendly Neighborhood Wallcrawler’s head!
Dungeons & Dragons 2-Qt Slow Cooker
Uncanny Brands
$34.99
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Are you looking for the perfect gift for your DM this holiday season? Next time you are all gathering up for a D&D session, make some meatballs or queso in this 2-quart slow cooker and bring it with you. At the end of the night, tell them that this cute little cooker that’s adorned with the Dungeons and Dragons logo all over it is theirs as a thank you for being such a great Dungeon Master. If that’s not really your thing, just slide it under their tree or menorah. It’s a solid little slow cooker with an aesthetic that any lover of role-playing games will love!
Star Wars The Mandalorian Grogu Cake Pop Maker
Uncanny Brands
$29.99
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Call him Grogu, The Child, or Baby Yoda, the one thing that’s for sure is that he’s probably the most popular thing to come out of Star Wars in the last decade. While the Star Wars fan on your holiday gift list is probably already getting a plush, action figure, blanket, or Chia Pet of the little Green Guy, you have the chance to be the only person who delivers a kitchen tool that will let your friend or loved one eat him. Cake Pops are great because they are all the fun of eating cake, without the hassle of cooking an entire cake, or even a whole batch of cupcakes. This little cake pop maker makes three cake pops shaped like Grogu’s head in just a couple of minutes! All you need is your favorite instant cake batter and you are good to go. After just a couple of minutes, you will have an adorable and delicious treat that all of our testers liked. We even tried mixing Matcha powder into a vanilla cake mix to give it the right color and the results were eaten before they had a chance to cool! This is a fun appliance for any Star Wars fan and it’s great for everything from breakfasts to desserts.
Marvel Venom Waffle Maker
Uncanny Brands
$44.99
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You know, it’s kind of interesting how a well-mixed waffle batter drips and flows in the same way that a symbiote does. Maybe that was part of what inspired this Venom Waffle Maker. That, or maybe it was just the fact that Venom is hotter than he’s ever been since Peter Parker first put on the black suit in Secret Wars. If you know someone who loves Marvel, then you probably know someone who would love to look down at their breakfast plate only to see Venom’s giant eyes and teeth staring back at them. This is a truly unique and fun gift for the breakfast-loving Venom fan in your life!
Marvel Loki Waffle Maker
Uncanny Brands
$44.99
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If you have anyone in your life who feels like their life is burdened with glorious purpose, this is the gift to get them this holiday season. Uncanny Brand’s Loki waffle Maker creates mischievously delicious waffles that are not only light and fluffy but also emblazoned with the insignia of Loki’s Helmet. As always, Krusteaz waffle mix is the way to go, unless you’re one of those people who has time to make their own mix from scratch… either way, these waffles were so delicious that not even Thor could deny how great they were.
Mywaffle Classic Waffle & Chaffle Maker
Amandale
$49.99
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It doesn’t matter if it’s Christmas morning or a regular Wednesday morning. A day is always a little more special when it starts with waffles. We love Amandal’s mini waffle and Chaffle maker for a couple of reasons. It makes the perfect size waffles for a breakfast stack, around 3” wide. It makes four at a time, which is really great if you are feeding a family, and it gives you waffles with really deep cups that hold your butter and syrup perfectly. It makes them fluffy on the inside, but super crispy on the outside. Also, now that we know what a Chaffle is (a gluten-free/ Keto-friendly waffle made out of eggs and butter), we had a chance to try them and they were delicious! The idea that this waffle maker not only does both well but is designed in a way to easily make them both at the same time makes it an excellent gift for anyone who loves breakfast!
Non-stick Electric Pizzelle Baker Press
Cucina Pro
$39.99
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When we start talking about Pizzelles, most people say the same thing. What’s a pizzelle? At its core, it’s a simple Italian waffle cookie, but you can do so much more with it and that’s why we wanted to bring it to you for this year’s guide. This Pizzelle makes delicious cookies. You can eat them plain, you can dip them in chocolate and sprinkles to fancy them up for the holidays. You can roll them into waffle cones, but most importantly, you can drape them over a wooden spoon while they are still soft. After around 30 seconds they are all crisped up and you have the perfect base for the best homemade Choco Taco You’ve ever had in your entire life! So, whether you want to recreate one of the best ice cream truck treats that have ever been invented, or, you want to get fancy with decorations, or you enjoy a fancy-looking, traditional Italian treat, we think you’ll love having your very own Pizzelle maker.
Mini Pie and Quiche Maker
Cucina Pro
$34.99
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We’re pretty sure the only thing in the world that’s better than a pie is a tiny pie that you can pick up and eat with one hand. Savory or sweet, covered or open like a quiche, we love them and we love that this mini pie and quiche maker not only does a great job on them, but it does 6 of them at a time. This little pie maker takes care of all of the hassles. It even comes with a little cutter to make sure you are putting in just the right amount of dough. You can make your own, but we got great results with store-bought dough. Then it was just a matter of adding the fillings and waiting. When all was said and done, we had six beautiful pies that were flaky and delicious. This is more than a great gift this holiday season, it’s a great hack. Think about your holiday dessert table. Everyone has different tastes. Imagine how easy it would be to put out a menagerie of pies for all of your guests to choose from!
Gingerbread Man Mini Waffle Maker
Waffle Wow!
