Kitchen Essentials

As most of you know, we recently moved into a new home. (After living in a hotel for five months!) When we left Maine, we got rid of almost everything because none of it was really new. Plus we got so many amazing gifts for our wedding! So when we arrived here, we pretty much started from scratch. Not just in our kitchen, but in our entire home! We have a long way to go, but since we spend the most time in the kitchen and living room, we were sure to finish those first.

Stocking a kitchen can be really fun. The first three weeks we were living in our new home, the movers hadn’t delivered our things yet, so I got a really good idea of what I needed and what I could live without in a kitchen. This post is about kitchen essentials, but I also threw a small list at the bottom of items that aren’t necessarily necessities. Plus a few giveaways are involved! 😉

I linked to each item below, and I would say that about 98% of them are the exact same product that I own myself and I love!

Tongs I feel like I couldn’t live without these! I use them for quite literally everything, from handling chicken, tossing salads, flipping items in the oven, to sauteing things around a pot. I love these particular ones because they lock shut and have rubber ends.

Large Baking Dish For everything! Making casseroles, lasagna, cooking drumsticks, sheet cakes, cookie bars, etc. A baking dish is so versatile and I couldn’t wait until ours arrived after the move!

Grater/Zester This is probably one of my most used kitchen items. Every single day this gets pulled out, and for everything! I love it for grating cheese, to zesting citrus! Read more about this grater and Enter to win one of your own HERE!  (Giveaway Closed.)

A Good Knife The number one essential is our kitchen. I use my knives all day long, from breakfast to dinner, for everything! A great sharp knife is priceless in my opinion, and you can read more about why and enter to win a pretty amazing knife, HERE!  (Giveaway Closed.)

Large Pot Soups! Pastas! In my mind a pot is never big enough! We make huge pots of chili for almost every football game, a large pot is essential!

Covered Skillet  I love this covered skillet for soo many reasons! Stir frys, braising meats, making sauces, you name it. A skillet is used almost daily in my home for one reason or another.

Large Saute Pan (That is oven proof I should add!) There is nothing more convenient than a pan that can transfer from the stove to the oven. A 5 Qt Saute pan, with straight up sides, a tight lid, and oven proof up to 500°…just THINK of the possibilities. I use mine weekly for the stove to oven purpose, and almost daily to make dinner; sauces, one pot pastas, so versatile, and so essential!

To read more about why I love the above three pans so much, and for a chance to win a set of your own, valued at $300, follow this link to Read and Enter! (Giveaway Closed.)

Small Saucepan Having different sized pans is so helpful. I don’t always need a big pot if I am making my kids mac and cheese, applesauce, or are cooking rice or quinoa. Small ones are quicker to clean too!

Spatulas Of all kinds! Rubber Spatulas are my favorite, and I have them in a few different sizes, and use them for everything from mixing doughs, to scraping out jars. My most used spatula is my GIR. It’s so sturdy, heat resistant, and easy to clean! Metal Spatulas are great for flipping burgers, pancakes, or picking up cookies. We eat a lot of eggs, so to us having a super thin spatula is a necessity.

Bakeware Set You can buy it together or individually, but if you like to bake you can’t do it without these things. Baking sheets, cake pans, muffin tins, all a necessity to baking.

Whisk I love them. I use them for many a things! Their main purpose is beating air into mixtures. I use them for a variety of things from beating eggs and pancake batter to mixing up a homemade salad dressing or mixing ganache!

Bread Knife I am not sure this is essential to everyone. I mean, I guess you could just use a good knife for it. But oh what a pain it can be, and usually crushes your bread. We love bread, and I make a TON of it around here. Having a serrated knife to cut through crusty bread is irreplaceable.

Vegetable Peeler There’s not a lot to say about a veggie peeler, but if you eat them, you need it!

Can Opener Once again, a necessity. From opening up cans of diced tomatoes to black beans, it makes things a lot easier! We didn’t have one for a few weeks, and tried to use a knife a few times, it was a disaster.

Corkscrew Do you drink as much wine as we do? Do you drink any? Even if you don’t, you may have guests who bring over a bottle of wine, and I’m betting you’re going to need one!

Measuring Spoon Set and Measuring CupsIf you bake, you need them. Baking is a science, and everything has to be precise. If a recipe says 2 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda, and you eyeball it, don’t expect your recipe to always turn out like the one you’re trying to create. Baking needs to be exact.

Liquid Measuring Cup Much more exact for measuring milk, water, etc. than in a dry measuring cup, where it might spill over. Necessary.

Colander If all your pans have lids that have strainers on the rim, then I guess this isn’t completely essential. (We lived without one in the hotel for five months..but it was a pain.) But I still think it is. You can make sure your pasta is completely dry and well drained.

Blender Some people may not think a blender is totally necessary, but I do. I love having the single serve in this one to make individual smoothies, pesto, or sauces. In the hotel we used our blender like you would a food processor and it worked perfectly. You can use your blender for making pureed soups and frozen drinks too!

