Happy Friday everyone! So how many of you have been keeping up with my weekly meal plans? My hope with this service to teach you how to actually cook at home that will healthfully fuel your body, and put some money back in your pockets. However, I’m sure if cooking is still new to you that maybe you don’t have a ton of cooking utensils. Sure maybe you have a pot or two, a frying pan, and the oven at your apartment. But there are so many cooking utensils out there these days that it kind of feels like you need, well, everything.
Let me be the firs to tell you that you really don’t. Even though our kitchen is tiny, I know we have a ton of kitchen stuff…and a lot of utensils that I barely touch from week-to-week. I have my go-to cooking utensils, and I figured I would narrow down your list of cooking materials to buy and let you know what is actually worth the investment.
Chef’s Knife
Oliver & I received this awesome set of Cutco knives from his parents when we got married. Although I enjoy the small paring knife and the bread knives, my go-to of the set is our Chef’s Knife. I grab it for everything when it comes to chopping. Onions, chicken, potatoes, peppers, you name it. I would not be able to cook one meal without starting with a chopping and prepping session without my Chef’s Knife. And an actual good one, at that.
Slotted Spoon
Now there are tons of different serving spoons and cooking spoons you can buy, but here is why I love my slotted spoon: It is perfect for grabbing food out of the crock pot, great for separating chicken or beef from the fat that cooked off onto the pan, and also still looks great as a serving spoon on the table.
Wooden Turner
When I actually cook my meals, I stir everything using this wooden turner. I’m not even sure I want to call it a spoon, because it really can’t grab anything since it’s so flat. But it’s incredible for the actual cooking time – like breaking up ground meat, mixing around stir fry vegetables, and even separates rice and pasta well when cooking in a pot. I have an entire set of wooden spoons that we got for our wedding, but only seem to grab this one.
Garlic press
I know it is way easier to buy a jar of minced garlic, but I have an obsession with cooking my food with freshly minced garlic. I love buying heads of garlic at the store (gosh they are so cheap) and actually prepping fresh cloves with my garlic press for my recipes. Sure the peeling process totally ruins my homemade manicure every week, but that amazing garlicy-taste is so worth it.
Small whisk
When I lived in a dorm I purchased a small whisk, a spatula, and a rubber bowl to make brownies in the community kitchen (no, not kidding, did that all the time). So when Oliver and I were putting together our registry, I figured that it was time to update my whisk and get a larger one for our kitchen. But after some time, I found that my small whisk really performs just as well as a larger whisk, and to be honest, the smaller handle makes it easier to hold and mix things. So I took the large whisk off the registry and never looked back.
Straight-edge spatula
This was another gift from my mother-in-law during my first Christmas in Iowa. She gave me this spatula with a sheet pan that has a great plastic top cover, perfect for baking and transporting. At first I didn’t really get this little spatula, but now, I can’t seem to not get it. It is universal in so many ways. It makes getting freshly baked banana bread and muffins out of their tins way easier. It is perfect for scraping last bits of tomato sauce out of a can or jar, or helps me to make one last pancake from the batter splattered on the edge of the bowl. It helps for cleaning as well. Seriously, if you aren’t into wasting any money or food and want to get the most out of your food purchases, having one of these will make that actually possible.
I hope you enjoyed this round-up! If you made it this far, then I’ll share with you a quick secret of something I’ve been putting together. In a few weeks I’ll be posting an actual registry checklist perfect for the minimalist you want to be. I know it’s tempting to register for everything when you get married – but Oliver and I found that after assessing what we truly needed, we were able to make a registry that worked really well for our space and our needs. Stay tuned!
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