$19.99
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I’m not sure what comes out of this waffle maker is a waffle, more of a fluffy, waffles pancake, but it does look like a Gingerbread man and that can make for some really fun breakfasts during the holiday season. It almost looks like you’re eating cookies, but you’re having part of a balanced breakfast! If you add a little cinnamon and ginger into your waffle mix, it really amps up the holiday fun. If you want to get a little weird, just reenact the torture scene from Duloc’s dungeon in Shrek. Do you know the muffin man? The Muffin Man?! The Muffin Man! Now that’s a magical first meal that anyone would want to be a part of this Christmas season.
Myhotmat Connect
Amandale
$89.99 USD
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This is one of those gifts that works equally well as a regular present or as a host gift. During the holidays, if there’s one thing that is in short supply at the serving table, it’s warming trays. And while there are plenty of warming trays on the market, we love Myhotmat for a few big reasons. First, it folds up. That means it isn’t going to be a pain in the butt to store after you use it. While that would have been enough for us to recommend it, the fact that it’s modular really takes it over the top. One Myhotmat can warm 1-2 dishes, depending on their size, but because it is modular, you can link up to five units together creating enough warming area for pretty much a whole buffet station. Whether you get someone one unit or 5, this is the kind of gift that will probably come right out of the box and get put to use immediately so that everyone can enjoy a hot meal during the holidays.
Sublime Round Dutch Oven/ Stew Pot
Emile Henry
$200.00+
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Every person who cooks should own a dutch oven. There’s a reason that they’ve been popular since they were first invented as a lighter option to castiron in the late 1800s. They are perfect for everything from making a perfect stew, to baking a delicious loaf of bread. If you’ve got a loved one who loves to cook and is in need of a good dutch oven, they don’t get much better than the Sublime. No, that’s literally what it’s called. It comes in 4 qt, 6 qt, and 7.5 qt depending on how big a pot they need. One of the things we really love about this pot in particular is that it has a new ceramic coating that they’ve created and it works beautifully. In fact, if you have trouble with it, they back up their products with a 10-year guarantee. We also loved how light it is. It’s almost half the weight of more traditional dutch ovens, but it works just as well. It heats up very fast and it holds temperature very well. Another thing we really loved about the Sublime was the large handles. The last thing you want when you are pulling a dutch oven out of your oven is tiny handles that make you afraid you are going to drop the pot. So, if you have someone on your gift list who needs a good dutch oven, even if that person is you, this is the one to go with.
Tumbler Diamond Rolling Knife Sharpener Set
Tumblerware
$98.00
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Your knife is the most important tool in your kitchen, but if it isn’t sharp, it’s not just useless, it’s dangerous. You are exponentially more likely to cut yourself on a dull knife than a sharp one and that’s why we think a really good sharpener is a great gift for any chef on your gift list. The Tumbler is something new in the world of sharpening. They’ve taken the idea of a classic sharpening stone, flipped, rolled, and added a magnet. The result for us was razor-sharp knives without the hassle of a traditional sharpening stone. It starts with the magnetic block that locks your blade into either a 20 or 15-degree angle. Then it’s just a matter of rolling the sharpening stone back and forth along the blade until you have the sharpness you want. Not having to guess at the right angle is a major game changer. Once you’ve got the blade as sharp as you like, just flip over the roller so you can slide the stainless steel honing disk against the blade. This pushes the edge back into alignment and makes sure your blade stays sharper and lasts long. The Tumbler not only works really well, but it’s beautiful. With the wood finish on both the block and the roller, this is a kitchen tool that you may want to have on display instead of in your knife drawer.
Star Wars R2-D2 Air Popper Popcorn Maker
Uncanny Brands
$99.99
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Uncanny Brands makes our favorite air poppers. We featured their Death Star Star Wars popcorn maker more than five years ago and it is still our go-to when we are looking for a tasty snack. The mechanics that made that popcorn maker great are the same ones that power this new R2-D2 air popper, the main difference is that instead of popping your snack in a battle station, you are doing it in a great-looking droid. It’s hard to find an excuse to bring your geekiness into your kitchen decor, but it’s hard to argue with keeping an R2 unit on your counter that can keep you in snacks. He’s so cool that he even lets you eat right out of his head. Any Star Wars fan who loves popcorn is going to love this under the tree.
Star Wars The Mandalorian Waffle Maker
Uncanny Brands
$19.99
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Uncanny Brands always makes some of the best and most current pop culture waffle irons and they are not missing a step with their Mandalorian line for Star Wars. We already showed you the baby Yoda waffle iron, now it’s time to chow down on some Beskar helmet waffles. That’s right, this Mandalorian waffle iron makes delicious waffles that look just like the helmet of our favorite Mando, Din Djarin. The waffles are crisp on the outside and fluffy in the middle. Not a single one of them turned out burned to a crisp like IG-11. If you know a breakfast lover who happens to be a fan of The Mandalorian, this is the way.
Star Wars Mandalorian Baby Yoda Waffle Maker
Uncanny Brands
$39.99
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Some fans are still a little salty about Baby Yoda eating all those frog eggs in one of the episodes of season two of The Mandalorian. If you are one of those people, what better way to teach the world’s cutest force user a lesson than to make him your breakfast? This isn’t just a bland bowl of bone broth either. The waffles that come out of this maker are fluffy and crisp. We suggest using the Krusteaz waffle mix for the best results. But, more than the taste, these are adorable waffles! You get the full portrait of Baby Yoda, aka The Child right on your breakfast plate. Just cover him with syrup and eat him as part of a balanced breakfast! Seriously though. As popular as Baby Yoda is, it’s hard to imagine anyone not loving the idea of sitting down to a hot stack of the child and munching on him for your first meal of the day. You know that’s exactly what he’d be doing!
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