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Today on A Very Full Plate we’re talking all about the essential kitchen equipment that every busy parent who wants to feed their family well should have. We share what you need to have, probably want to have, and could probably skip.

Some of the items we’ll cover and share suggestions on include:

• The only pots and pans you need
• Tools for chopping, slicing, and dicing
• Other essential kitchen equipment
• Kitchen equipment that you probably don’t need

The Only Pots and Pans you Need

Pot and Pan Set

You may not need nearly as many pots and pans and you think!

One good set is certainly essential kitchen equipment and is going to do it for most of your needs. We recommend stainless steel as it can go on the stove, oven, and under the broiler, making it the most versatile type that you can buy. Plus, they look great on the table!

Here’s the set that Amy likes.

But if you don’t buy that one, you’re going to want to look for a set that has at a minimum:

• 8-inch fry pan
• 10-inch fry pans
• 2-quart saucepan with lid
• 3-quart saucepan with lid
• 3-quart sauté pan with lid
• 8-quart stockpot with lid

Keeping it to this is almost everything we need and is also pretty reasonable to store. The frying pans can be nestled into each other along with the saute pan.

Cast Iron Pan

One large cast iron pan may be the best workhorse in your kitchen. You’ll want to get a 10 inch or 12 inch one. Note that the 12 inch one is pretty darn heavy and maybe a bit larger than what most people need.

When you buy a cast iron you’ll also want to make sure that you get a chain mail. This is the best tool for cleaning your pan with just water. Clean it right away then dry it over the heat of the stove and your cast iron pan will last much longer!

Nonstick Pan

Even if you have all of the above, you’re going to want to make sure that you also have a small nonstick pan for making things like eggs. We choose to use “greener” non-stick pans as opposed to Teflon. This is the one that Amy has.

Tools for Chopping, Slicing, and Dicing

Cutting Board

You want at least one big cutting board that you will use all the time when prepping meals. Ideally, it should be gentle on knives and have some non-slip support so that your cutting board doesn’t run away from you. This is the one that Amy has and highly recommends. It’s knife friendly and also dishwasher-safe.

A Good Chef’s Knife

You don’t need anything fancy here! What you do need is one strong chef’s knife that you can use for chopping butternut squash and thinly slicing basil. This one is fantastic.

You’ll also want at a minimum:

• A paring knife
• A bread knife

Also of note, the best way to store your knives is on a magnetic wall block. This is the best for your knives and saves precious drawer space.

Also, your sharp knives should never ever ever go into the dishwasher. That’s the best way to dull them quickly.

A couple other things

You’ll also want to have:

• A vegetable peeler
• A Microplane zester for making citrus zest, parmesan cheese, ginger, and garlic
• Kitchen shears that are sharp, heavy duty, and that come apart

We both also love having kid-friendly kitchen knives like these ones. You can hear all about why and how you may want to cook more with your kids in this interview with Melanie Potock.

Other Essential Kitchen Equipment

Blender

You’re going to want this if you ever make smoothies, pureed soups, or sauces at home. You don’t necessarily need a super fancy one, but if you’re using a lot it can certainly be worth the investment. Amy has a Vitamix and loves it.

If you don’t use your blender nearly as often, you could go with the Nutribullet or Ninja which will certainly do the job.

Food Processor

You’re going to want a food processor if you ever: need help to chop large quantities of vegetables, shred vegetables, make pesto, or make your own nut butter. It works slightly differently from a blender, which is why they’re both on the list. This one is a good bet that lasts a long time.

Other Items

• A couple of baking sheets and a cookie drying rack
• Measuring cups, spoons, and liquid measuring cups
• Mixing bowls
• Over the sink pasta strainer

And then, of course, anything else you know you’ll use including:

• Muffin tins
• Casserole dish

Kitchen Equipment you Probably Don’t Need

Just because we say you don’t need it doesn’t mean it’s not useful or joyful for you, so take these with a grain of salt! You can hear in the podcast episode that we both have things that we love that we probably don’t NEED as well.

