What Are Your Must Have Kitchen Tools?

Cooking is the foundation of a healthy lifestyle.  We’ve been lead to believe that cooking is hard. Cooking is not hard. Building time into your lifestyle is the changing factor that will help you succeed. Once you’ve realized that convenience will not bring you health. That fast food line get’s dinner on your lap in 5 minutes or less, however that meal can lead to major heath woes down the road. I always tell people if you think you don’t have time to cook, imagine say in about 5-10 years will your have time to deal with a cancer or autoimmune disease? Prevention is much easier than healing. 

Carving out time in our busy lifestyle can feel hard enough, so you will also want to start collecting the tools that will make your cooking easier.  We’ve done our fair share of home improvement projects and let me tell you having the right tool can make a world of difference! After pick-axing our old grass off the ground (Yes, you read that right, we had no other tools to use) during a re-landscaping project, we learned that when you invest in the tool, not only does your job get don faster the outcome is better too! 

Following is a list of my kitchen must have’s to help you on this healthy lifestyle journey. Now I know that most of us cannot go out and drop all kinds to money to get everything on this list, so begin to collect it slowly.  A birthday here, Mother’s day there, rainy day fund here.  In no particular order, here is your kitchen must have’s.

Must Have’s: 

High speed blender:  I use mine DAILY. Smoothies made this way have a lot of fiber and all the great vitamins and minerals. If you don’t have one yet, try a Vitamix or a Ninja. You can check them out here:  Vitamix  or Ninja 

Safe pots and pans:  You want to make sure that you are not using Teflon or any non-stick surface. The chemicals that make the pans non-stick are linked with great harm in humans. These chemicals can leach into your food. Also areas around the manufacturing plants that produce these products they have had some major environmental damage to the local ecosystems from spills or leaks in their product lines. You also do not want to want to use aluminum or any other mixed metal pans. These are often found in the cheaper pans.   

Here are three different options:  All Clad Pans

Caraway Ceramic Pans

Cast Iron Pans – These pans are great to integrate and use a few times per week to boost your iron intake. You wouldn’t want to use these every meal.  

Whisk: A simple, yet sturdy whisk is a necessary item in a real food cookin’ kitchen. I like this one:  Whisk

Strainers: Another must have for natural mama’s is a wire-mesh strainer, perfect when you make your own bone broth or elderberry syrup. I like this set:  Mesh Strainers.

Knives:  Good quality sharp knifes are the most critical tool to preparing real food. I get mine sharpened every season at the local farmers market. Here are some to try: Knives Truth be told, your wanna spend some $$$ on your knife set otherwise you will get what you pay for. 

Nice to Have: 

These are not required in a kitchen, yet these help to make cooking easier.

Food Processor:  This helps to make sauces and even dessert crust very quickly. I like this one:  Food Processor

Juicer:  Juicing enables you to get quick clean high nutrient juice without any extra added ingredients.  This one is the best on the market, giving you high nutrients and low waste.  Hurom Juicer 

Dehydrator: Properly preparing certain foods, like nuts, beans, and other legumes requires you to soak these for a certain amount of time and then you can use the dehydrator to dry them back out again. You can also make yummy fruit snacks. I like this one:  Dehydrator

Immersion Blender:  These help you to blend soups into a puree right in the pan!  Or blend a quick blender drink in your glass. I always use this when I make potato leek soup. You could use your high speed blender, but the transfer is messy and time consuming and adds additional kitchen clean up. I try to cut down on the mess factor as it just takes more time. A perfect example of how the right tools can save your precious time.  I like this one:  Immersion Blender.

Carbonated Water Maker:  These are nice to have around for when you want something more than water, yet you don’t want to reach for the soda. You can add your own subtle flavoring with lemon, lime or orange slices. Or even just a dash of unsweetened cranberry juice. Check it out: Soda Stream.

Fun Kitchen gifts:

It’s nice to keep these around and hand them out as hostess gifts or a quick thank you gift for your neighbor who helped you out or even teacher gifts or housewarming gifts. 

Zester: I love adding zest into muffin or pancake and even cookie recipes. You can add into dressings and salads too! Works for a quick pop of flavor. I like this one:  zester.

Herb Scissors: These are so helpful to have around and work for a wide variety of herbs. It makes adding in fresh herbs easier.  These are the best! Herb Scissors

Think of this helpful real food cooking kitchen must have list as Mother’s Day or your birthday roll around. When we have the right tools to set us up for success it makes the new lifestyle of cooking so much easier.  Happy Cooking!

What is your favorite kitchen tool?  Drop a comment below and let me know!