Top 3 Kitchen Gadgets for the Frugal Cook
My first absolute must-have gadget is a food processor with switchable disks/blades. This item alone could be considered the frugal cook’s best friend. With it, you can shred block cheese or slice stick pepperoni (both of which are much cheaper than buying pre-shredded cheese or pre-sliced pepperoni). You can also use it to make mayonnaise, peanut butter, or whipped cream as well as chop or slice any number of vegetables in no time flat. You’ll want a good, sturdy model that will withstand heavy use over the years. The brand I would most highly recommend is Cuisinart. Do not buy one new at retail price! First, check your local freecycle.org or craigslist.org listings – and be sure to post a “wanted” post if you don’t see one offered. If that fails, search discount centers both in person and online (for example, overstock.com or buy.com) and the sale/discount sections of major online retailers (like amazon.com). And, of course, don’t forget to check ebay.com.
My next must-have is a slow cooker, also known as a crockpot. Aside from the energy savings from using a slow cooker versus the oven to cook a roast, this little beauty is a great way to use up leftover meats and vegetables – just toss them in with some broth, let it cook all day, and you’ve got soup! It’s also the easiest way to cook a chicken for those casseroles or pot pies which call for cooked chicken – AND make your own chicken broth as the same time! Season the chicken, pop a peeled onion in the cavity, add 2-4 cups of water, and cook it on low for 8-10 hours. Place a colander in a bowl (which has enough volume to hold the amount of liquid in the crockpot) and slowly pour the contents from the crockpot into the colander. Carefully lift the colander and let it drain until it is just slow drops, then place on a some paper towels or a surface you don’t mind wiping down (as a little more liquid will drain off) to let your chicken cool until you can easily handle it. The meat will fall completely off the bone, the skins are easy to remove, and you’ll have loads of cooked chicken for several recipes as well as several cups of homemade broth (you can refrigerate the broth before using and easily skim the fat off the top to make it even healthier) A great place to look for crockpots is at yard sales or second-hand shops. However, even if you have to buy new, they are easily available for less than $20 for brand names like Presto or Rival.
My last must-have, and the one I get the most resistance from fellow cooks about because it seems odd, is an electric rice cooker. Rice is a staple of any frugal cook’s pantry and is probably used often. This gizmo is the best and most energy efficient way to cook your rice – whether white or (my preference) brown – to absolute perfection EVERY SINGLE TIME. Think about the number of times your rice has boiled over or cooked too long and burned or didn’t have enough liquid or took up valuable burner space so you had to wait to cook another part of your meal. Rice cookers remove every single one of those obstacles. They come with precise measurements calibrated on the cooking chamber, so there is no guesswork involved – you put in X scoops of rice, fill the chamber to the X level, pop it in the cooking chamber (most have an outer and removable inner chamber for ease of use and cleaning), cover, click the “cook” button, and that’s it! Another great use for your rice cooker is making oatmeal for breakfast (or, if you are like me, sometimes for dinner!) There are several recipes on the internet, read through them and pick one that creates the type of oatmeal you prefer (some like it soupy, some firm and chewy, some in-between the two). You just toss your ingredients in, take a shower, dress for work, and in 20 minutes or less, you have a hot, inexpensive, and nourishing breakfast waiting. Used rice cookers are a little harder to find than the other two items, but again, inexpensive basic cookers are available for less than $20.
So there you have it – three kitchen gadgets that are sure to save you time, money, and hours of hassle. Oh, and about those taco shell warmers or muffin top pans? I’d say pass them by…unless, of course, you plan to buy them at MY next yard sale!
