Everyone seems to be in a rush these days, relying on caffeinated coffee and sodas just to keep going. We have to go here and there, pick up the kids, drop off the kids, go to meetings, meat friends, walk the dog, do the kitty litter, do the laundry, get caught up on the news, and a oh yes –  let’s not forget we have to cook too.

Here is some good news.  Learning to structure our time and space in the kitchen with a few practical tips, life in the kitchen can be relaxing, less hurried and more enjoyable for everyone.

Here are a few tips to get you started:

1.  Use appliances to do your mixing and chopping.

Many cookbooks will mention how long it takes to make a recipe.   What is particularly helpful is when the author indicates how much of that time is prep work.  This is a great feature because many times the prep work such as chopping, slicing, sautéing, etc. can take a considerable amount of time in and of itself.

One of the ways to get around this, especially when a recipe calls for a lot of chopping, is to use a food processor, or mixer depending on the need.  There are various types of blenders and it is important to purchase one which is suitable for your needs.  There are many popular styles such as the KitchenAid mixer, or Cuisinart mixers which offers chopping and dough mixing settings.

2.  Clean while you cook.

One of the greatest time saving tips doesn’t even have to cost you a penny.  Use the times when something is baking, cooking, or sautéing to clean up your area.  This can include cleaning pots and pans, or simply cleaning the countertop –  such as removing any scraps of food.

The more you practice this while cooking you will reduce the cleanup time at the end of the meal.  This allows you to finish eating and move on quickly to your next activity, or sit back and relax while enjoying a nice cup of coffee.

3.  Grow indoor herbs.

Learning to grow culinary herbs indoors is not for everyone, as it will require space and maintenance.  However, it is a convenient time saver when cooking a recipe to reach over and snip some fresh herbs to toss in.

Indoor herbs not only help keep your recipes bright and fresh during off-season months, they also add bright foliage to your kitchen decor.  Adding a little bit of greenery to your kitchen can help lift moods, and create a warmer atmosphere.

4.  Use a recipe box.

It can be hard to keep a recipe box updated with favorite recipes when strapped for time.  After all, stopping to rewrite a recipe from a cookbook onto an index card is not always the most pleasing way to spend our free time.

However, one must think of its long-term implications.  If a person can get in the habit of doing this every time they come across a good recipe, they will save themselves many headaches in the future when wanting to easily refer back to that recipe – yet cannot remember which cookbook it came from.

By categorizing your favorite recipes in one location like a recipe box, it becomes easy to find ideas simply by sifting through your list of favorites.  This will not only save time, but many headaches as well.

5.  A theme a day.

For those who are responsible for cooking each night, it can be rather taxing coming up with a new menu each week.  However with a little organization and discipline, a person can relieve much of this stress.

Assign each day of the week to a particular theme or category.  For example, Monday can be devoted to poultry, where the main dish consists of chicken.

Tuesday can be a meatless theme where the meal consists of mostly vegetables or even pasta.  Pasta tossed with fresh vegetables such as eggplant and zucchini is always a good combination.

Don’t forget a leftover’s night, and of course you can always make Friday pizza night, whether you choose to order out, or make your own pizza at home. By the way, kids loves making homemade pizza dough!

Another fun idea is to have a special dessert every Sunday, or other day of the week.  An example could be a homemade pie, or even homemade ice cream using a gelato maker.  This is another fun activity to do at home with the kids.

6.   Never wear white.

Lastly, this step is one of the most practical, which is never to wear white when working with any ingredient that can stain – such as an Italian pasta sauce.  If for whatever reason you need to wear white, try using an apron to help protect your clothing.  This is a simple tip, but has huge rewards.

In the end, it is safe to say, with a little preplanning and organization, life in the kitchen not only becomes easier, but can also be fun.

Contributor: Liz T. Krause is the owner of SimpleItalianCooking.com, a website devoted to Italian cooking recipes.  She enjoys writing about Italian related topics and writes reviews for different products such as the Alessi 9090 espresso maker.  She spends her free time in the kitchen and enjoys trying new recipes and making homemade espressos.

Important: We do our best to make sure our reviews are as accurate as possible, but we are only human after all. So when you are ready to buy a product reviewed on our site please click through to the merchant to make sure you are getting the right product with all the features advertised.

As our regular readers are aware, we love the KitchenAid Artisan stand mixer and have written a detailed review on the benefits of owning one. So I thought you might like to read the history behind this great looking, excellent performing machine.

The KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer has its origins in the first standing mixer powered by electricity. This first mixer was designed by Herbert Johnson in 1908, and it was primarily designed for commercial use in large bakeries. 

Johnson’s 80-quart electric stand mixer was scaled down to a home “food preparer” and was sold by the newly renamed KitchenAid company in 1919. The new 1919 version of the KitchenAid Stand Mixer was still a bulky machine that weighed around 65 pounds. On top of that, it cost $189.50, or around $2,300 in present day cost.

