Healthy Holiday Gift Guide: Ideas for a Healthier Kitchen

The holidays are a wonderful opportunity to support your health and the health of those you love. Abandon frivolous gift-giving this year and make a health-conscious gesture instead. We’ve put together this guide with healthy holiday gifts to give your holiday shopping a healthy makeover. Whether you add these to your own wish list, or purchase them for a loved one, opting for  healthy holiday gifts this year will help boost your motivation and make it easier for you and your family to stay on track with healthy eating while working on health and wellness goals in the new year and beyond.

Healthy Holiday Gifts for a Healthier Kitchen

Here are some carefully curated ideas to kick off your healthy holiday shopping:

Cookbooks for Healthy Family Meals

Having healthy cookbooks on hand is great idea whether you want to prepare a dinner for Meatless Mondays, a slow cooker recipe to feed the whole family, a warming soup or stew for those cold winter days, or simply need inspiration for quick and healthy meals for a busy week of family activities. If you struggled your way through 2017 to figure out how to plan or prep healthy meals, then now may be the time to invest in healthy cookbooks to give you ideas and a roadmap to getting healthy food on the table for the family. Gift these to yourself or your friend or family member who loves to cook or is learning.

Here are some of my favorite cookbooks for healthy family meals:

• The Healthy Meal Prep Cookbook: Easy and Wholesome Meals to Cook, Prep, Grab, and Go
• 100 Days of Real Food: How We Did It, What We Learned, and 100 Easy, Wholesome Recipes Your Family Will Love
• Simple Food for Busy Families: The Whole Life Nutrition Approach
• Clean Eating for Busy Families: Get Meals on the Table in Minutes with Simple and Satisfying Whole-Foods Recipes You and Your Kids Will Love-Most Recipes Take Just 30 Minutes or Less!

Tools for a Healthier Kitchen

NON-TOXIC COOKWARE

I especially like the Stone Earth Frying Pan by Ozeri as it has a stone-derived, non-stick surface which is 100% free of APEO and PFOA, and the lesser known chemicals NMP and NEP.

SLOW COOKERS

How any household survives without a slow cooker is beyond me. The slow cooker is my go-to appliance when I simply don’t have time to oversee a dish as it’s being cooked. It takes up very little space but can handle making meals for a large family or holiday gathering. It’s also portable. I’ve taken my slow cooker on family vacations. Yes, I really did. And, as far as flavor goes – the slow, extended cooking process allows the flavors of your dish to be more evenly distributed. If you want to save time and save energy while making healthy, delicious meals then add a slow cooker to your collection of small kitchen appliances.

SLOW COOKERS

If getting veggies into your diet has been a challenge, this little machine will help. Added bonus. It chops, purees, and grinds to make many cooking tasks much faster and easier.

BERKEY WATER FILTER

This might be one of the most common-sense investments for any home or office. Berkey filters will keep your drinking and cooking water supply safe by removing unwanted contaminants like chlorine and chloramin, toxic chemicals, fluoride, heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, microorganisms, bacteria and viruses. What I love about the Berkey brand is that their filtration systems surpass all of the standards set by the government. Their products don’t just filter water, they purify the water that you and your family are drinking and cooking with.

NutriBullet

I could not go any length of time without my NutriBullet.  Whether it’s to whip up a quick smoothie or mince garlic for stir-fry, I use it almost daily. It just makes my life in the kitchen a little less hectic.

Spiralizer

I’m still trying to decide if I want to add this little gadget to my kitchen collection. Folks I know who have one rave over them.

VitaClay Smart Organic Multi-Cooker

This little pot seems to do it all! It cooks food up to 4 times faster than a conventional slow cooker so it’s on my list this year for sure. Apparently, you can even make probiotic rich Greek yogurt with it! You can make anything you’d cook in a traditional slow cooker, but this one has an unglazed clay pot interior which is free of aluminum, lead, and non-stick chemical coatings.

A Quality Blender

Are you ready to uplevel your blender this year? Blendtec blenders are top notch and can make just about anything from ice cream to smoothies to fresh juices.

Glass Storage Containers

Plastic containers are known for carrying toxic chemicals which leach into food.  Start phasing out plastic and migrate to glass storage containers.  The added bonus here is that many brands of glass storage can also be reheated directly, thus reducing how many dishes pile up in your sink. I really like these 3-compartment containers which make portioning out meals for the week very easy.

Digital Food Scale

Take (portion) control of your meals and eating habits. Using a digital scale can help you to learn what portion sizes look like so that you can better eyeball portions when you’re eating away from home. They’re also very handy for preparing meals for the whole family.

Non-slip Organic Bamboo Cutting Boards

These are a necessity in every kitchen to perfectly and safely chop vegetables, meats, and other ingredients for your healthy meal. Bamboo is durable and long-lasting, as well as naturally anti-microbial and non-toxic. Get a set and use one for vegetables and fruit, and the other for meats in order to avoid cross-contamination while preparing healthy dishes.

Glass Electric Kettle

 

Converting to an electric kettle has many advantages. These are a portable and convenient option to boil water for your favorite tea, coffee, or cocoa. They’re also time-saving and efficient using less electricity than the usual stove-top method.

Stainless Steel Hand-held Immersion Blender

Keep this neat and handy tool nearby for smaller blending jobs. It can easily handle whipping, emulsifying, and blending. Some even have an attachment for food processing. When your kitchen task isn’t big enough to justify pulling out the blender or mixer, this little gadget will do the job.

What are your healthy holiday gift ideas? Share with our community here.