Get Organized
Let’s face it, cooking meals can be time-consuming. Even if you love to cook like me, it takes planning and time to prepare wholesome meals. You will be more efficient in the kitchen, when your kitchen is well organized.

Make sure every item in your kitchen has earned its right to take up your valuable space! If you have a junk drawer in the kitchen, get rid of it. Use the space for storing cooking utensils.

Toss kitchen gadgets you don’t use. Okay, this is even hard for me. I love kitchen gadgets. Be realistic! When was the last time you used that melon baller, cherry pitter, or pasta maker? My pasta maker is now stored in the basement. I just don’t use it often enough to justify the space it takes in my kitchen.

Jovey just realized her mom tossed out her pacifier in a cleaning frenzy!

If you haven’t used it in a year, donate it or toss it out. Years ago, I tossed my counter can opener. It takes up premium counter space and the blade is usually the dirtiest square inch in a kitchen. I replaced it with a manual can opener, which can be easily cleaned and stored in a drawer. I now have a manual smooth edge can opener, saving my fingers from possible cuts.

Three of My Favorite Things
With that said, there are items deserving the space they use. The one item I use the most is my VitaMix blender. I use it several times a day. The VitaMix is the mother of all blenders, as it has a motor with the power of a lawn mower. I wouldn’t have made the investment (it’s not cheap), unless I knew I would use it every day. And I have. In fact, it saves space as I gave away three appliances. It does the job of a vegetable juicer, food processor, and ice cream maker (and of course a blender).

My mezzaluna pizza cutter is now one of my favorite utensils. Mezzaluna means “half moon” in Italian. A mezzaluna is a chopping instrument consisting of a single or double curved blade with a handle on each end. It is often used for chopping herbs or very large single blade versions are used for pizza. Pizza wheels are for the birds. For years, I used kitchen scissors to cut my pizza, but the mezzaluna is far superior.

I recently received a pressure cooker as a gift from my daughter, Jackie. ”Pressure cooking” is the original definition of “fast food.” They cook meals in about a third of the time. Of course, prep time is the same, but dinner is served about the time you’ve set the table and done the clean-up from the prep! With a pressure cooker, you can cook high-fiber, whole foods quickly, while preserving vitamins and essential nutrients. I don’t know how I ever lived without one.

For a synopsis of the Baby Bites book, Click Here.