 In 1936, KitchenAid hired an industrial designer to redesign their stand mixer. Three new models were produced, and the Streamline KitchenAid shape that still characterizes these machines was developed. The price was cut to around $55, making KitchenAid mixers much more affordable for home use. 

Over the years, KitchenAid stand mixers gained a reputation for quality and versatility as a food preparation tool. Virtually from the start, KitchenAid offered a variety of attachments that would allow the machine to perform many different functions. Early attachments included the food grinder, citrus juicer and pea shucker. 

KitchenAid began to offer stand mixers in a bright array of colors in 1955. KitchenAids became available in Petal Pink, Satin Chrome, Sunny Yellow, Island Green and Antique Copper.

Although more than 90 years have passed since the introduction of the first KitchenAid, the machine has remained much the same in many ways. Today’s stand mixers are still produced in the same factory in Greenville, Ohio where the very first 1919 model was manufactured. The mechanics of the original mixer have been altered so little, attachments made in 1919 will still fit today’s KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer. 

Today there are many more colors to choose from when it comes to purchasing a KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer, but the spirit behind offering the original color varieties in 1955 remains the same. Colorful choices make buying, owning and using a KitchenAid stand mixer more fun and exciting for owners. 

The tradition of designing useful attachments that allow the KitchenAid to serve as many roles as possible in the kitchen is also in place now as it was in the past. Today, the Artisan Stand Mixer can not only mix dough and batters, but can serve as a food grinder, citrus juicer, sausage maker and pasta maker, to name but a few roles it can serve.

So there you have it, the KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer - a product manufactured with performance and style, just right for your everyday baking needs.

At long last we’ve added a review for the Kitchenaid Artisan Stand Mixer. This beautiful piece of equipment is one of those ‘must haves’ for any keen baker or home cooker.

We found it hard to find anything we didn’t like about this mixer. For starters, it receives extremely good ratings from consumers – at time of writing this post over 1300 people gave this stand mixer a 5 star rating on Amazon. That’s pretty amazing really.

It’s also just a pleasure to look at this mixer. You won’t be keeping this one away in a cupboard.

The only problem you might find with this mixer is trying to figure out what color to choose. Kitchenaid have provided over 25 colors so really there’s no excuse for finding one to match your kitchen decor. I personally like Empire Red which is the color you see in the picture to the left.

One of the best things about the Kitchenaid Artisan Stand Mixer is the number of attachments you can add to this thing. This really makes this a multipurpose appliance. The beater, dough hook and wire beater come packaged with your stand mixer…all other attachments are at any extra cost. The attachments include an ice cream maker, pasta maker, sausage maker, citrus juicer and many more.

Read our full review of the Kitchenaid 5qt Artisan Stand Mixer.

Stand mixers are for most preparation to do with baking – pie crust, bread dough etc.  A Food Processor is great for chopping, pureeing, slicing, grinding nuts and coffee, finely chopping herbs…the list is endless.  Try to think of the stand mixer as helping with sweet foodstuffs and the Food Processor with savory.  Although that ‘rule’ is interchangeable, it helps to see why you would benefit from both.

Handy Hints

• Try not to be seduced by a machine with many ‘extras’. These only add to the cost and you may only use them very rarely – or never at all!
• Food Processors that live in cupboards don’t get used! So don’t forget to check how much space the Food Processor will take up on your counter top. When you’re deciding where it will ‘live’, make sure it’s near a power point and that you have enough free space nearby for any rough chopping or peeling etc.
• Check that the parts of the Food Processor are safe in the dishwasher as this can save time on cleanup.
• For a family-sized processor (9 to 11 cups), look for a model that has a motor of at least 600 watts, to minimize the likelihood of the motor burning out.
• Choose a model from a manufacturer who offers service options, a range of additional blades or mixing tools and replacement parts.
• Look for a model with smooth ‘touch’ pad controls rather than raised buttons. This makes it easier to keep clean.
• Food Processors make graham cracker crusts or cheesecake bases a breeze!
• They are ideal for pureeing food for babies. Just cook your regular meal and whizz up a portion for your baby (unless you are having highly spiced food which could upset baby’s  stomach!).
• Make your own peanut or almond butter. Simply put shelled nuts into the bowl and grind until it’s the consistency that you desire.

• When shredding Mozzarella cheese, freeze it for 20 minutes first. This will make it shred much more easily and stop it clumping together.

No kitchen is complete without a mixer to do everything from beating batter to whisking eggs.

While you could get a different kitchen gadget for each of these purposes, who really has the room for a number of different mixers in the kitchen? Instead you want to have one that can do it all. That one is the Hamilton Beach 62695V Power Deluxe Hand Mixer.

The Hamilton Beach Deluxe Hand Mixer comes with a 225-watt motor that can be set to one of six speeds, meaning it can be used for delicate work as well as those tougher kitchen projects.