Cutting Boards Well unless you want to slice up your counter tops, you need cutting boards. Plus they keep your counters cleaner, help hold the food in place better, and protect your knives.

Mixing BowlsFor cakes, cookies, salads, serving food, the list goes on. I have a set of glass ones which are great because they don’t absorb stains or odors, and a set of stainless steel ones, which are excellent and can act like a double burner. I also have this plastic set which I love for transferring food to BBQ’s, marinating meats, or just as general food storage.

Ladle Kind of a nuisance to serve soup without one. Trust me, I’ve tried. You never get enough broth, or it spills everywhere. You need one if you like soup!

Food Storage Container Set After about three days in our new home of making dinners and having nothing but plastic bags for the leftovers, we realized how essential this is. I like this glass set because it doesn’t hold stains or odors like plastic ones tend to do, and they’re super easy to clean in the dishwasher.

Toaster Easiest and quickest way to toast your bread, English muffins, and bagels! And my favorite use for it, warming up pizza slices! I hate turning on the entire oven to heat up a couple slices, so I just pop them in the toaster. (And no, 98% of the time, the toppings do not all melt off even though they’re vertical.)

Box Grater To grate LOTS of cheese, duh! But also, to grate fruits and veggies. I am confident that I use this box grater, daily. And, having the container on the bottom that catches everything and measures it, is just the cherry on top!

Not Essential but Convenient!

Cheese Slicer We eat a ridiculous amount of cheese. You can use a knife to slice cheese, yes, but this is so much more convenient. It slices your cheese evenly, and it’s SO easy. My husband was telling me that this is definitely a kitchen essential, but I realize that not everyone eats cheese by the pounds!

Lemon Squeezer I use this for limes, grapefruit, and oranges too. I tend to get more juice from these than just squeezing with my hands alone. (Maybe I need more muscles in my fingers! :P) But you can just use your hands!

Tomato Knife You can definitely just use a good, sharp knife, But I hate when tomatoes get crushed and I lose all the juice,  so with this knife, that never happens.

Meat Thermometer I went a really long time without one of these. I personally do not think its necessary, I’m pretty good at gauging when my meat is cooked by touch now, but I know a lot of people swear by them.

Wooden Spoons I’ve talked of my love of wooden spoons before. I love this set, with the different shapes. I literally use them for everything.

Cookie Scoop Another item I went a long time before purchasing. What’s wrong with a good old spoon? But a cookie scoop definitely gives all your cookies uniformity, the same shape and size, if that’s important to you.

Salad Spinner Not a necessity at all. We only got this one very recently, and while it’s nice to have, I don’t always use it. I don’t mind chopping my salad and drying it with paper towels. But my husband really likes to have it around.

Food Processor Let me start by saying I LOVE mine. And since moving in here, it is definitely one of my most used kitchen appliances. BUT I do think that it’s not 100% necessary. You can do so much with it, from making pie dough to shredding your veggies and cheese, but you can also do all of that by hand, which makes this not essential, but definitely convenient.

Pizza Cutter /Pizza Stone/Pizza Paddle We have always made a lot of pizza! We have pizza night every Friday night. So these items to us are pretty necessary, but they aren’t to everyone. The stone is great for giving a perfectly crispy crust, and the pizza paddle is the best and easiest way to transfer said pizza from in and out of the oven. If you don’t make homemade pizza, you don’t need these!

Cooling Rack For Cookies! I have them, I use them, but I didn’t always, and my cookies were still great!

Cast Iron SkilletLove having mine, but its not necessary. It’s beneficial for going from stove to oven, but I have other skillets and pots that do that. It adds natural iron to food, retains heat evenly and longer. But again, they’re not essential.

Rolling Pin This one depends. If you don’t bake, you don’t really need one. I don’t even use it for rolling out pizza dough usually, just my hands. But if you bake, I’m betting a rolling pin is essential!

Grill Pan I debated for a little while on which category this belongs in! I LOVE my grill pan. We make a ton of turkey, chicken, or black bean burgers, so having a grill pan is fantastic. But you could cook those foods on a regular skillet as well. Its necessity depends on how often you would actually use it!

Stand Mixer I know a lot of people who cannot live without their mixer. And while it is one of the most convenient appliances, it’s not essential, and that’s what this post is about. You can use it for making cookies, cakes, frosting’s, meringues, pizza dough, shredding chicken, the list is long, BUT you can also do all of those things by hand. I got a large stand mixer for my wedding, and I haven’t used it yet in the last month, I’ve made tons of pizza dough and LOTS of cookies, but I’ve done it all with a good ol’ mixing bowl, spatula, and my hands. SO, while this item may be necessary to some, your kitchen will run perfectly fine without one too!

What are your must have Kitchen Essentials?!

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