What to Buy Your Kitchen for Christmas

(NOTE: Printed in local magazine, Austin All Natural, at http://austinallnatural.com/december-2010 )

Consider for a moment that your kitchen wants to be useful. Its’ role is to support you in a positive and healthy way. It wants the refrigerator cold and its freezer like the Arctic. It wants plenty of shelving to hold all your food and simultaneously hoist small appliances in a circle-shaped hug. It wants to filter your drinking water and quietly wash your dishes through the night. (Hint: These are your first tips about what your kitchen wants.)

Now tap into the energy of your kitchen and ask, “What do you want?”

Not into Kitchen Quantum Physics? Then just acknowledge for a moment that we are all chefs. We all prepare food, or at least open the cans. So take a moment, look inward and ask yourself, “What type of chef am I?” And be honest.

Picture yourself preparing food that you like. Are you nibbling a stray veggie, or licking a spoon with joy? What are you making? A leafy salad? A casserole? Now, hold that thought.

The current image in your mind falls into one of these categories: Newbie, Salad Lover, Baker, Snacker or Raw Foodie Wannabe. So let’s explore what their kitchens would enjoy.

Newbie: You’re taking your first step away from prepackaged and frozen meals. For a smooth transition invest in a slow cooking crock pot to make beans and stew that are ready to eat when you get home. If you want to add more fresh foods to your new venture then get a large cutting board and a chef knife for fast and easy veggies. If you‘re ready to eat better, but not veggie-better, then get a personal blender like the Magic Bullet . Personal blenders make it easy to create sweet and healthy meals. Later on you can branch out and add Matcha green tea powder or plain powdered greens.

Salad Lover: You prefer eating leafy salads and no-leaf salads like pea salad. Your kitchen would enjoy a Lotus sanitizer on the counter. The Lotus kills bacteria and viruses, and neutralizes pesticides on your veggies by submerging your whole fruit and vegetables in a natural oxidant made from your tap water. Salad lovers will also appreciate a Benriner turning slicer to make nesting salads, sandwhich toppers and faux pasta. Zucchini “pasta” is a popular faux pasta. Spiraling jicamas make the perfect salad “nests” and are great fun for kids to eat. Great gift ideas are sprouting jars, and the standard lettuce spinner.

Baker: Over worshippers will be giddy over a complete set of stacking casserole dishes with lids for no-mess baking. Casserole dishes cook meats and veggies with minimal oil, juice or water. Healthy Bakers already use stevia instead of sugar in their cookies, pies and muffins. But are they enjoying baking with healthy flours? A grind mill creates flour from beans, rice and more. Grind mills are electric or hand turning. Imagine pizza dough made with pinto bean flour and brown rice flour! You’d never know the crust is wheat-free, gluten-free, and made from beans!

Snacker: You will easily be making fruit and veggie chips minus the palm oil and preservatives with your new food dehydrator! Your all organic granola bars, dessert bars, fruit leather and beef jerky will be the envy of your office. Eventually you’ll venture into making gluten-free crackers from ground seeds and beans. A simple companion device for your dehydrator is a Bodum press. Easily make hot drinks with loose tea, spices and fruits. You can even gather herbs from your yard like Dandelion and make medicinal teas with your Bodum press.

Raw Foodie Wannabe: Need a food processor for heavy blending of foods with just a little juice, and high powered blenders that pulverize fruits and veggies into drinkable liquids (not a juicer), and an apple corer for traveling light. Like the snacker, raw foodises need a dehydrator because it’s the closest thing to an oven that they are allowed to use. Gift deas for raw foodies are nut milk bags, glass pitchers, a knife sharpener, and a raw food cookbook.

Keep in mind your kitchen may want other things, so be sensitive to what it tells you. Have fun!

Nerissa Oden

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