With Christmas looming I thought this would be a good time to come up with a list items we have found invaluable in our kitchen over the last seven years we have been full timing. For those of us living in small spaces with limited storage space and continually moving around we have acquired things that fit this lifestyle to a “T.” Most of these items will either be lightweight or take up little space as those are the two major factors one must consider when purchasing kitchen items for RV’s. A few items on the list will simply be those that make life much easier for us in our confined spaces. So what are they?
Collapsible Kitchen Items – We have several of these Items such as a the collapsible strainer, the collapsible measuring cups and the collapsible salad spinner. These collapsible items take up so little space and are easy to clean and sanitary. The colors of the measuring cups also makes it easy to grab the one you want… well, that is after you remember which color goes with which measuring cup!
NonStick and Heat Resistant Baking Mat Set
We use this all the time when baking as it can be used in the oven, microwave, toaster oven or even freezer. This simply turns any baking sheet into a non-stick surface without having to use oil or cooking spray. It can also be used as a flexible cookie sheet. They are flexible so are easily stored anywhere!
Heat Resistant Kitchen Spatulas
We love these flexible silicone spatulas that are heat resistant so they won’t warp or melt like plastic ones do. Also since they are solid silicone they have no crevices like wooden ones for bacteria to collect and grow. We like having multiple sizes so we can get all the goodies out of any size container with one of these!
Below are some other kitchen tools that make our life easier and help keep our non-stick pots and pans protected. These are rated up to 480℉ for handling heat. Now while we don’t have this complete set we do have several of these tools and if I were starting all over this is the set I would want in our RV. Add to this a Silicone Whisk Set and the utensil list is pretty much complete.
We currently still have heavy cutting boards but I would trade them in for a set of these flexible cutting matts. By purchasing a set of these matts in assorted colors with nifty food icons means we could use separate mats for different raw foods thus avoiding any cross-contamination. Cool! I really don’t know why we don’t own these… maybe I should get us a set for Christmas!
Another item we have that we love for their durability and light weight are our Stainless Steel Mixing Bowls. They are light weight and easy to use and with the polished finish they are easy to clean as well.!
Since we are both short our must have is a Folding Step Stool. Without this much of our storage would simply be unusable. It is great for reaching the higher cabinets and cleaning those otherwise out of reach places. Sharon also loves it for resting her feet on when we are traveling since her feet don’t touch the floor when she is seated in the passenger seat.
One of the things we quite often reach for is our Hand Held Blender. While this is not the one we have this Hamilton Beach 59765 2 Speed Hand Blender is an almost exact duplicate of the one we bought five years ago. With the attachments we are able to do everything from puree sauces, chop a small amount of vegetables or nuts and even beat egg whites to a a peak. So this is also used as our mixer. We wouldn’t leave home without one…
While we don’t have one of these many of our RV friends swear they couldn’t live without an Electric Frying Pan. We simply don’t have the storage to have one of these so we list it here simply because so many others love their electric fry pans. They do make them as small as 7 inches which has tempted us but we still have never purchased one. We love our new T-Fal 12.5” skillet that. We recently replaced our very favorite Cast Iron Skillet with this one and it’s non-stick capability is simply amazing! Eggs simply never stick in this pan!
Another item we don’t have that a lot of RV’ers say they love is a toaster oven. Storage is the big issue here for us but for those with more storage space you may want one of these! We do have a regular toaster because sometimes we crave toasted bagels! We store ours inside our oven when we travel.
A bulky item we do have but really love is our countertop double burner. The one we currently have has two burners, one at 600 watts and one at 900 watts. We love using this as it frees up counter space and also, let's be real… why pay for propane to use our gas stove when we mainly receive electricity for free. Our one complaint is that it takes a long tome to boil water on 900 watts so I would prefer more wattage. In fact when this one dies we will likely buy one of the newer induction burners. While these are pricier than the one we have the safety it offers is more than worth the additional cost. And we would get one that ranges up to at least 1800 watts as well.
Two items we don’t have but wished we did!
A couple of other small appliances that are nice to have are a compact blender and a new Instapot. While we have items that perform these tasks these are two items we would love to get! For RVers short on storage space it pays to find a good compact blender. Having yourself this powerful micro blender means not missing out on smoothies or your favorite frozen cocktail. The Ninja Master Prep is, we feel, the one to get for RV’ers. Not too small and not too big this blender can whip up favorite beverages in its 48-ounce pitcher. After all any bigger and you might just imbibe a bit too much!
The Instapot is one of the hottest kitchen products around now and they come in all varieties. Once our crockpot dies we will most likely replace it with one of these. We find it hard to buy one now when our crock pot works just fine. So it is on our Christmas wish list for now.
Coffee drinkers typically find space for their favorite coffee maker. We are still using our old trusty Cuisinart while many others make space for their Kuerigs or Expresso coffee machines. We figured we would use the Cuisinart until it died. So what would we like to have to replace it? We would love to have a the AeroPress Coffee Maker. This compact coffee maker uses an air pressure brewing process to make 1 to 4 cups of American or espresso style coffee. Boy, as coffee lovers, we would love to have one of these!
New on Sharon’s wish list this year are some Airtight Storage Containers. We had some aluminum ones with clamping styled lids that broke. So we bought some inexpensive ones at an Aldi’s Grocery Store that we loved except they were too cheap and the lids are failing. So after we ditch these we will replace them with higher quality ones. We love being able to see what's inside and the best part is that they keep all the bugs on the outside for that inevitable time you get invaded by ants. Although they are a bit pricey we figure one ant invasion thwarted will pay for them by saving the contents inside!
While this is not a comprehensive list we thought this would be a good time to share per the request of some of our readers a list of some of our favorite items and a few items we would love to have as well… Hey, fellow RVers, chime in with what items you have in your kitchen that you simply can’t live without?
Wow another Christmas Day is upon us and boy do we have so much to be thankful for this year. We have been on the road nearly 7 years now and our finances have held up enough that we haven't had to supplement our income and for that we are very thankful. Better yet are heath continues to be good allowing us (unlike so many) to continue are journeys into the foreseeable future. When will we stop… we certainly don’t know yet ourselves.
And while we won’t be spending Christmas with family this year as we have in years past we are thankful that we got to spend some extended time with each of our children in North Carolina and Texas, as well as our grandchildren in Texas. We know that if we weren’t traveling we would have surely not been able to spend as much time last year with them as we did. It is our travels that allow us that opportunity and it also allows us the opportunity to reconnect with many of our friends (new and old). It is our friends and family along with our travels that enrich our lives so very, very much.
Another small task was to repair a spring that had broken in one of our dining room chairs. I had to be a bit creative but was able to re-secure the spring using a makeshift anchor. Hopefully it will last a good while and if not we can always take it in to an upholstery shop to get property repaired.
