Who doesn’t love House Hunters, the show where we can visit homes from our couches? I did my own take on the show last year, when I shared a tour of my Holistic Dorm Room. I hope it was helpful for both students and non-students to see the safe-savvy ways I created a healthy environment.
This summer, I moved to a new home and I treasured the opportunity to outfit a kitchen. Sure, the cabinets may be outdated, but I find it a retreat and wholly worthy of the title The Empowered Sustenance Test Kitchen.
The one downfall of my kitchen is the relatively poor lighting, coupled with the dark walls and cabinets. Bear with me for some of the kitchen photos, the light is not optimal. Fortunately, my living space has a generously-windowed corner, where I’ve established my “photography table.” I’m sure you’ll recognize the wood as the background in many of my recent recipes.
Let’s start the tour!
You may recognize a couple of my counter-top essentials next to my sink – my Ninja blender in the corner, and my Berkey Water Filter (which is the most affordable option to remove both chlorine and fluoride from drinking water, read my review + Berkey tips here).
Here are the cupboards next to my stove. First, on the left, I store my herbs/salts/spices. When I buy from my local herb store, I put the herbs in 2 oz glass jars and label the top of the jar.
It’s also where I keep teas and coffee, and above that, extra ghee. Because the world will absolutely end if I run out of Tin Star Ghee.
On the other side, I store baking essentials: Baking ingredients including coconut flour, arrowroot flour, coconut sugar, cacao, dried fruit, raw honey, coconut oil, non-hydrogenated palm shortening, and red palm oil.
Oils and vinegars go on a Lazy Susan on my fridge.
There are other cabinets/drawers that I’ve not shown, due to poor lighting and space in this blog post. They contain other ingredients, dishes, cutlery, baking dishes, and table linens. I would recommend my Non-Toxic Bakeware post for some more information.
I also have essential cooking utensils, ghee, and my salt container next to the stove. My Herbal/Seasoning Salt container houses truffle salt, smoked salt, Herbamare, a local herbal salt, fleur de sel, and Mountain Rose Herbs Seasoning Salt.
On the left side of my stove, I have bowl for garlic/shallots/onions and a bowl for squash and sweet potatoes.
In these cupboards, I house my Ninja food processor/blender accessories, handheld electric mixer, mixing/decorative bowls, coffee making supplies.
Finally, a peek into my fridge. It would look a lot more exciting in here the day after the Farmer’s Market. I still have a few things left from my market trip: lamb sausages, sheep milk yogurt, carrots, bell pepper, and greens. I also see leftover soup, spaghetti squash, and eggs (chicken and duck).
And the staples in my fridge include fresh herbs, sprouted nut butters, Primal Mayo, coconut aminos, bacon grease, raw milk parmesan, and some other random condiments. And shelf in my fridge for perishable supplements.
I hope you enjoyed this peek into my kitchen!
I’m considering running a series of Real Food/Paleo Kitchen tours, with kitchens of other bloggers and readers alike. Would you be interested in reading that series or sharing your own kitchen on Empowered Sustenance? I believe we can all learn and share real food tips and tricks through that series. Let me know how you feel about that in a comment below!
Woukd you provide a link if possible for the coconut flour you buy? Thanks!
Hello! Just wanted to comment on your Vital Farms Eggs that you purchased (the black top egg carton) also known as the Pasture-raised Conventionally Fed Eggs – ‘Alfresco Eggs’ & ‘Texas Chicken Ranch’ and let you know that the reason it’s about $1.50 cheaper than the other green and yellow egg carton “Pasture Verde” is because it’s not non-GMO fed chickens. So, they are conventionally fed. I don’t think this aligns with your passion.
I asked PCC about it and they specified the differences between the three. So, organic vegetable non-gmo pasture raised chickens is the green and yellow egg carton. Also, known as: Pasture-raised USDA Certified Organic eggs – ‘Vital Farms’ & ‘Pasture Verde’
Thanks for sharing your kitchen! 🙂
For more information about their eggs, you should check out their website. It’s definitely worth spending more money for the better eggs… to get all those nutrients you’ve raved about in previous posts. One NTP to the other! 🙂
http://vitalfarms.com/pasture-raised-eggs/our-eggs/#backyardbirds
What’s unfortunate is that the “Pasture Verde” eggs are not nearly as tasty and their yokes are so much paler than the “Alfresco Eggs.” Orange yokes indicate high levels of all those desirable fat-soluble nutrients so it’s a tough call choosing the ones that are supposed to be better when they don’t look or taste as good. I have not understood why there’s such a difference between the two.
Thanks, Lauren, for the wonderful tour of your kitchen!
That is good to know, I appreciate you sharing the info! I’ll grab the Pasture Verde box next time.
Thanks Lauren for the tour, interesting as always! I noticed the varieties of salt and I’m wondering if you still drink a cup of sea salted water every morning?
Yes! I would love to see other real food/paleo kitchens! I loved reading about your spices/seasonings. It gave me some ideas for ‘spicing’ things up in my own kitchen! Plus, I love creeping on other people’s homes 😛 And I’m SO excited you posted a link to your spice jars!!!! Thank you!
This was wonderful Lauren! I LOVE seeing other traditional foodies (like myself) kitchens’. Makes me feel normal, like I’m not the only one with fish oil in my fridge door! Haha!
I ALWAYS love to see what is in people fridges and cupboard so def do it – I just wish my fridge was as organised and tidy as yours! 🙂
Yes please! I think this is where we can all find something new just by viewing every day normal in a different kitchen.’ cause let’s face it ; all the best conversations at friends’ houses are around the kitchen table and food!
Looking forward to the next kitchen, Lauren.
PS very thankful for you & your blog!
We make ghee in abundance in our home but we barely use due to doctors telling us to stay away from it due to it raising our cholesterol levels. would love to know your thoughts on this. if it were safe, i would have it every day!!!
Hi,
As we age we definitely need our cholesterol levels to be not too low, conventional medicine does not understand this concept. I see a DOM and she is wonderful – I suffered from many things and since I have pursued all natural holistic measures for my health and well being I am flourishing. The process is gradual but it is so rewarding – it takes patience 🙂
I would look for a health practitioner that cares about your health and well being – and I would do my own research because it is your life !! 🙂 Knowledge is power 🙂
Take care, Amee
Hi again,
Something that I forgot to mention is that conventional doctors also do not understand that healthy fats are necessary for our overall health – thereby helping our immune systems, our cardiovascular systems, and our hormonal health, as well – I could go on and on 🙂 The bottom line is that healthy fats, eg., organic cold pressed coconut oil, grass fed butter, or ghee are great for your health – it should be a main staple in our diet and lifestyle choices. I use coconut oil to cook, on my face, for sun protection, in my coffee, it has so many uses, the same with ghee and grass fed butter:) I also take flax oil every day in a liquid form 🙂 The best thing that you can do is to find the right health practitioner for you and your family!! 🙂
Take care, Amee
Hey Lauren,
It’s so awesome to see a fridge/kitchen like ours, hah! 🙂 I’m still in awe of how neat/minimalist everything is when you take processed food out of the equation.
I’d like to ask you something off-topic though, if that’s alright. Have you heard of cupuacu butter?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4495740/
I’m very excited about it!
Would love to see other kitchens and would definitely share mine.