Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Kitchen Tools I Use Often for Our Big Family Meals

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Here’s a simple look at the kitchen tools I use often for our Big Family Meals.

These will give you a look at many of the items that help me be much more efficient in our kitchen.

Who are we feeding?

Seven kids every meal. Three to six adults almost every meal. And lots of family and company whenever we can make it happen!

Kitchen Tools I Use Often for Our Big Family Meals

People often ask “how I do it.” These are the tools that make my cooking less tedious and much more efficient.

Blendtec

I use this multiple times every day – for smoothies, cupcakes, pancakes, muffins, cheesecake bites, and much more. I love my Blendtec.

Bosch Mixer

This frees my hands so that the kids can help measure and dump in the ingredients and the mixer stirs it together perfectly!

 

Double Basket Air Fryer

We make chicken nuggets, fries, and hashbrown in this. But even better – we warm up leftovers like pizza. Not only that, we use our Air Fryer as a toaster. It’s perfect for bagels, toast, and to crisp up a sandwich/melt cheese onto a sandwich. We use our Air Fryer multiple times every day!

5.5 Quart Ceramic Skillet

I’ve been needing a huge skillet and this was well worth the investment! I can easily make 18 eggs in the mornings for our breakfast and a huge batch of stir fry for our dinner.

 

Bunn Coffee Maker

We make one pot every day, but when we have company we make two or three or four. This coffee maker is great because it can brew an amazing pot of coffee in about four minutes!

Hamilton Beach 7-Quart Programable Crock Pot

I actually have two 7-quart crock pots and use them both multiple times each week. They make meal prep easy. Or if I need to make food ahead, I put it into a crock pot to keep it warm until meal time.

Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker

This gem makes amazing homemade ice cream in about 20 minutes with NO MESS. I love it so much and I’ll be sharing my recipes soon!

$0.50 Plastic Plates

Have you seen these at Walmart? They have all different sizes and varieties plus bowls too. I “invested” in a big stack so that our kids wouldn’t risk breaking our nice dishes. These are so wonderful because loading them and unloading them from the dishwasher is crazy fast. They are lightweight. They are fun (the kids like to choose their plate color for each meal and that helps me keep track of whose plate is whose). They are silly little fifty cent plates and they are really great to have!

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Easy, Tasty Burger Topping!

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Need a tasty burger topping? This turns a regular burger into something special!

Right now I’ve been sharing some super-fast meals for us to put together this summer when we don’t feel like cooking. So far: Fast No-Brainer Stir-Fry and 5-Minute Crock Pot Chicken

Now I’m going to share about making grilled burgers, which isn’t a new idea, of course. But, this can become a go-to quick meal that turns into something special!

This sauce!!!!! I can’t get over how much it changes our burgers. Sooooooo good! This has turned into a favorite, which means I fall back on grilled burgers about once every week now.

Give this a try and see if your family doesn’t feel like you’re feeding them something extra special too!

Easy, Tasty Burger ToppingYum

Easy, Tasty Burger Topping!
 
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Author:
Serves: 6-8 servings
Ingredients
  • 1 cup mayonnaise
  • 3 Tablespoons ketchup
  • 1 teaspoon mustard (any will do - honey mustard is extra fun!)
  • 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • Sea salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Whisk all ingredients together until well combined.
  2. Store in a covered bowl or a squeeze bottle, refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.

While we’re talking burgers:

Do you have an Air-Fryer?

Matt and the kids got me one like this a couple of years ago for Christmas. Man, we love that thing! On a night we grill burgers, we’ll throw french fries into our Air Fryer and we feel like we’ve paid $12/plate at a restaurant. SO GOOD. And for the record, we’ve paid around $1.50/plate. Such good food for such a low cost!

I’d love to hear about your Air Fryer experiences.

And burger toppings! What are your favorites?

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Simple Green Beans in the Air Fryer

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I love how simple and tasty it is to make green beans in the air fryer!

Do you have an Air Fryer? If no, you might consider putting it on your Christmas wish-list. Here’s how I’ve found it to save a lot of money. Not to mention it turns out some super fun foods, making us feel like we’re eating a treat meal from a restaurant!