In addition to coming with the speed flexibility that you need, this  mixer also comes with the tools you need to do those jobs, coming with wire beaters, traditional beaters and a whisk.

Once you are done mixing, you don’t want to spend a lot of time cleaning. That is not a problem with this set as the beaters are stainless steel and can be dropped right into the dishwasher when you’re done cooking.

Also, once you have finished using the unit, the designers realized you want it to take up as little space as possible in the kitchen. So the mixer has been designed to stand up, with the cord wrapping about it, so it takes up a very small amount of counter space.

What We Like

• That it’s compact and fits into a small area on the counter to make it always accessible.

• That it has variety in mixing speeds.

• It is easy to clean since the beaters can go into the dishwasher.

Other things to consider:

• It seems to struggle when mixing heavier things like cookie dough.
• While it does have six speeds, it is missing a low speed, which is what you need if you are doing a lot of folding.

Read what others are saying at Amazon.com

One mixing bowl in the kitchen is never enough. At the same time you don’t want a stack of them that can’t fit together as that just means more shelf space you are going to lose in those kitchen cabinets.

Instead, consider the Revere 3-Piece Mixing Bowl Set to serve all of your mixing needs while still being able to stack inside one another and not take up too much space.

This set of stainless bowls comes in three sizes:-

• 1 Quart
• 2 Quart
• 3 Quart.

Each bowl also comes with a matching plastic lid that you can pop on the top so they can immediately become a storage container to save some of what you mixed up for later.

The stainless steel construction means these will allow you a lot of use, and even a lot of abuse in the kitchen.  The stainless steel is strong enough to handle mixers and other rough use. When it comes to clean up, they are also easy enough to care for as you can throw them in the dishwasher and let it do all of the work.

What We Like

• That they are dishwasher safe which makes clean up easier

• The rings on the side of the bowl make it easy to hold the bowl in place while mixing.

• This is a great value for the three bowls you get.

• The lids make these a great and easy way to store foods that you didn’t finish without having to dirty up yet another piece of kitchenware.

Other things to consider:

• The lids are for storage only and should not be placed in the microwave.

• Be sure to check the sizes as these bowls are smaller than they look in the picture.  So just check to make sure the sizes suit the purpose you buy them for.

BUY NOW or read what others are saying at Amazon.com

Who doesn’t want to have the ability to make delicious smoothies or frozen daiquiris from time to time?

If you are the house where everyone comes for the Friday night parties or other social events, a blender that can make these types of drinks is a must have accessory in the kitchen.

With a 450-watt motor, theOster 6684 12-Speed Blender, Black can handle nearly any items you want to blend up. This mixer also comes with 12 speeds so you can control the blending rate and intensity of the ingredients you are putting into the pitcher.

One reason a lot of people avoid a blender is because they hate the clean up process. Its not any fun to have to get inside the pitcher and try to clean out all the pieces of fruit that may be stuck to the walls and the blades. That is not a problem with this blender as it can be put right in the dishwasher, saving you a lot of scrubbing.

The jar on this blender will also let you mix up a lot of drinks at a time, with a 5-cup capacity.

What We Like

• The variety of speeds that let you blend to your needs.

• The fact that it has a specific ice crusher control for making those iced drinks.

• It comes with a sturdy glass jar instead of plastic like many other blenders use.

• The jar is not only is a great place to blend, but also has a pouring spout and handle to be an easy to use pitcher.

• It is easy to clean up after using as the jar can go right into the dishwasher.
• The ice crusher is stainless steel
• Has an all metal drive system for durability

BUY NOW

or see what others are saying at

Amazon.com

The Cuisinart SM-70 7-Quart Stand Mixer is a solid workhorse and you will love finding excuses to use this one.

With an amazing 12 speeds the Cuisinart 7 Quart Stand Mixer’s powerful 1000 watt can handle even the heaviest of jobs.

The large capacity 7qt mixing bowl means that you won’t have to mix in batches anymore and with the 12 mixing speeds you will have the greatest precision over your mixing tasks.

What We Like

• It has a slow start function which eliminates foods splattering around your kitchen.
• It has a 15 minute countdown timer.
• I has an auto shut off function.
• The ultra-gentle mode allows even the most delicate of mixes to be folded through.
• You can add attachments (purchased separately) to enhance your mixer including a meat grinder, citrus juicer, blender and food processor.
• It comes with a recipe book.
• The head of the mixer pivots up so you can get easy access to the bowl.
• The bowl is made from stainless steel and has handles which allows you to easily lift the bowl and makes it easy to scoop out the contents.

What’s Included

• stand mixer
• chefs whisk
• flat mixing paddle
• dough hook
• splash guard
• 7 quart stainless steel bowl

Want to Read More Reviews?

You can read more reviews for the Cuisinart SM-70 7qt Stand Mixer at Amazon

WHERE CAN I GET THE BEST PRICE?

We found the best price at Amazon