My Top 10 Healthy Kitchen Essentials part 1

If you’ve followed my blog long enough, you may think you’d be able to guess where my favorite place to be is in my house.

And, to your surprise, it is NOT the kitchen.

It’s my bedroom.

Snuggled in my bed, under the covers, where I enjoy two of my favorite activities:

SLEEP.

And…

…reading.

But, the kitchen does come in at a very close second, as that is where I spend a good majority of my time. Having a functional and well-equipped kitchen is not only helpful for running a food blog, but is imperative to awesome health and well-being.

When preparing to eat great food, basic cooking skills are a must have.

Pushing a few buttons on the microwave does not constitute cooking. Nor does it constitute good health.

And in order to achieve great health AND reach your culinary potential, there are a few essential items every healthy kitchen should have. The following is the first half of a list of 10 items that I find exceptionally useful:

1. Cast iron pan

Like a good wine, and Sean Connery, a cast iron pan get’s better as it’s aged. You can take away all my fancy Cuisinart toys, my car, my house, but please, leave me my cast iron pan.

Why You Need It: Because cast-iron is a safer alternative to the toxic, chemical-leaching cooking surfaces found in Teflon cookware. Plus, you get your day’s worth of iron just from cooking with it. You can cook with it on the stove top, pop it in the oven, beat an adulterous spouse with it…

What To Look For: Lodge pretty much has the lion’s share of the cast-iron cookware market, and rightfully so. They make some kick-ass stuff. Heck, the cast iron pan I use I actually inherited from my parents making it at least 20 years old. I get a sense of nostalgia knowing that my cast-iron pan has cooked eggs in the Philippines, Japan and now New Hampshire.

CARING FOR YOUR CAST IRON PAN: The versatility of a cast iron pan does come with some fine print. But, the extra time that you put into caring for your cast iron pan is well worth it.

Number 1: DO NOT WASH YOUR CAST IRON PAN, especially with dish soap. Really. Once your cast iron pan is well-seasoned, all you basically need to do is run it under warm water and wipe off any remaining food particles. If food does get stuck to your pan, clean as much of what’s stuck, and boil some water in the cast iron pan as you scrape the surface with a non-metal utensil, like a wooden spatula.

Number 2: Be sure to dry your cast iron pan as soon as your done cleaning it. And…

Number 3: ALWAYS coat your cast iron pan with oil before storing it, to prevent rusting. Olive oil, coconut oil, or sesame oil work well.

2. Chef’s Knife

I’m always perplexed whenever I cook in someone else’s kitchen and they hand me a steak knife to chop vegetables.

What?! No chef’s knife?How do you chop onions? Dice carrots? Juliene green peppers?

Having the right kitchen equipment not only makes cooking easier, but having the proper equipment makes cooking SAFER.

Yes, cooking with a well-sharpened chef’s knife, and knowing HOW to chop correctly does make cutting vegetables safer.

Here are somethings to look for in a good chef’s knife:

1. A curved blade. Allows for a rocking motion when you chop which makes things much easier.

2. A full tang blade. The blade runs through the handle means more stability and durablabilty.

2. Well-balanced. Meaning that there is equal weight distribution between the handle and the blade.

3. Grip on the handle. Should feel comfortable in your hand and not slip when cutting.

4. Quality of the blade. You may be able to get away with lesser quality kitchen utensils, but don’t skimp on a good chef’s knife. You do get what you pay for.

3. Glassware containers

Get rid of the old plastic Tupperware you have sitting in your drawers and invest in a set of glass containers, STAT.

Eating, storing, and even worse, warming up food in plastic containers leaches harmful xenoestrogens into the food and can wreak all kinds of hormonal havoc on our endocrine system.

Not only can you store your leftovers in your glass containers, but you can also warm up your food in the same container thus limiting the amount of dishes you use, reducing the amount of water to wash the dishes, and thus becoming more environmentally friendly.

Plus, I find that it’s a lot harder to lose the glass containers as opposed to plastic Tupperware…

4. Crock pot

There’s nothing like coming home from a long day of work to a big warm bowl of homemade chili or stew. Crock pots are a great way to cook a ton of food almost effortlessly. You can literally toss a whole chicken in with some vegetables and spices. And bam. You’re done.

Some tips looking for a crockpot:

1. Size. If you’re one person, a smaller sized crock pot will do. Two or more, or if you just like to eat like me, a larger size crock pot would be a better choice.

2. Multiple heat settings. Most crock pots will have a high and low setting. Even better if you can find one that has a setting based on how long you’ll be cooking for, i.e. 4 hours, 6 hours, 8 hours, etc.

3. Removable pot. Your crock pot should have a removable pot that detaches from the heating cradle. Makes cleaning a lot easier.

5. Bamboo cutting board

Perhaps it’s the Asian blood in me, but I just LOVE bamboo. Bamboo cutting boards, bamboo utensils, bamboo hard wood flooring…

Bamboo is the new uber-trendy item in the sustainable and go-green movement right now and here are some cool facts why:

• It’s the fastest growing plant on earth
• It is actually a grass, and not a tree
• Bamboo can grow to full height and girth in as little as 3-5 years, making it very sustainable.
• Bamboo releases 35% MORE oxygen than trees
• Has been used in ancient Chinese and Ayurveda medicine to treat asthma, coughs, and has even been used as an aphrodisiac…

Not only is bamboo known for it’s incredible strength, but it’s also very versatile — it’s great for building material but we can also eat the stuff too.

What’s great about bamboo kitchen utensils, and more specifically cutting boards is that it’s very durable which means you won’t notice knife marks as much, and bamboo absorbs little moisture. Regular wooden cutting boards can get moldy and actually split, but I’ve never run into that problem with bamboo. Plus, plastic and glass cutting boards are a pain in the ass to cut on. Not only that, but plastic just SUCKS anyways for us and the environment.

Just like a cast iron pan, it’s versatility does yield some caring tips. Be sure to wash the cutting board after use with warm water and mild detergent as well as applying a light layer of bamboo oil (mineral oil) to the cutting board periodically.

Until part 2, let us know what YOUR favorite kitchen items are below in the comment section.