Kitchen items – Hey, everyone, it’s Stacy Hendren, client coordinator with Acquisto Real Estate, and I was doing some thinking this weekend about one of the topics Mike had brought up last week during TNT. And that’s how are we all saving and using our time efficiently during this busy season. I know that all of us are working super hard and trying to make sure that we are everywhere we need to be at the times. We need to be there, be there for our families, our clients, for whatever is needed.
So what I wanted to do was share with you guys my top five favorite kitchen gadgets that save me time and probably a little bit of money in the long run. So let’s bring those up for you. OK, so the first one is the vitamins. We have personally had our vitamins for about five or six years now, and I love it for quick purposes. When my kids are hungry and I don’t have anything to make, I will make them a protein shake and it goes in there and we can put all sorts of vegetables in there like spinach.
And they never notice it’s in there because it does such a great job loading it up. I have personally made Kaso in our vitamin mix. I have made a salsa. My mom even wanted some sort of birthday dessert made in the Vita mix sheets, a Whole Foods plant based diet. And so it was one that was made in the mix and then cooked in the oven and it turned out great. So I personally cannot say enough good things about the vitamins.
Now my number four pick for kitchen gadgets is the air fryer. I know that a lot of people have air fryers. I love ours. We make a lot of breakfasts in them. We make a lot of dinners in them. It’s just super easy to use when you’re cooking various things. You know, we’ve cut up potatoes and made French fries or sweet potatoes and made sweet potato fries.
You know, chicken dummies go in there. Well, we’ve made muffins and there we’ve made all sorts of things in here. And it doesn’t heat up the kitchen and it takes far less time to cook than sticking something in the oven. So I really do love our air fryer.
My number three is the instant pot. So truth be told, when I bought my instant pot a few years ago, I was scared to death of it. I think I bought it because everybody had been talking about how great instant pots were. And I bought one and I read all the directions and I was so afraid I was going to blow up the kitchen when I used it that I was going to do something wrong.
And I was just frightened. But I found the six sisters who make recipes and one of them is the insta pot queen, I think. And she walks through the insta pot how to use it and just has these simple reminders and oh my gosh. So I love the instant pot and you can make all sorts of things in there. And it’s fast. You guys, you can make ribs in like thirty minutes, 30 to 35 minutes, and then you just finish them off in the oven.
We make all sorts of good stuff. My instant pot, which I think most of them do. This is a crock pot also. So it’s really easy. And I was able to get rid of one other item in our kitchen. We have a dog that refuses to eat dry dog food, wet dog food, medical grade dog food. So we make her sweet potatoes, rice, chicken and green beans and peas. And usually I’ll make them in the instant pot because it’s so much faster than trying to to do it any other way.
So I batch cook that for her. So again, instant pot. Now my number two is our food saver. So we use this a lot when we go to Costco, Sam’s or anywhere we can buy anything in bulk or if a grocery store has something on sale and I buy a lot of it, we use our food saver to portion it and then put it into the freezer.
So this saves time because everything’s proportioned out. It’s ready to go. It makes it just so much easier when we know exactly what we’re doing and what we’re cooking. My number one favorite thing that this really surprises me in the long run that this is my favorite. But thinking about it, it is our sous vide. Now, as you can see, we purchased ours in December of 2018. It was actually a Christmas present from my husband to me. And I was not very convinced that this was something I would want to use in the long run.
It blows my mind how great it is. So. There’s an app that goes on your phone that links to this, and what it does is you can set whatever meat you have, chicken, beef, lamb, whatever it is, you can set all of it and you set the temperature you want it to and you put it in your food saver bag. You put all your spices or whatever you want in there. You seal it up and then, guys, it takes a water bath and it tells you exactly when it’s done. It cooks in the water back to the perfect temperature every time.
And then when it’s done, you can take it out and you can see it. You can either see it over the stove or you can put it in the oven on broil and crisp it up. You could even use your instant pot and do it in there. But this is a life saver because it is a literally put it in the water bath and forget about it until it’s done. And I mean these busy days, that’s what makes it so much easier for everything.
So I hope that this helps give you guys some great ideas. You know, quick, easy. Family dinners are always the best, in my opinion. It makes life so much easier when you have sort of a plan. And, you know, I hope everybody has a great day. And if you have any questions about my favorite things, let me know.
Episode Links
Acquisto Real Estate , Mike , TNT
