As a stay at home mom I spend about 70% of my time in the kitchen it seems. From nonstop snack prepping to endlessly cleaning up the toddler messes so I’ve had lots of time to figure out what I use every day and what I can’t live without in the kitchen. Here’s the list of my must-have kitchen appliances and gadgets.
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1. Bacon Pan
I previously purchased a bacon pan that only lasted us about 8 months. I then found this one on Amazon and it is one of my most used kitchen items. This one is such great quality and so heavy duty. I love being able to make a full pound of bacon at once without the grease splatter on the stove. I also use it regularly for sheet pan dinners and roasted veggies. The large size makes it perfect for prepping lots of food at once.
2. Ninja Coffee Bar
If you’ve followed my blog at all you’ve surely seen me mention my Ninja Coffee Bar and my intense love for it. You can make amazing lattes and coffee of all sizes from a single cup to a full pot. I love that you can use regular coffee grounds and set a timer the night before which I always do to be sure I am never without coffee no matter how late I’m running. (I’ve found the best solution to cleaning the Ninja Coffee Bar which was the only drawback for me because nothing I found worked well, but I now use these affresh coffee cleaner tablets, and it gets it clean in one cycle.)
Upgraded Ninja Coffee Bar with auto milk frother here. (My actual model linked above.)
3. Immersion Blender
I use this item exclusively for my coffee. As a sweet coffee addict I regularly try to detox myself from the super sweet coffee creamer and when I do, I do a keto coffee in the morning with coconut oil. This item mixes in the coconut oil flawlessly without having to break out the blender and risk waking my kids and creates a latte-like foam on top for a foamy rich coffee.
4. KitchenAid Mixer
I have to admit that when I put this KitchenAid Mixer on my wedding registry I pretty much planned for it to be a pretty piece on my countertop. I didn’t realize how often I would actually use it. It’s so handy to throw in all the ingredients and have cookie dough whipped up in seconds. I have since expanded my uses for it and it makes such a difference for multitasking in the kitchen or meal prep. I’ve used it to mash boiled potatoes, shred pulled pork or chicken, mix meatballs and meatloaf, and of course mix every baking recipe.
5. Air Fryer
My Air fryer gets used at least once a week. While we only occasionally make chicken wings I use if very frequently to reheat leftovers. It’s such a quick and easy way to reheat leftover pizza without creating soggy crust like the microwave. It also makes it possible to successfully reheat items like French fries, quesadillas, and hot wraps. We even use it on occasion to cook a few slices of bacon at a time…but let’s be honest, most of the time we cook the whole pound on my bacon pan!
This version comes in lots of cute colors.
6. No-Boil Over
Any multitasking mom has probably more than once had a pot of water boil over and cover the stove top. I am notorious for leaving a pot to boil, moving onto another task and run into the kitchen when I hear the sizzling water on the stove. This gadget keeps your water from boiling onto the stove and makes less of a mess for a busy mom to clean up and allows you to keep multitasking.
7. Collapsible Colander
I am boiling water many many nights a week because one of the few foods both my girls will eat is pasta with butter. So I hate to bust out the huge colander and have it take up half of my dishwasher space so often, so a small collapsible colander works perfectly.
8. Crockpot (slow cooker)
A slow cooker is the ultimate mom multitasking tool since it allows you to set it and forget it. It cooks meats so tenderly in their juices and creates perfect casseroles. I often use mine to make BBQ Ribs, Pulled Pork or Chicken, Taco Lasagna, Chicken and dumplings, the list goes on and on. I have this model, but the new ones (like the one linked above) even have timers allowing the unit to shut itself off so there’s no need to rush home when your cook time is up.
9. Veggetti
The veggetti veggie spiralizer allows you to make any vegetable like squash and zucchini into pasta-like noodles. Whenever I make a heavy cream sauce like my creamy lemon chicken, I like to lighten it up a little by serving it over veggie noodles. This little gadget makes it super quick and easy to make low carb noodles.
10. Pan Scraper
This little item may seem like nothing special but this pan scraper is a magic tool for removing tough stuck on food from all pan types without scratching any coatings or soaking your pans for hours. I use it regularly on our cast iron and enamel coated pans.
Bonus Item:
(These enamel coated pans are a purchase of mine that I absolutely love! I bought 2 and after a month decided to purchase all the sizes and styles to replace our Teflon pans. They are non-stick, no Teflon coating, and safe to use with metal utensils. I bought this set and this set.)
I hope this list of kitchen must-haves helps make your busy mom life run a little smoother.
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