• Stand mixer
• Immersion blender
• Ice cream maker
• Most single-use kitchen items

Conclusion: Essential Kitchen Equipment

You may actually need less kitchen equipment than you need! In today’s podcast episode and in this post we shared our ideas of essential kitchen equipment: what you need and what we could live without.

So what do you think? Which of your essential kitchen equipment favorites did we miss?

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You’ve heard all about Marie Kondo and her book “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up”. Maybe you’ve even started asking yourself if things spark joy. But perhaps you also wonder how and why you could possibly declutter as a busy parent. Don’t worry! Today our resident expert, Emily, is bringing all her best decluttering tips to you.

In this episode we’ll dig into:

• 2 reasons we can all benefit from decluttering:
  • Items carry energy and you can feel it whether or not you know it
  • How decluttering can reduce stress
• 3 Practical ways to declutter your home:
  • Run the 1 hour home reset test
  • Tips on reworking spaces for your lifestyle
  • Setting up daily habits to make getting out the door simpler
• What all of these decluttering tips have to do with living a healthy life

Things we talked about in this episode:

• Marie Kondo’s book (Affiliate link)
• Our episode on the important of social relationships
• Emily’s website

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Want to raise healthy, adventurous eaters but not sure where to start? Today, we’ll be exploring how and why all parents should strive to create a healthy relationship with food  – for the sake of themselves and their children.

Our guest today is Carelyn Torres, a certified health coach and mom. Carelyn has used her own experience of pregnancy and parenting to learn all about how to create a healthy relationship with food. She now coaches moms on how to eat foods that nourish their body while ditching the guilt and creating a diet free home.

In this episode we talk about:

• How your relationship with food affects whether your kids have a healthy relationship with food
• Why our actions and emotions around food are just as important as the words we say about food
• You need to remember that the main purpose of food is to fuel our bodies
• Why you shouldn’t be using words like healthy vs. junk, cheat meals, and good vs. bad
• What it means to assign moral value to food
• What it looks like to foster a healthy relationship with food for your whole family
• Carelyn’s experience of the impact of restricting sugar for her children
• What happens to kids’ natural signals for hunger and fullness when we pressure them to eat certain foods and restrict other things
• The power of embracing abundance when it comes to food
• 1 way that you can start changing your relationship with food today
• How to listen to your body and improve your relationship with food
• What to do now if you’ve “done everything wrong”
• Why you need to release judgment on yourself to start shifting things in the right direction
• Finding food freedom as you create a healthy relationship with food
• How to make healthy eating less boring and more enjoyable
• How eating foods you love is a form of honoring your body

Resources from this episode:

• Carelyn’s website
• Carelyn’s free checklist
• Some of Amy’s favorite whole food recipe sites:
  • Pinch of Yum
  • Ambitious Kitchen
  • Sweet Peas and Saffron
  • Cooking with a Full Plate (of course)
• Amy’s free “Stock Your Healthy Freezer” challenge

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Today we’re talking to Samantha Siffring, a mindset & business coach for mompreneurs, about how to achieve your goals. You’re not alone if you’ve set a goal and aren’t taking action toward actually achieving it. That’s why today we’re diving into the key to reclaiming your goals and getting what you want, even if you have a very full plate.

Some of the things we discuss are:

• The most common reason that you don’t achieve your goals
• How to examine whether you actually want to achieve a goal
• The important in identifying the difference between what you want and what you’re currently doing
• How to break goals into bite-sized pieces
• “Everything is figure-outable”
• The importance of failure in achieving your goals
• What you should focus on to achieve your goals
• Why there is no wagon
• Why you need to be taking consistent action
• The power of letting go of your past “mistakes”

Tell us what goal you’re going to achieve so that we can hold you accountable! Hop on over to our Facebook page and let us know.

Here’s where you can find more from Samantha:

• Samantha’s Website
• Facebook
• The Bad Ass Mother Podcast

Things we talked about in this episode:

• The Keys to Setting Effective and Meaningful Goals with Jaclyn Mellone
• The Blue Zones Solution(affiliate link)
• So You Wanna Eat Healthy on a Budget with Shelly Longenecker
• How to Achieve Goals with Charlena Smith

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