I want to start this post out very clearly, and that's by telling you that I don't own a microwave nor a toaster. And haven't for a number of years.
Despite developing recipes for a living, I'm all about less is more in the kitchen (and everywhere else too).
I love having clean spaces and essentially, less crap. So no, this post is not about purchasing 400 appliances and it's certainly not about any one product, in fact you won't even hear a brand name mentioned because we each have our preferences. It's simply me sharing with you the 3 items that make my kitchen simpler, faster and more enjoyable.
Cool?
The 3 Items My Kitchen Can't Live Without
1. Quality Knives
Back in the days when to me cooking meant defrosting, cutting anything at all in the kitchen was a seriously frustrating experience.
Gorgeous, ripe tomatoes would become a mushy mess in moments. Fresh bread would be flattened in no time at all. And chopping herbs? Forget it.
Until I first used a quality knife that is.
I can not emphasise this point enough - it was a total game changer.
Not only was preparing anything now a pleasure, the time that it took to do so was quartered! I've never looked back and from that point on I've taken good care of my knives (the same set), just as they do of me.
Although I don't own every type of knife out there, on a daily basis I use a 20cm 'Cook's Knife' and a 16cm 'Vegetable Knife.' There is quite literally a specialist knife for every technique, but for me these knives are the staples of my kitchen that extend to almost every regular food that I come across to prepare.
Go and try some quality knives within a good kitchen store and see for yourself how game-changing they are.
Remember - one is a great place to start.
2. Food Processor
I've lost count at how many of these exist now on the market.
In my kitchen, I use 2 food processors and for different reasons/recipes. I'm also in the kitchen developing recipes constantly so keep that in mind when it comes to you and your needs.
As my PATH TO WHOLEFOOD-ers know, this piece of equipment was absolutely the one that I most resisted. I've never been a 'gadget' lover and additionally, have always lived in city apartments not so well set up for large appliances all over the place.
However, and yep you know what's coming, I had no idea what I was missing out on.
Firstly, the number of recipes that I'd never tried my hand at - hello homemade pesto in 2 minutes. Secondly, the whole world of simple and fast preparation that I simply didn't know existed beforehand.
All of a sudden my kitchen exploits included bliss balls, homemade sauces, raw desserts, dips and well prepped elements such as nuts, with barely any effort at all.
On a daily basis, I tend to reach for my smaller food processor which I use to roughly chop nuts or make pesto with. For recipes, especially desserts, I use my larger and more powerful processor. However I'm not a fan of using the chopping devices on the latter despite its high quality. Hand chopped is always a superior result in my opinion, of both taste and appearance.
There's a processor for every price range, though what I'd say is more important to first think about, is what you actually need one for and allow that to drive your decision.
3. Glass-lock containers
It's partly the OCD-organised girl within me that loves these containers so much and partly the girl looking to lessen the plastic load in her life.
And when I say OCD, I refer to both the superior stacking and cleanliness level of glass here. If you're not certain what I mean, just think about the last time you put a red sauce, any red sauce, in a plastic container.
5 years on and it's still stained isn't it?
Lo and behold, glass containers always rinse clean and with minimal effort too.
Glass containers are ideal for the batch-cook that I know you are. Safely storing your nutritious goodies for when you're ready to eat them, either in the fridge or pantry. Because as well as the traditional glass-lock containers that I use in my fridge, in my pantry you'll find every size glass jar that one could ever need.
I mostly recycle them from food that I buy or am given, removing the label and 'rebranding' them with my own delicious bites. Next stop, is an old school embossed-style label maker.
Glass-lock containers are a product in your kitchen that you'll never look back from and are readily available. Each week our broken up bananas can be found in the freezer, whilst you'll find cooked quinoa, hard boiled eggs eggs, various cooked vegetables and washed herbs in our fridge - all in glass lock containers and making a nutritious life that much simpler, and safer!
If you're looking for some batch cooking inspiration, head to this post and for the ultimate support, join the members-only Wholefood Society Online.
Meal plans, exclusive recipes, videos + practical tools to make healthy eating a cinch.
I've done the planning, so you don't have to.
By the way and in case you're wondering, we're very 19th century at our place {insert winking face here}. We toast bread in the grill part of our oven and re-heat food on our stove top...
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