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Green Christmas Guide: Kitchen Tools and Books

November 21, 2011 by KimiHarris 28 Comments

Thanks for stopping by! If you're interested in healthy eating check out my free gifts! and subscribe to get regular email updates. *Some links may be affiliate.*
Thanks for stopping by! If you're interested in healthy eating check out my free gifts! and subscribe to get regular email updates. *Some links may be affiliate.*


I have been grateful for the kitchen tools I have that make my life easier. That isn’t to say that I’ve loved everything I have ever bought, but the following tools and books I think are gift worthy.

Cooking healthy food from scratch can be a time commitment and while it’s worth the work, any tool that makes it easier and less stressful is a plus. I have to say that the kitchen tools I’ve gotten as gifts have been some of the most well-loved gifts I’ve ever gotten.  Here are a few of my favorites.

Stay tuned for much more!

Kitchen Tools

Cuisinart Compact Portable Blending/Chopping System: This is a new tool that I recently bought and have been really happy with it. It’s like the personal blenders or the bullet blenders in that you can make just one smoothie at a time (using the small container on the left-there are 4 of them- which you fit with the blade and turn upside down). But it also has the full blender size, which you use just like a regular blender. Plus, it also has a different blade and container that is suitable for grinding flax and chia seeds as well as spices and nuts. I have been using this baby everyday! I love that it has a small kitchen footprint, so it doesn’t take up too much room on my counter. It’s so multi-use, it’s gotten a lot of wear and tear and held up very well so far. It has a powerful motor, so it handles frozen fruit for smoothies with ease. And it’s really a good price too. On Amazon right now, it’s only a little over $60 dollars, which isn’t bad for a high quality blender like this is. Only disadvantage: It won’t blend really large amounts. So if you are making super size smoothies for a large family, this may not be the best bet. However, it’s great for taking a bit of your nourishing meal, and blending it up for baby food! I’ve really appreciated that recently with a 13 month old in the house!

KitchenAid Hand Bender: I’ve had one of these for the last four years and I love it! It’s great for making homemade mayonnaise, but what I use it most for is blending soups. It’s so, so easy to just stick this in a large pot of soup, and blend it for creamy soups that are delicious and easy for little ones to enjoy too! It’s been a lifesaver when trying to get my 5 year old to eat more bone broths. But it’s also great for adults, because creamed soups are delicious at any age.

Cuisinart Ice-Cream Maker: My dear mother-in-law gave my husband and me this ice cream maker early in our marriage and it certainly has gotten a lot of use! It’s wonderful for making healthier ice creams, and especially nice for those sensitive to common ice cream ingredients, such as dairy, sugar, and food dyes. In just about 30 minutes, you can have homemade ice cream!

Excalibur Food Dehydrator: This is a wonderful tool that is actually much more versatile than I thought. You can use it to make beef jerky, dehydrate soaked nuts, make nut granola, make temperature perfect yogurt, dry fruits and vegetables, and I am even thinking of using it when soaking my grains so as to keep them at the perfect temperature.

Pyrex Smart Essentials 8-Piece Mixing Bowl Set: I bought this set a few weeks ago and they have literally been in use since the moment I unpacked them. In fact, for this picture I had to gather bowls from the counter and refrigerator as they were literally all in use at the time. Yup, I definitely recommend this set! I love that they have the lids, so convenient.

World Cuisine Tri-Blade Plastic Spiral Vegetable Slicer: Raw foodists have long used these tools to make zucchini noodles. But vegetables noodles are great for everyone! Watch this video to see how it works.

Cookbooks

Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats: The title says it all. This cookbook, and the work of Sally Fallon Morell in general,  has helped so many of us discover “real food”. More than a cookbook, it’s a textbook. Everyone should have a copy!

Wild Fermentation: This is great add-on to Nourishing Traditions as it has many recipes for making lacto-fermented vegetables and more.

Fresh: Nourishing Salads for all Seasons: I wrote this book as I wanted to have a salad cookbook that was based on real food, practical, family friendly, and delicious. These are the salads that we love in our family. Keep an eye out for my Black Friday special!

Irish Traditional Cooking: Over 300 Recipes from Ireland’s Heritage: This cookbook is a fun look at traditional Irish food. It not only has some delicious recipes in it, but makes an interesting read for any foodie.

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KimiHarris

I love beautiful and simple food that is nourishing to the body and the soul. I wrote Fresh: Nourishing Salads for All Seasons and Ladled: Nourishing Soups for All Seasons as another outlet of sharing this love of mine. I also love sharing practical tips on how to make a real food diet work on a real life budget. Find me online elsewhere by clicking on the icons below!

