Cooking for a lot of people can get crazy in the kitchen. My mom and I both enjoy cooking and trying out new recipes. And we love our different appliances to make the job easier. So I’ve curated a list of the top appliances you need in your kitchen. These are ones we use all the time or feel they make certain jobs easier. Depending on what you like to cook you may not want to have all of these.
So here you go, our list of appliances you need in your kitchen
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Cooking
Instapot. I enjoy the versatility of this appliance. Eric loves to cook quick meals in it when everyone else has already eaten. We like making a lot of soups, which this is fantastic for – as well as making your own broths. We also use this to make the easiest hard boiled eggs. This gets used regularly in our house.
Crock Pot. You might be wondering why I have this one here when we have the Instapot, which can take the place of a slow cooker. I love the Instapot, but I admit have not used it yet for the slow cooker function. But we found the issue is the round shape of the Instapot sometimes doesn’t translate as well to slow cooker recipes. And sometimes we have both going at the same time. I love using the crock pot to make lasagnas in them. The oval shape works better than the round of the Instapot.
Rice Cooker. Yes, I know the Instapot can cook rice too. But we often don’t need huge amounts of rice, so I like the size of the rice cooker, and it’s easy to use. Just measure out the rice and water and plug it in. Most rice cookers automatically turn to Keep Warm once it’s done cooking so the rice won’t overcook.
Snacks/Quick cooking
Air Fryer. I love the Air Fryer. It has become one of my most favorite appliances in the kitchen, that I use pretty much daily. Will it exactly replicate fav fried foods? No, but it does a pretty good job. And it works great to crisp up frozen french fries, onion rings, chicken nuggets, basically all your favorites. We love using it to reheat foods that we would normally put in the oven (think pizza, french fries from restaurants, etc). I also love using this to cook a whole chicken (yes, a whole chicken), fish, hamburgers, even steak. And for roasting veggies, this is quick and you don’t have to wait for it to heat up like the oven.
Microwave popcorn popper. We love making air popped popcorn. Z’s favorite is with olive oil, seasoned salt, and nutritional yeast. Which, you should really try nutritional yeast – it gives a cheesy flavor and is loaded with vitamins, minerals, and protein. Air popping is so much healthier because you can control what goes on it. We pop popcorn pretty much every day, and sometimes twice a day.
Breakfast appliances
Coffee Maker. The link is to our favorite one. We’ve had Keurig brand before, but I really prefer the Cuisinart brand. A lot of coffee is drunk in our household so being able to brew a pot of coffee or cups individually works the best for us. We love the pods, but they can get expensive if you have someone that drinks multiple cups a day. So, having a pot you can brew can be more economical for those that drink many cups and those that only have 1 cup a day, the pods are perfect.
4 slice toaster. Toasters I think are pretty common in the kitchen. For our household, we use one side for Z, who now has Celiac’s Disease, and the other side for gluten breads, to limit cross contamination.
Griddle. I love breakfast food. Making pancakes from scratch is something I enjoy and it’s so much easier to do on a griddle. While I use this for mostly pancakes, a griddle is great for grilled cheese sandwiches, patty melts, bacon. Clean up of these is easy and they don’t take up too much space in the cabinet for storage.
Waffle iron. So yeah, I love breakfast food. While most of our appliances have multi-uses, the waffle iron is mostly used for waffles. I make vegan Belgian waffles in it and they are so much better than the frozen ones. Another tip – you can make hash browns in your waffle iron. Take tator tots and put them in there and close the lid and voila – hash browns! Oh and a stuffing waffle. Take leftover stuffing and put it in the waffle iron. You need to try it. You will want stuffing year-round.
Baking/Food prep
Kitchen Aid Mixer. I know there are other stand mixers, but really, Kitchen Aid is the best one of them, in my opinion. This model is the 4.5 qt, which for most people is a good size (I want the largest size because we like to bake bread). It comes with the paddle, dough hook, and whisk attachments. I will use the mixer for even small things that most people might use a hand mixer for. I’ve had mine for over 12 years now and it’s still going strong. You can also buy other attachments if you want to grind your own meat or make your own pasta. Lots of options available. And they come in all different colors to match your decor.
Immersion blender. We make a lot of soups and sauces in our house and if you do too, an immersion blend is a necessity. You don’t have to worry about trying to pour hot liquids into a blender because you use this right in the pot on the stove. They are super easy to clean and don’t take up a lot of space. If you like to make creamy soups, this will be your best friend.
Food processor. I like the size of this food processor. It’s perfect for blending small quantities and is easy to clean. We use this for blending sauces together, making pesto, and even chopping veggies prior to going into a dish.
A high-quality blender (like Vitamix or Ninja). We have a Ninja in our kitchen and I really like it. It blends everything really well because the blades aren’t just at the bottom. I’ve heard great things about a Vitamix, but we were on a budget, so the Ninja works for us. Blenders aren’t something we use daily, but I would say it comes out weekly or every other week. We also have the Nutri Ninja which H likes to use to make smoothies.
I hope you enjoy our list of appliances you need to have in your multi-gen home kitchen.