My Top 5 Kitchen Essentials

Today, I’m sharing my top five kitchen essentials. When bringing items into my home I try to make sure the item is multipurpose. Ideally, I’d prefer using a simplistic approach, however, that isn’t always the case.

Here are my top five kitchen essentials:

1. A good cast-iron skillet

This non-toxic cooking item is extremely durable and versatile. Initially, I was worried about how to cook and care for anything cast iron. Luckily my husband decided to give it a go and we’ve been using them since. From baking to frying, this piece of cookware helps me keep the clutter down while giving me the skills to cook like a pro. Cast-iron cookware doesn’t leak anything toxic into your food and is a natural way to increase your body’s iron levels. Making sure to keep the cookware dry and to season it from time to time cast-iron skillets will last a lifetime. They make a wonderful add-on to any PCS, giving me the option of cooking at the hotel and then a new home awaiting household goods.

2. Swedish Dishcloths

I enjoy having these nifty dishcloths in my home. Swedish Dishcloth is an eco-friendly, environmentally sustainable solution to all of my cleaning needs. These sponge cloths are made up of a mixture of 70% cellulose and 30% cotton. Swedish Dishcloths are biodegradable and capable of absorbing 20 times their weight in liquids, making them a perfect candidate to easily clean up any mess. To wash them, I just put them in the dishwasher or washing machine.

3. A water filtration system

Being members of the Modern Nomad community (an active-duty Army family), we filter our water regularly. Unable to install a filtration system within our home due to always being on the move, we opt for portable systems. Our previous home was 100 years old and needed water filtration. The elements and particles made it difficult for us to drink the water. When our household goods arrived, finding our water filtration system was a top priority. Over the years, we tried keeping our water filtration systems in the refrigerator, but they tend to take up a lot of space. Currently, we keep ours on the counter in the kitchen.

4. An air fryer

My parents gifted us an air fryer for Christmas, and we love it. We’re able to make food come out just as good or better than in a conventional oven. Our air fryer also works as a pressure cooker, allowing me to make meat, like a roast, quickly without a lot of preparation. My favorite item to make with the appliance is potato soup, while my kids enjoy nuggets and corndogs. Having an air fryer on hand has been a game-changer in our household; we use it as often as we use the oven.

5. A meat chopper

This tool features wide blades designed for chopping stirring ground meat while cooking. I have even used the meat chopper to mash potatoes and mix salad. The blades are perfect for scraping pan edges and transferring food out of pans. After use, I put the meat chopper in the dishwasher, making clean-up a breeze.

I like to keep clutter to a minimum and look for items that can be used in many ways. I hope you enjoyed my top five kitchen essentials list. Do you have anything on this list? What are your kitchen must haves? Four of the five items on my list are multi-use products (Sorry water filtration). The nice thing about this list is that most items can be found on Amazon or a general merchandise retailer.

Happy hunting!