Holiday Gifts for Holistic Chefs

The best way to maintain vibrant health at any age is by eating whole natural foods. When you prepare most of your meals at home you get to choose exactly what types of ingredients are actually in every tasty mouthful of food that you prepare for yourself and your family. It doesn’t have to be hard to prepare healthy meals at home, all you need are a few easy recipes (which you can find on by clicking on the recipes tab above),a good knife, some cooking pans and utensils.

Chef’s Knife: When you have a great knife prepping becomes an easy task, inspiring you to cook. I like this Henckels 8″ Stainless-Steel Chef’s Knife. It is reasonably priced, great for chopping onions or vegetables, even carving a chicken. The knife is extremely sharp and holds its edge. You can’t put it in the dishwasher because it is a higher quality knife, but that’s OK with me.

Cast Iron Skillet The benefits of cooking in a cast iron pan is you can use less oil and you avoid the harmful chemicals that are found in nonstick pans. A cast-iron skillet conducts heat beautifully, goes from stovetop to oven with no problem and last for decades.

Mandoline A mandoline is a cooking utensil used for slicing and for cutting juliennes. I love it for thinly sliced dikaon for my salad or making some raw zucchini noodles. The Swissmar Borner V-1001 V-Slicer Plus Mandoline is a reasonably priced efficient mandoline. 

Julienne PeelerIf you want something smaller, the stainless steel Kuhn Rikon Julienne Peeler creates ultra thin, restaurant-style julienne strips of fruits and vegetables quickly and easily. The extra sharp stainless steel swivel blade with julienne teeth makes raw zucchini noodles and lovely julienne carrots and cucumbers.

Citrus Juice PressLemon juice is very alkalizing once it gets into your body. I drink a glass of water with the juice of a lemon added each morning to reduce the acids that have built up in my body overnight. This tool juices a lemon without a lot of effort. You cut your lemon in half, lay it in the press, close and squeeze. It extracts the juice from the lemon and catches most of the seeds, all in one step.

Nut Milk Bag This is perfect for making homemade nutmilk as well as straining fresh squeezed juice made in a blender, if you don’t have a juicer. See how on my video

Immersion BlenderThis simple tool can whirl a pot of simmering vegetables into a silky smooth soup in about three minutes. It eliminates the step of transferring soup, in batches, to a blender. The one I like is Cuisinart CSB-75 Smart Stick 2-Speed 200-Watt Immersion Hand Blender.

Magic Bullet Blender This is a kitchen appliance that is small, efficient, multi-functional and very easy to use. It is perfect for making smoothies, blending soups or chopping up vegetables.

Vitamix The Vitamix TurboBlend Two Speed makes ultra smooth smoothies, raw soups and dressings. It even breaks down the chia seeds so they don’t stick in your teeth. You can’t achieve the same texture with a regular blender. One of the best things about a Vitamix is you don’t need to blend for a long period of time. You get the most benefits from your blended food by blending for the shortest amount of time. The longer you blend your food the more oxygen it is exposed to which contributes to destroying it’s nutritional value. The key to getting the most benefits from blended foods is to keep oxidation to a minimum by blending as little as possible. The Vitamix does this.

Centrifugal JuicerThis Breville Compact Juicer is reasonably priced and quite powerful. If you are buying a juicer for someone who will juice once or twice a week this juicer will do the job. Clean up is quick and it will go into the dishwasher. There is a minimum amount of prep needed as It is easy to feed in large pieces of vegetables.

Cold Press Juicer If you are buying a juicer for someone who juices daily you may want to invest in the Hurom Verticle Cold Press Juicer. The benefits of a cold press juicer are they naturally press fruit and vegetables without heat or friction. The result is more juice than the centrifugal juicer. The juice lasts longer, up to 72 hours with more enzymes preserved.

Glass Jars Here are some great jars for storing your juice or smoothies in the refrigerator. This

6-pack of Aquasana 18 Oz. Glass Bottles comes with BPA free lids and are dishwasher safe.

 

I hope you enjoy these gifts for your friends, family and get some for yourself too!