If you want to cook from scratch
I find that it is MUCH easier
when you have certain appliances or gadgets
to make the job easier
Sure, you can probably do just fine without
some of these things
but they will cut out some of the work
and make it easier to accomplish your goal
of cooking from scratch!
So here is a list of my favorite and must have
kitchen essentials!
#1 – Best to start off expensive right? – I ADORE my Kitchen Aid. I can guarantee, I would not bake or cook as much without it. I can make bread dough in a snap with the dough hook, since it does all the kneading for me. I have the 6qt Professional in beautiful Cobalt Blue and I am simply in love with it. I can do double batches of everything with the 6qt. I see the smaller 5qt on on sale after Thanksgiving for around $100-150 – WELL worth it in my opinion! It will make baking by scratch so much easier and more pleasant. It does most of the work for you! Seriously consider investing in one! We even have the meat grinder attachment and grind our own chicken burger from chicken breasts
#2 – Food Processor – it makes grating, slicing, and dicing a breeze. You can make up pie dough in a few minutes! brings together sauces, slices your potatoes. I used to have a smaller 7 cup Kitchen Aid one, but as our family grew, it was too small, so I upgraded to the Cuisinart. LOVE IT. This and my Kitchen Aid are my favorite things in my kitchen and things I could not live without and still cook by scratch!
#3 – A Cookie Scoop. I use for all the homemade cookies I make. It is great for making meatballs. Use it to fill my mini-muffin tins. Small and simple and so many great uses. Don’t go too cheap, they will break easily. I spent a little more on my last one and it has lasted me for years (and I use it several times a week!)
#4 – AirBake Cookie Sheets – Trust me. These are worth EVERY penny. My cookies come out perfectly everytime. Guaranteed not to burn. I have been using them since we got married 13 years ago, and never had a problem. One person asked me how my cookies turn out so perfectly – cookie scoop and AirBake Pans! Trust me – you’ll love them!
#5 – Aluminum Cake Pan – We got one of these cake pans as a wedding gift and we still use it all the time. We also got some non-stick ones… Yeah, we threw those away a few years ago because they just got nasty and the non-stick coating was flaking off – yuck! So we went and bought another one of these. They seemingly last forever and cakes and brownies cookie lovely in them!
#6 & 6.5 – A LARGE 12 inch Skillet – I seriously use mine almost EVERYDAY. Spend some money on a good one. I love my Calphalon 12′ Covered Skillet. Use it every day and it is worth every cent to buy a nicer one, rather than replacing cheap ones all the time! Also, Consider getting a smaller 8′ Skillet – works great when just needing to scramble 2 eggs in the morning!
#7 – A large Pot – Great for making large batches of Jam, Soup, Chili, Pasta, or just boiling water!
#8 – a Medium Sauce pan – Great for mixing up sauces or just boiling some Ramen for lunch.
#9 – Slow Cooker – These are worth their weight in gold. You can have a homemade meal, at home waiting for you when you get home from a busy day! Just throw everything in, and it does all the cooking for you. My slow cooker used to baffle me, but now I love it and just throw anything in there and magically come home to a cooked meal! I have 3 different sizes of Slow cookers! (not necessary, you only need one!)
#10 – Measuring Cups and Spoons – Absolutely essential when planning to do any baking. I have had many different kinds, but the Kitchen Aid are my favorite (in fact, I just bought another set last week!)
#11 & 11.5 – Spatula – A good spatula is priceless in a kitchen. From taking those freshly baked cookies off the sheet, to stirring the stir-fry, to flipping your pancakes, your kitchen will need a few of these! Make sure you have some Silicone Spatulas too – great for scraping your bowls/pans and making scrambled eggs!
#12 – Ah yes, The good old wooden spoon! Great for stirring your soups and any general stirring you are doing in the kitchen
#13 – Santoku Knife – I like the 7″ larger one. It is my all-purpose knife! I use it for cutting chicken, to cutting watermelon!
#14 – Good plain metal grater. I use mine all the time to grate cheese into casseroles or for Grilled Cheese. We love cheese around here, so this gets ALOT of use!
#15 Cutting board – I LOVE Flexible, cheap cutting boards! When they get cut up and nasty, just throw them out!
The rest of these aren’t necessarily “essential,” but to me they are!
Rice Cooker – I’ll admit it, I’ve only cooked rice on the stovetop once. We’ve always just used a rice cooker. As a busy mom, I don’t have to worry about timing it, or it burning – you just put the rice and water in and it does all the cooking and timing for you! You can even have it working while you are gone. For me, this is essential to have homemade, hot rice!
Set of Pyrex pans – I got these in Blue as a wedding gift and use them constantly. I use my 2 13×9 pans for Casseroles weekly. I have a 8×8 pan, for smaller dishes or side dishes. I use my loaf pans for making bread. I adore my deep dish Pie Pans.
Muffin Tins – I use my mini-muffin tins (I have 2) weekly, to make Banana Muffins for my kids. They gobble them up quick! I also have a couple of regular size muffin tins, for making cupcakes!
Jelly Roll Pan – Just plain useful!
Electric Griddle – I LOVE my griddle. It makes cooking up Pancakes, French Toast, or Tortillas so much faster! You can pick these up on Black Friday pretty cheaply!
Waffle Maker – Well, if you are like us, and love waffles, this is essential to any kitchen. We have 3 in fact. We have the regular kind, we got as a wedding gift, 13 years ago! We have a Mickey Mouse Waffle maker – another gift – and we recently acquired a Belgium waffle maker. We make waffles up in BIG batches, and freeze them and then the kids just pop them in the toaster in the morning!
Electric Knife – Great for Thanksgiving or slicing up your roast or ham! Cheap and a great addition to your kitchen
Stick/Immersion Blender – this is VERY useful in making soups, and puree’s
Digital Thermometer – I use mine for cooking a turkey, making Candies, anytime something needs to get to a certain temperature, I use my digital Thermometer. Takes the guess work out and you can set an alarm to let you know when what you are cooking, gets to that temperature – no more over-cooked (or under-cooked) turkey’s! I loved mine so much, I gave one to my mother in law as a gift!
