When we first got married, we had a few of the basic appliances and a willingness to give cooking a try.
I think I volunteered to make burritos but there are only so many nights you can eat burritos! We went with the simple stuff which was mostly processed food.
It didn't seem worth the effort for just the two of us.
Of course, we view it differently now.
There are some seemingly healthy brands of processed food.
After all, some of them even have the word "health" in the name.
We now look beyond the name and brand on the label and actually read the ingredients.
Back then we didn't worry about it too much as it seemed like the food tasted fine.
Then we started receiving appliances as gifts for Christmas and even birthdays.
We became appliance focused.
Our kitchen slowly became equipped with choppers, small ovens, toasters, food processors, bread machines and even a sandwich maker.
Some of what we made was due to the very fact that we had a particular appliance.
Once we made some healthy changes to our diet and eliminated the processed food, our need for appliances actually went down.
What do we use now? I think we are down to a 4 quart sauce pan, a couple 1 quart sauce pans, a skillet and a crock-pot.
The point of all of this is to say that all of the kitchen gadgets that you see advertised are nice but you don't need them to eat healthy! We could have been eating healthy the day we got married and received a crock-pot as a wedding gift.
You can too! There are some other smaller items that are always very important.
We noticed that a good set of knives, peelers and cutting boards are in constant use.
We bought extra sets of these which is a good idea as one set is always in the dishwasher.
Experiment with the motorized blenders, choppers and slicers.
If you are preparing large quantities of food in advance, these might be worth the take-out and clean-up time needed to use them.
We survived for years with just a simple hand held mixer.
Admittedly, we now have an automatic mixer which is very helpful.
Bottom line is that to cook healthy it is best to start simple.
Cook with the pots and pans.
Cook with what you have.
(Maybe we'll do without the deep fryer though!)
I think I volunteered to make burritos but there are only so many nights you can eat burritos! We went with the simple stuff which was mostly processed food.
It didn't seem worth the effort for just the two of us.
Of course, we view it differently now.
There are some seemingly healthy brands of processed food.
After all, some of them even have the word "health" in the name.
We now look beyond the name and brand on the label and actually read the ingredients.
Back then we didn't worry about it too much as it seemed like the food tasted fine.
Then we started receiving appliances as gifts for Christmas and even birthdays.
We became appliance focused.
Our kitchen slowly became equipped with choppers, small ovens, toasters, food processors, bread machines and even a sandwich maker.
Some of what we made was due to the very fact that we had a particular appliance.
Once we made some healthy changes to our diet and eliminated the processed food, our need for appliances actually went down.
What do we use now? I think we are down to a 4 quart sauce pan, a couple 1 quart sauce pans, a skillet and a crock-pot.
The point of all of this is to say that all of the kitchen gadgets that you see advertised are nice but you don't need them to eat healthy! We could have been eating healthy the day we got married and received a crock-pot as a wedding gift.
You can too! There are some other smaller items that are always very important.
We noticed that a good set of knives, peelers and cutting boards are in constant use.
We bought extra sets of these which is a good idea as one set is always in the dishwasher.
Experiment with the motorized blenders, choppers and slicers.
If you are preparing large quantities of food in advance, these might be worth the take-out and clean-up time needed to use them.
We survived for years with just a simple hand held mixer.
Admittedly, we now have an automatic mixer which is very helpful.
Bottom line is that to cook healthy it is best to start simple.
Cook with the pots and pans.
Cook with what you have.
(Maybe we'll do without the deep fryer though!)
SHARE