So green beans in the Air Fryer? Well, these are super healthy and our kids gobble them up because they’re so delicious. They take about two minutes to prepare, so you can’t go wrong there.

Simple Green Beans in the Air FryerYum

Simple Green Beans in the Air Fryer
 
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Author:
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 12-ounces frozen fine green beans
  • 1 teaspoon olive oil
  • ¼ teaspoon sea salt
  • ¼ teaspoon garlic powder (optional)
Instructions
  1. Pour green beans into a bowl (or cheat by cutting open the bag of green beans to use it as a disposable bowl!)
  2. Add olive oil, salt, and garlic powder.
  3. Toss with a spoon or tongs to coat the green beans.
  4. Cook in your Air Fryer at 400 degrees for 7-10 minutes, tossing them half-way through cook time to make sure they are cooking evenly.

These have an awesome crunch. And did you see that simple hack I shared in the recipe? I simply open a bag of frozen green beans and use the bag as a bowl! Drizzle in the olive oil, sprinkle in the seasonings, shake the bag, and pour the coated green beans into the air fryer. No dishes!! NO DISHES!!!! That is my favorite part, besides of course, the fact that we can make this awesome vegetable in the air fryer. Nourishing and fun all in one!

P.S. I have this Air Fryer and we’ve been very happy with it!

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The Surprising (Money-Saving) Ways I Use an Air Fryer

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You might be surprised about the ways I use an Air Fryer, but hey, it’s tasty and saves money. Let me fill you in on all my secrets…

Matt and the boys surprised me with an Air Fryer last Christmas. But the truth is, I’m pretty sure they all wanted it for themselves and well, it was for sure a win-win Christmas gift!

I’ve made delicious Garlic Butter Shrimp in it and will never turn back. I love roasting green beans in it and will share those simple instructions soon. But can I confess how we mostly use the Air Fryer at our house?

French. Fries.

From a bag. At the store. The good kind. As in, the name brand fries because our store brand doesn’t taste nearly as good.

Wait, but Laura, don’t you make homemade fries?

Yes, I did. Past tense, at least for now. I barely have time to scrub a potato, so I do not have time (or arms) to cut potatoes into fries.

Ore Ida fries in the Air Fryer – the crinkle kind because THOSE ARE THE BEST – are so delicious and fun. We have them every Friday night and have obviously dubbed it “French Fry Friday.” We eat chicken strips and fries and watch a movie to celebrate the week. And about those chicken strips?

Those come out of a bag too. I don’t even feel guilty about this. We throw those into the air fryer with our fries. On Fridays. Before our movie night.

If I have a few extra minutes and two or even one arm to work with, I’ll steam a veggie to go with our meal. Otherwise we all grab some fruit and call it a night.

This saves money, how?

Well, how much money do you spend when you’re too tired to cook and you go through the drive-through for chicken strips and fries for your crew?

We almost never eat out, but a few weeks ago we went through a fast-food drive-through because they were giving a percentage of sales to our local school for a fundraiser. We headed that way to show our support and to give me a night off, but shucks if we didn’t sink $30 into that meal – and the receipt was only that low because only half of us were home that night.

What I throw into my air fryer – which tastes just as good and is slightly healthier than fast-food restaurants – costs around $10 for six of us to eat our fill.

What if your Air Fryer took the place of eating out?

Sure, my Ore Ida fries and Dino Nuggets or Bagged Chicken Strips are not the healthiest things I put on our table. But it’s still a step healthier than regular-fried food at fast-food restaurants.

And the money-saving aspect is huge!

Beyond that, the fun food we cook in our Air Fryer gives us that “we just had a treat” feeling that we can get when we go out to eat.

So now you know. I keep some frozen treats like fries and nuggets on hand to throw in my Air Fryer to help me survive this busy season in life. It saves big bucks compared to eating out and it’s a lot of fun too!

Thought you’d like to know, just in case you want to put an Air Fryer on your Christmas wish-list this year. :)

P.S. I have this Air Fryer and we’ve been very happy with it!

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