I often get asked about my essential kitchen tools: the things we absolutely couldn’t cook without. Now that’s not an easy task: we’ve got a lot of things in our kitchen… how on earth will I ever narrow them down? But, if you look closer, there are things we use, and then things we use on a regular basis (and there are probably some things we never use that we need to purge, but that’s another issue altogether). It’s the items that are constantly in and out of the dishwasher, the items that have migrated to the most accessible shelves and drawers where they’re easiest to grab. If you look for those items, well, it’s pretty easy to see what gets used the most often around here.

These are our kitchen essentials.

I plan to follow up this post with a more specific Baking Essentials and even Pantry Essentials (and maybe even a Blogger Essentials?) but for now, we’ll just focus on the basics.

Use this post as a foundation to build your own well stocked kitchen. It’s also a great gift guide, if, perhaps, maybe you know a newlywed couple or a graduate just getting settled in their first apartment or a take-out-reliant friend who wants to learn to cook… this is a great place to start!

Disclaimer: while this post is not sponsored and no brands have paid to be included here, many of these products were received as part of past/present brand partnerships. That said, should our kitchen be reduced to rubble today, we wouldn’t hesitate to buy them again ourselves tomorrow. Meaning, everything on this list is something we own and love and use on a regular, if not daily, basis. There are also affiliate links in this post, FYI. And if you’re reading this post in RSS or email you might want to click through to the post page for easy clickable links to every item on this list!

Small Appliances

Stand Mixer –  I use my KitchenAid® Artisan Stand Mixer regularly for all things baking, but also the array of attachments that can extend its functionality even further. I had my old lime green mixer for 12 years and it was still going strong when I passed it on to a neighbor (I’ll admit, I just wanted a new color… isn’t that cobalt blue gorgeous??) If you’re short on space, the new Mini mixer is adorable, and perfect for mixing single batches of cookies or pizza dough.

Mini Food Processor – I adore this mini food processor from KitchenAid: it’s cheap and lightweight and ultra efficient for small batches of pesto, and just big enough to grind a batch of vanilla wafers for pie crust. Not to mention adorable. I think I’ve used my full size food processor maybe twice since I got this, which shows you just how rarely you really need a full size food processor.

Blender – We use our Vitamix 5200 Blender every day for smoothies in the morning and homemade nut milk each week. I love the Vitamix because it is powerful and most importantly, light (since we store it in a lower cabinet and need to pull it out every day). If you have the space to keep a blender out on your counter all the time, KitchenAid’s Pro Line and High Performance Series blenders are superb (and much nicer looking), with an equal if not more powerful motor. (Keep your eyes peeled, I’ll be giving one of these away on Instagram in the coming weeks!)

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