The Top 8 Kitchen Items that made my life easier on Whole30.
The people who know me best, know that I’m no Martha Stewart. In fact, in the past, the kitchen has been a place of anxiety for me. I’m ashamed to admit this, but swear words are most likely to come flying out of my mouth when I’m in the kitchen. Looking at a recipe with a ton of ingredients overwhelms me. It seems like I’m always missing some ingredient or I end up buying way too much at the store and the food starts to go bad. For a long time, my hungry husband took on the brunt of the cooking outside on the grill. Dining out became a large part of our routine and a burden on our budget.
One of my biggest concerns and biggest motivators when I was thinking about taking the Whole30 plunge, was all the home cooking I’d have to do. When you’re eating out 2-3 times a week, the idea of going a whole month without making a pit stop at In N Out Burger makes you really start to analyze what’s important in life. And my weekly Double Double {protein style} was pretty high on my priority list.
I started to check out the Whole30 Facebook group that my friend added me to and all the meals looked VERY simple {not to mention delicious}, even for me! Whole30 encourages very few ingredients and simple meals that are practical. As I started planning my menu for the first week, I noticed that I was going to need a teeny bit of extra help with some kitchen ware. Like I said before, I’m no Martha Stewart. Lucky for me, my mom is sort of the Mexican version of Martha Stewart. The woman can sew, cook, and install an entire irrigation system in her backyard. I never quite appreciated her awesomeness before I had my own children. Now I stare at her in amazement. My kitchen wasn’t over flowing with cool gadgets, so I borrowed a few necessities from my mom.
After at least 500 trips to Pinterest, prep meetings with my friends, a few Amazon purchases, and 30 days of Whole30, I’m ready to share it all with you! All of these items are very practical, and you are very likely to have 95% of the items already. I invested in a few additional items, because I knew that I’d continue to use them long after my 30 days of Whole30 concluded.
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The Top 8 Kitchen Items That Made My Life Easier on Whole30.
1. Invest in a good quality Crock-Pot.
I used my Crock-Pot at least 10 times during Whole30. It’s great for stews, soups, chicken, chicken broth, pot roast, and so much more. The possibilities are really endless! If you search “Crock-Pot Whole30” in Pinterest, it will bring up hundreds of options. Most of these recipes are the easiest of the easy. I’m a morning person, so I do a lot of my meal prep in the early hours of the day. By the time 5:00 PM rolls around I’m usually exhausted and the last thing I want to do on most days is cook a big meal. Crock-Pot days for us means very little effort and very easy clean up. If you really want to make your life even easier, check out these Crock-Pot liners. We’ve even used them in our Dutch oven when camping! Talk about easy clean up!
2. The Food Processor made tedious tasks like dicing, slicing, and shredding about 1000 times easier and faster! I borrowed this one from my mom.
She said she received it as a wedding gift in 1978 and it still worked like a champ! The food processor comes with a shred/slice disk. I will often shred 3-4 sweet potatoes at a time and store the shredded veggies in the fridge in mason jars. In the morning for breakfast, I’ll toss the shredded sweet potato on the skillet with sautéed spinach and a few eggs over easy! Delicious! I’ve also got a Vitamix which makes the possibilities endless. It will do just about anything from green smoothies to cauliflower rice to soups!
3. I pretty much use my Garlic Press on a daily basis.
I’ll talk about this in the grocery list post of the series, but I bought the giant bag of garlic at Sam’s Club and plowed right through it. I just love fresh garlic on everything. The garlic press makes it very simple. No need to peel, just stick the clove in the press and crush.
4. I purchased this Veggie Spiral Slicer my first week of Whole30.
I knew that I’d want lots of options for vegetables. Zucchini noodles taste so much better to me than spaghetti squash. I love how easy this is to use. It works just like a pencil sharpener, except with zucchini.
5. Ziploc Storage Bags are the best for freezer meals!
For a lot of my meals {especially soups and stews}, I would try to make a double batch and freeze half of it for later on in the week. I made sure my Ziploc bags were fully stocked! You’ll also want to make sure you’ve got a lot of Tupperware ready. Leftovers make great lunches the next day!
6. Cookie Sheets, but NOT for cookies.
I will eat roasted veggies over steamed veggies any day. At the end of my meal prep, I’d take all the veggies I had left over and plop them on a cookie sheet with olive oil and salt & pepper and bake at 425 for about 30 min. They make great left overs. I’d have delicious veggies to eat with every meal.
7. Having a Freezable Lunch Bag gave me the ability to control my food on the days I knew I’d be on-the-go for a lengthy period of time.
For a stay-at-home mom, I don’t stay at home very often. These are great, because I can fold this lunch bag up, stick it in the freezer, pull it out and pack it.
8. A Skillet that can go from the stove top to the oven is one of my most frequently used items in my kitchen.
It makes for easy clean up, and a lot of recipes called for a quick sear on each side before putting it straight into the oven.
One of the best things about this Whole30 challenge is that it’s nothing out of the ordinary. All of these items are extremely practical, in fact you probably own most of them. This isn’t something that should break your bank. Splurge on a few items that you think will be good to incorporate into your lifestyle long-term. Don’t let kitchen anxiety deter you from starting your Whole30. It’s so easy a Stay Fit Mom can do it.
If you’ve made it this far, I know your interest in Whole30 is peaked and your wheels are spinning. Keep reading. You won’t want to miss the next post in the My Whole30 Journey Series… My Whole30 Grocery List.
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