Raw Food Kitchen Organization Tips
– by Lena Armstrong
There’s only one thing better than having a fridge stocked full of all the fresh food goodies you need – and that’s knowing you’ve got a clean, organized, clutter-free kitchen to walk into at any moment of the day to work your smoothie or salad magic!
We were so inspired by Kristen Suzanne’s post giving us a little look-see into her raw food ready kitchen, that we decided it would be a good idea to keep the awesome pics and tips flowing. We want to see your kitchen! We want to share it with the world! Are you up for it? There’s a brand spankin’ new Blendtec Blender Wildside in it for the most inspiring and helpful post we receive before 30th September. Check out the competition details here, and remember: it’s not about the prettiest kitchen, or the fanciest equipment – it’s all about functionality. Have you got yourself set up for success in your kitchen? Now, that’s what we love to see!
We’re going to publish each entry as it comes in, so make a lot of noise (in the comments below) to tell us how much you love each one. Get specific and let us know which particular tip you’re going to put into action in your kitchen.
To kick us off, Lena Armstrong shares with us here her little slice of raw food prep heaven.
Lena’s Top 3 Tips for Getting Organized in the Kitchen
When you’re first getting into raw food eating it can often be overwhelming. Today I’m sharing three tips about how organizing your kitchen can keep you motivated and inspired. The three tips are in sight and in mind, the four basic knives to use, and storage placement for glass mason jars.
1. In Sight In Mind
I keep my commonly used liquids for making salad dressings, raw soups, ‘mock’ cheese spreads, dips and mousses on an open shelf within easy reach above my blender and food processor area. It’s fun to see the various bottle shapes, sizes and colours, showing a working kitchen. It’s a conversational piece too, for whoever enters your kitchen can see what you use – it’s all out in the open.
I also have all my serving spoons, scoops, graters and garlic press hanging from a rack on the wall for easy accessibility, without having to rummage around in a drawer.
2. Knives of the Kitchen
A variety of knives help to accomplish the various prepping tasks of raw food eating. My favourite is a six inch chef knife that I use for slicing and chopping. I use a bigger eight inch chef knife for bigger items like cutting pineapple and cabbage. Paring knives are handy for peeling and dicing fruit into your blender for smoothies, and for taking citrus rinds off. I also use a serrated knife for thinly slicing tomatoes and onions.
I installed a magnetic tool bar to keep my knives on. I can quickly glance at which knife I need and grab it. It’s mounted high enough on the wall that I can reach it, yet it’s out of reach to little children.
I also use a use a stainless steel compost bucket. I keep it on the counter all the time. It’s decorative and functional at the same time.
3. Storage Placement for Glass Mason Jars
Designed into my kitchen I have pull out racks giving easy access to my mason jars. I have these pull out racks under each corner of my counter. The other side holds my glass storage containers for half slices of lemon, lime or avocado and for packing lunches.
With these pull out racks the mason jars can be quickly grabbed for pouring freshly made nut milks into, for soaking nuts, raisins and dates, for storing nut pie crusts and for the extra bit of smoothie that didn’t quite fit in your special breakfast smoothie glass.
I also store on these shelves my yogurt maker and ice cream maker. I place the Mason jars on the top shelf of the pull out rack, so I can grab one without fully opening the rack.
These three tips help me on my road to exploring, creating and eating raw foods.
What do you think? Pretty cool huh? Which picture was your favourite?
Let us know in the comments below.