Kitchen Tools I Use Every Single Day

If you have been around for awhile, you know that I like to get crafty in the kitchen. I’ll be honest, I don’t know how people of generations past did it, because there’s nothing I love more than a good kitchen gadget. I get a good amount of questions from people who watch my Instagram stories and read here about my which gadgets are my favorite, so I figured I would share a list of the kitchen tools I use every single day!

Kitchen Tools I Use Every Single Day That You Need

First and foremost, my Vitamix. If I’m not making a morning smoothie or homemade peanut butter for the dogs, I’m blending a dinner sauce or sorbet for dessert. It really is the best gadget we own and I would recommend it 100 times over. I should also add that their customer service is AMAZING. If you’re interested in what you can make in a Vitamix, check out this post for my top ten Vitamix recipes and these six Paleo Vitamix recipes.

Second would have to be my immersion blender. I don’t always feel like ladling liquids into my Vitamix to blend them up, so the immersion stick blender comes in handy for things like soup, homemade mayo and pureeing things like salsa for people who dislike big chunks (see also: me).

An electric can opener seemed like something only a lazy person would want or need, but I can fully attest – I will own that title if it means I get to keep our electric can opener. We got ours as a gift somewhere along the way and I think I might have laughed and joked about it, but now…no way. I love that thing, particularly when I’m trying to make something that requires a million cans of coconut milk.

Silicone spatulas that have are seamless are my lifeblood. I have them in all shapes and sizes and I consistently reach for them above the other spatulas and/or spoontulas that I have. First, no dough, sauce or mixture gets stuck on the lip between the handle and the silicone and second, their seamless design makes it about a million times easier to scrape the inside of bowls, containers, pots, etc. My favorite is GIR (Get It Right) brand for the bright colors and multiple sizes.

When we first got our spiralizer, I had it reserved for zucchini noodles only. It was sitting pretty on the “nice to have, but not necessary” list. Well, it got a promotion. I seriously use my spiralizer every single day. Admittedly, I use it most on Sunday when I’m prepping food for the week, but since I use it to prepare food for every single day – it’s like I would use it daily. Make sense? Okay then. It’s amazing for potatoes, onions, cabbage, zucchini, squash, eggplant and so much more!

A good set of knives is KEY. This isn’t really a gadget, but it’s going to save you a lot of time and frustration if you just invest in good knives up front. For a long time, I thought – why bother? But then I would spend 10 minutes cursing in my kitchen when our knife set wouldn’t pierce the skin of a bell pepper. We FINALLY invested in a couple highly rated chef’s knives (Wüsthof for any wondering) and it has made all the difference.

Our salad chopper is probably the most multi-purpose tool we have. I use it nearly every day to chop lettuce for salads, Dane uses it to shred meat for sandwiches or for on top of salads, and it also works really well to chop vegetables into tiny pieces! My parents gave one to us and we’ve had it for about four years now and still love it.

Fun Investments

It wouldn’t be fair to exclude the following, but it also wouldn’t be fair for me to tell you that they are MUSTS. They are fun splurge items for when you want a little bit of an upgrade.

A chopping block will go a long way for anyone who enjoys spending time in the kitchen. We eat a lot of fresh vegetables and have a seemingly never-ending vat of things to cut, dice, chop, peel…you see where this is going. We were gifted the Martha Stewart wooden cutting boards and while they were great, they really only lasted 2 years before they looked worn. What bothered me more was that you could see EVERY. SINGLE. CUT. MARK. I had EVER made on those boards. EVER. and with all those cut marks came the splintering of wood. I know it sounds dramatic – but what the hell? I like what I like and what I DON’T like is wood chips in my food. I got a Boos block for Christmas (a gift for me, from me) and I haven’t regretted it since.

I might be the anomaly here, but my Kitchen-Aid Stand Mixer didn’t make my MUSTS list. Don’t get me wrong, I love mine, but I don’t use it everyday. It’s great for things like big batches of cookies, shredding meat for a crowd (we used it on 25 pounds of pulled pork at the holidays and it shredded it all within minutes) and making buttercream frosting (I don’t know how to make small amounts of that). But for everyday use, it falls short for two reasons: 1. cleaning and 2. storing. Does anyone else think this beast is a pain in the ass to clean? And as far as storage goes, the only place it can comfortably sit is RIGHT ON MY COUNTERTOP as it’s too tall and/or wide for a regular cabinet. Like I said, I am happy I have one and for some things, it can’t be beat, but I much prefer my Kitchen Aid Hand Mixer for every day use or small recipes to fit our day-to-day life. Admittedly if you have a large family, this might be a must 🙂