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 Sure, the cabinets may be outdated, but I find it a retreat and wholly worthy of the title The Empowered Sustenance Test Kitchen.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!
I would love to see other’s kitchens and hear their logic on why and how they work in their kitchen with their healthy essentials.
Mine sure needs the help and inspiration. I tend to clutter. Plus my husband doesn’t just go with everything I choose to do in my kitchen. He has to have his food, which is the stuff I no longer choose to eat, and he has a territorial attitude about any transformations I decide to make in the kitchen. That’s another topic, though.
But it sure is inspirational to see how easy it would be to function in your kitchen without all the nicknacks and extra distractions.
I’m always looking for cheaper but healthier alternatives to anything I’m already using. My kitchen will not be in one of your blogs unfortunately, but it will benefit from this series. Thank you, Lauren!
Great Post!
I’m a little late to the party, but YES! I would love to see inside other real food kitchens! Not only would it be great to pick up tips and tricks, but I also find it very inspirational to see other people cooking and eating the Real Food way 🙂
Thanks for everything you do, Lauren. For a lot of us, you are quite literally a life saver.
Thank you, Lauren, for all your wonderful information! You are helping my family in our GAPS/Paleo diet journey. I never thought I would be making ALL our food from scratch! I too can’t live without my Nutri Ninja duo. Great kitchen tour. Thank you again for sharing your knowledge with us!
Thank you so much for your comment, I’m so glad my posts have been helpful to you and your family!
Hi Lauren,
Thank you for providing this wonderful tour of your kitchen and this website of yours 🙂 Your personal story is very moving and inspiring and I thank you for sharing it with all of us 🙂 My diet is paleo, with the guidance of my health practitioner, she is a DOM, I am no longer on blood pressure medication, and I have removed wheat, gluten, all dairy, eggs, and sugar from my diet at this time – it is amazing how I do not have cravings any more for all the wrong stuff when I am stressed out. When I first went to see my integrative holistic doctor (DOM) I had weak adrenals and thyroid hormonal health – I have only been seeing her for roughly four months and I am so amazed at my body’s ability to heal 🙂 Healing is definitely a gradual process and the inner work is needed as well – progress not perfection 🙂 I appreciate what you are doing for all of us – you are truly an inspiration !! 🙂
Thank you and take care, Amee
Amee, thank you so much for your kind and encouraging words! I’m glad that Empowered Sustenance has been helpful to you, and I wish you continued blessings on your healing journey.
This is great! Thanks for sharing a look into your kitchen. I guess it’s an old post based off the comments, but still was very interesting!! I was wondering how you feel about microwave ovens? I notice you have one, but have heard they are not good for us? I have one also and use it sometimes, but I do try to use the stove or toaster oven as much as possible. I was just wondering your thoughts? Thanks!
Sure I would be interested in showing my kitchen and Frig.
I don’t think it is good to keep the eggs in the fridge. For health and hygiene reasons, the eggs should be kept away from the other food or in a fridge for eggs.
I LOVE to see other’s kitchens 🙂
Thanks.
I love how compact and to the point your kitchen is, are you also into being minimal? 🙂
I’m trying! I’m a fan of the KonMari method 🙂