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
KitchenAid Hand Bender: 
Cuisinart Ice-Cream Maker
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
World Cuisine Tri-Blade Plastic Spiral Vegetable Slicer
Cookbooks
Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats
Wild Fermentation
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
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Very nice list! I have the hand blender on my wish list this year, an ice cream maker for my kitchen aid.
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. 🙂
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!
I have an Aroma electric kettle. It is Stainless Steel. I love it. I love it so much I bought one for a friend.
Beautiful kitchen anyway! 🙂 Thanks!
Beautiful kitchen anyway! Thanks Kimi. 🙂
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.
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!
The aroma brand doesn’t have any plastic
Sorry, i was wrong. I didn’t realize there is plastic under the lid.
Thanks for the input, Kimi, Karen and Tara!
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.
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?
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!
I love you. You say “uh” a lot in your videos. 🙂 Again, I love you. 🙂
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. 😉 )
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.
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.
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. 🙂
What a great list of gifts. I really need to get a dehydrator! I’ll make sure to put it on my list.
I got those Pyrex bowls from Costco about 2 months ago and I agree – they’re great!!
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!
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.
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…
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!
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.