Latest posts by KimiHarris (see all)

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Filed Under: Uncategorized

Previous Post: « Green Christmas Guide and Handmade Gift Carnival
Next Post: Green Christmas Guide: Unique Clay Cookware and Bakeware »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Allison

    November 22, 2011 at 6:38 am

    Very nice list! I have the hand blender on my wish list this year, an ice cream maker for my kitchen aid.

    Reply
  2. Katie @ Mexican Wildflower

    November 22, 2011 at 7:40 am

    Kimi did you move? It looks like a different kitchen. I was wondering what brand the electric kettle in the backgroud is? I bought one from costco but is has some plastic in it and is starting to break. Thanks for sharing your video, kitcen tools and books. I have a few of those things but can’t wait till I’m able to add more of them to my kitchen/library. 🙂

    Reply
    • KimiHarris

      November 22, 2011 at 11:21 am

      Hi Katie,

      This is actually my mother’s kitchen. 🙂 So far all of the electric kettles I know of have plastic inside or on the lid. So annoying!

      Reply
      • Karen B

        November 22, 2011 at 3:29 pm

        I have an Aroma electric kettle. It is Stainless Steel. I love it. I love it so much I bought one for a friend.

        Reply
      • Katie @ Mexican Wildflower

        December 13, 2011 at 12:45 pm

        Beautiful kitchen anyway! 🙂 Thanks!

        Reply
      • Katie @ Mexican Wildflower

        December 13, 2011 at 12:46 pm

        Beautiful kitchen anyway! Thanks Kimi. 🙂

        Reply
    • Tara

      November 22, 2011 at 3:45 pm

      We have a stainless kettle by Hamilton Beach, purchased on Amazon; it does have plastic in the lid, but I felt better about that option since the water isn’t in contact with it, as opposed to the ones that have plastic down in the part of the kettle where the water is boiling.

      Reply
      • KimiHarris

        November 22, 2011 at 4:17 pm

        If I bought one, I would buy a similar model with just the plastic at the top. But I find it annoying, as steam will still reach the plastic (and I imagine fall back down). Since plastic and heat is a no-no, I’ve still not gotten one, to my disappointment. If anyone knows of a completely plastic free one (inside) let me know!

        Reply
        • karen B

          December 1, 2011 at 4:37 pm

          The aroma brand doesn’t have any plastic

          Reply
          • karen B

            December 1, 2011 at 5:27 pm

            Sorry, i was wrong. I didn’t realize there is plastic under the lid.

          • Katie @ Mexican Wildflower

            December 13, 2011 at 12:49 pm

            Thanks for the input, Kimi, Karen and Tara!

  3. Karen B

    November 22, 2011 at 3:31 pm

    I like the idea of the Cuisinart Compact Portable Blending/Chopping System, I actually found out that the blade from a regular size blender fits into a canning jar. I use this to make individual things. I works great and the cost is even better. I have an Oster so I am not sure if this works for every brand. Also, it works with the regular jars, not wide mouth.

    Reply
  4. Michelle

    November 22, 2011 at 4:03 pm

    I have been wanting a blender like the one you describe, and it looks really nice, but I don’t like that the containers are made from plastic. The manufacturer says they are BPA free, but there are many other BPA-like things in plastic that are just as harmful, if not more harmful. Have you heard of any blenders that use glass jars?

    Reply
    • KimiHarris

      November 22, 2011 at 4:41 pm

      Our first blender was this model
      from Oster. It’s not very expensive and has a glass container for the blender. It did kind of fall apart (the rubber parts near the blade) in a few years, and was very loud, so we didn’t re-buy it. But it is glass!

      Reply
  5. Joy

    November 22, 2011 at 4:47 pm

    I love you. You say “uh” a lot in your videos. 🙂 Again, I love you. 🙂

    Reply
    • KimiHarris

      November 22, 2011 at 5:38 pm

      HA! Yeah, I noticed that too (I also noticed my bad grammar, but let’s not go into that right now! These are one shot, no rehearsal videos. It shows. 😉 )

      Reply
  6. Lori @ Laurel of Leaves

    November 22, 2011 at 4:58 pm

    I use my Pyrex mixing bowls with lids almost every day! I also couldn’t imagine cooking without my Vitamix. It’s expensive, but worth every penny.

    Reply
  7. Judy

    November 22, 2011 at 5:15 pm

    Kimi, Thanks so much for the reviews. I found the music in the video kind of overpowered your voice, so it was a little hard to follow. I so appreciate all of your work.

