Calling all Busy Moms - Help is Here!!!

The Busy Mom’s Guide to Kitchen Tools

Often I get asked how I manage to prepare home-cooked meals for my family, especially with a toddler running circles around me. To this, I reply, I make it a priority! Restaurants, prepared foods, and certainly packaged foods do not provide the quality that I demand for my family. Besides these options are expensive, and loaded with excess fat, sugar, salt, and other chemical additives, which science is proving to be more catastrophic on our health every day.  So I have no other choice…

However, I do not pretend to do it all alone. I would never tackle cooking this way with out these five time saving, budget-friendly tools. 

Crock Pot

As soon at the air starts to cool off in New England, I pull out this trusty tool and don’t put it away until well into the spring.  With just a bit of foresight you can throw together the ingredients for a delicious home cooked meal in minutes, and still have time to drink your coffee before the kids wake up. Enjoy the smells of beef stew, homemade applesauce, chili or fresh marinara sauce cooking as you tend to all the other things on your to do list. Simply garnish dish before serving and dinner is served

Kitchen Stool - My daughter is standing in this stool in the attached photo! 

One of the most essential tools I rely on for managing my time in the kitchen is this stool. It is here that Charlotte can safely observe and help out with the stirring, measuring and dumping of ingredients for each meal. My hope is that by including her in the process, she will grow to appreciate and respect food when she is older. For now, it teaches her where food originates and that it doesn’t just magically appear. 

Immersion Blender

Often used in conjunction with the CrockPot, this handy albeit potentially hazardous tool makes short work of puréeing soups and sauces and prevents dirtying up another dish or even worse the food processor. (Note: be careful with this tool, I had a bit of a run in with it earlier this year but despite that fact returned to using it as it is so darn useful). 

Vitamix

In my house, this high end blender is essential for whipping up a healthy breakfast drinks or snack and increasingly more helpful in making my own hummus, nut butters, even flour. For those of you on a gluten-free diet needing high-priced alternative flours, this tool will greatly help with the budget and increase the likelihood of you successfully trying out a few homemade items in the gluten-free bakery world. And yes, while this may be a high-ticket item, if you buy any of the above regularly, you will make back your money very quickly with this machine. It is also a breeze to clean!!

Meal Planning

Every Sunday, I sit down with the family schedule and map out breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the week. Cooking is all about management. If I know what I am making for the family ahead of time I can make sure to have the ingredients on hand and save time, money, and energy running out to the store for last minute items, or just giving up completely and getting take out. If you’d like to learn more about meal planning please sign up for a free health consultation with me to discuss this time saving technique.