We all know that it’s important to feed ourselves and our family a steady, balanced diet of high quality whole foods. It’s about health and feeling great every day. Home cooked meals are often lower in fat and calories and full of nutrients- not fillers and sodium like many prepared foods are. Cooking from scratch is often less costly, too. The big problem in cooking high quality food at home is time.
We have busy jobs and stressful lives that drive us to curl up with a bowl of cereal or worse- a bag of chips for dinner. Moms have it especially tough. They’re trying to cook for their family while everyone is constantly on the run.
Make life as easy as you can, I say! These 5 easy kitchen tools will become the helpers you need to get your meal plan on track.
1. Kitchenaid Mixer- Artisan Series
If you’re a home cook of any regularity, you probably have or want a Kitchenaid. These machines aren’t just handy kitchen helpers, they’re heirloom pieces that get passed down in families for generations. So many memories are made over a batch of cookies or fresh pasta.
The Kitchenaid is sturdy, so you don’t have to worry about wear and tear. It’s very versatile thanks to an almost endless amount of attachments that convert the simple stand mixer into a number of other appliances. It takes up a bit of space, but it’s well worth it for all of the work it does on your behalf.
2. Silicone Baking Mats
Who loves cleaning baking pans and cookie sheets!? Not very many people could answer yes to that question. Preparing meals and snacks takes enough time. Nobody wants to spend hours cleaning up afterwards.
Not only will a silicone baking mat make your cleanup a breeze, it keeps food from sticking and burning during cooking. There are different grades of silicone cookware, however, so take care to choose mats that are constructed well and that have a good weight in the hand.
When you get your baking mats home, here is a simple sugar cookie recipe to try. It costs pennies to make.
3. Chef’s Knife
If you love to cook or at least cook regularly for your own health or your family, you really need high quality basic tools. If you’ve never used a really great chef’s knife before, you won’t be the same after you do. It makes short work of mincing, dicing, and chopping all kinds of ingredients.
Think about all of the things you use a knife for in the kitchen. It’s endless. Make a high quality choice made of stainless steal that you can sharpen yourself. It will last for years and can really cut your prep time.
Try a fresh omelette aux fines herbes for brunch or dinner. Your new chef’s knife is ideal for slicing up herbs that brighten up this simple, filling, economical meal.
4. A Versatile Blender
Everyone needs a blender, but you deserve a great one. It should be easy to use and clean and have a small footprint so you can leave it out at arm’s length. We’ve all struggled to pull out appliances that we rarely use. You just stop doing it and go back to manually processing your food prep or skip it altogether.
The Bullet and Ninja lines of blenders and mixers are great because they do double duty. They’re masterful smoothie machines that can be easily used every day. They also make soups, sauces, and dressings easily. The Bullet is a great choice for families because of its small size and how easy it is to clean..
PS- you can get your children to eat more vegetables: hide them in green fruit smoothies! This works for adults, too.
5. Mandoline Slicer
Your chef’s knife will come in handy for most prep work, but you can save a bit more time when slicing if you own a mandoline. These tools are brilliant for salads, garnishes, and potato dishes that involve a lot of slicing. The bits are all uniform and the safety guard ensures none of your fingers will end up in the finished dish.
In terms of eating healthy, having a few tools to make fruit and vegetable prep easier is a great way to motivate yourself to eat more green living food. You’re removing excuses like ‘this takes too long’ or ‘I have poor knife skills.’
With a mandoline, no skill is necessary beyond following a few simple directions.
Here’s a scalloped potatoes recipe you can make using your mandoline slicer.
Stock Your Kitchen For Less
Once you have the right tools in place, you will see that cooking from scratch for your family is often much cheaper than buying prepared foods. It is certainly less expensive than dining out together; this will help to keep a tap on your monthly budget.
Bread is a simple example. If you keep your kitchen well stocked, it costs very little to bake fresh bread. Buying bread in the store is another matter, however.
To maximize your savings while improving your health, choose meals with inexpensive produce and work with what is on sale at your local store.
If you can involve your family in your meal preparation, it’s another way to spend quality time together. If you are a single person, your meal prep is an oasis of peaceful mindfulness where you clean your mind and focus on the task of nourishing your body.
Either way, it’s a win.