    Reply
    • KimiHarris

      November 22, 2011 at 5:40 pm

      Thanks, Judy, for letting me know. We’ve found that sometimes the levels sound fine on our computer, but don’t work well for others on their computer. I am not sure why that is, but we will try to make any music less distracting in the future. 🙂

      Reply
  8. France @ Beyond The Peel

    November 22, 2011 at 7:36 pm

    What a great list of gifts. I really need to get a dehydrator! I’ll make sure to put it on my list.

    Reply
  9. Meagan

    November 22, 2011 at 8:21 pm

    I got those Pyrex bowls from Costco about 2 months ago and I agree – they’re great!!

    Reply
  10. Paula

    November 23, 2011 at 1:37 am

    Thanks for the great ideas, Kimi. An Excalibur dehydrator has been on my list for ages, but I can’t make up my mind because of the plastic issue. As you said in one of your comments: “plastic and heat is a no-no”… I understand that the dehydrator uses very low temperatures, but still. I would love to be convinced that it’s not problem!

    Reply
    • Magda @ No Food Diet

      December 5, 2011 at 9:08 am

      Unfortunately, I just learned that Excalibur dehydrators contain BPA so I would not recommend buying it. If you are looking for a dehydrator, you should check out the new Sonoma one from Tibest. It is BPA-free. I am still using my Excalibur because I dehydrate a lot but I am very concerned about the BPA in it. I wish I could somehow trade my Excalibur in for a Sonoma but they are expensive. I also understand there is a stainless steel dehydrator out there but I don’t know much about it.

      Also I just learned the “Teflex” sheets that come with the excalibur dehydrator are coated in Teflon (yuck). The Sonoma has similar sheets you can buy without Teflon although I understand they are not as non-stick, as you can imagine.

      Reply
  11. Natalia

    November 29, 2011 at 6:28 pm

    Do you have any hot air popper recommendations? Or would you say stick with the stainless steel whirley pop type apparatus? Putting together my Christmas wish list…

    Reply
  12. Lallon

    December 1, 2011 at 7:20 pm

    I make smoothies every day and have been using a hand blender. I got the Cuisinart blender and used the chopper for my chia seeds, flax seeds, cardamom, and crystallized ginger. Then dumped it in a cup with my fruit, homemade kefir and a few other goodies. My favorite smoothie ever! Thanks for the recommendation!

    Reply
  13. Natalia

    February 4, 2012 at 6:28 am

    Kimi or anyone who can guide me, Since the sugar cleanse I’ve felt inspired to do more. I made the zucchini millet muffins yesterday (normally I don’t bake) and made a spontaneous purchase of a VitaMix. It is BPA free (bullet-proof pseudo glass of supposedly highest quality, of course glass would be best.) Before I decide to keep it – do you have any thoughts on heating things up by the sheer speed of the blades? Apparently they rotate at 240 mph and heat soups by spinning them for 6-7 minutes – of course all the (raw) vegetables are completely smooth liquid by then with no texture. Is this in line with NT cooking? Another reason I bought it is for grinding flour (fine grains like millet) and making “juice.” Unlike traditional juicers this pulverizes things so finely that one can drink veggies/fruits like a juice without extracting the pulp. I just want to get a good start on this. Thanks so much for everything. This sugar cleanse has been quite humbling.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Green Christmas Guide: Fair Trade Baskets, Earrings, and Sandals, Baltic Amber Necklace, Gluten-Free Flavored Coffee, Glass Straws, and Honey Chocolate Bars says:
    November 29, 2011 at 12:26 pm

    […] have shared two posts so far in my Green Christmas Guide, Kitchen Tools and Cookbooks, and Unique Clay Cookware and Bakeware. Today I wanted to continue the series by featuring several […]

    Reply
  2. Green Christmas Guide: Fair Trade Baskets, Earrings, and Sandals, Baltic Amber Necklace, Gluten-Free Flavored Coffee, Glass Straws, and Honey Chocolate Bars says:
    November 29, 2011 at 12:26 pm

    […] have shared two posts so far in my Green Christmas Guide, Kitchen Tools and Cookbooks, and Unique Clay Cookware and Bakeware. Today I wanted to continue the series by featuring several […]

    Reply

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The information you find here at The Nourishing Gourmet is meant to help you become a better cook! This site is primarily for sharing family friendly recipes. It's not meant to give medical advice or to make any health claims on the prevention or curing of diseases.This site is only for informational and educational purposes. Please discuss with your own, qualified health care provider before adding in supplements or making any changes in your diet. Also, any links to sponsors or affiliates (including Amazon) may give me a percentage of the sale or a pay per click. Thank you for supporting this site.

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