20 Stocking Stuffers for a Real Foodie

Christmastiiime is here!

Happiness and   — CRAP! Christmas is like, next week! :-O

Is the Santa at your house having a bit of a freakout right about now? Not to fear. You have til the end of today (Monday) to order last-minute stocking stuffers on Amazon and still have them reach you before Christmas. And if you’ve got real foodies on your list, I’m your elf!

Here’s a list of 20 inexpensive, small gifts for anyone who loves food and cooking, but especially those who live a traditional foods lifestyle. These are small tools and gadgets that are super helpful in the kitchen, yet are simple things that often get overlooked or bought on-the-cheap when shopping for yourself. These are the gifts that keep on giving!

 

 

A big wooden spoon. You need one of these bad boys for stirring and skimming and scooping all sorts of stuff when cooking real food. Big wooden spoons also come in handy for flipping over a chicken mid-roast, and for tying a bundle of yogurt or kefir to so you can drain out the whey. Plus, when you make kefir and kombucha, you can’t use a metal spoon to stir because it can hurt the culture. Wooden spoons are  a must!

 

 

Candy thermometer. The thermometer shown here is an all-purpose one you can use for meats, yogurt, bread, and you know, actual candy. A thermometer can really help a new foodie especially with providing a bit more confidence in the kitchen.

 

 

A little strainer. This is perfect for straining things into a mason jar. I want one so I can try out perpetual bone broth making, and strain out individual servings of stock into a mug!

 

A decent garlic press. So much easier than peeling and mincing by hand. But the three-dollar ones from Wal-mart just don’t cut it.

 

A veggie peeler. This is one of those gadgets that you kind of forget to get for yourself when you’re just starting out cooking. A million cuts on your thumbs from regular knives later, and you’ll love getting a nice vegetable peeler to have handy.

 

  

Reusable produce bags. Perfect for taking to the farmer’s market where they won’t have a roll of the wasteful plastic kind you find at the grocery store. And if you do shop for produce at the store, you can bring these along to spare yourself the 8 little annoying baggies you wind up stuffing under your sink every time that you can never figure out what to do with.

 

 

The Ove Glove. The one made-for-TV infomercial product I can actually get behind. I don’t have one of these, but I’ve used one before, and all I can say is, I need two. I burn my poor hands on probably a weekly basis from my oven and hot things on the stove top. A hot pad just isn’t enough to protect me from my clumsiness!

 

 

Little muslin baggies. These are great for holding onto things like water kefir grains, or spices you want to easily remove from soups.

 

 

A silicone basting brush. Who doesn’t have one of those wooden ones with bristles that just get nasty and slimy, and metal that rusts? A silicone brush washes out easily and a nice one like this holds liquids well and is tapered for brushing delicate pastries.

 

 

Pepper mill set. There are lots of pepper mills available, but if you want a set with a salt shaker, this seems to be a good one. It’s not the cutest, or the cheapest, but it has the best reviews. You could even throw in some real sea salt, to make sure they don’t fill the shaker up with the fake stuff!

 

 

A spatula, the scrape-y kind. A real foodie needs these to scrape out every last bit of your homemade goods in all those mason jars we use. Like veggie ferments, yogurt, or extra thick kefir.

 

 

A spatula, the flipping kind. We all could use a good one of these. Most people seem to have the junky plastic kind. A nice stainless steel is nontoxic and much more durable!

 

 

A fancy rolling pin. Maybe it’s a little large to stuff in a stocking, but a pin that adjusts to roll out precise thickness with removable disks would make any real food baker very happy.

 

 

A fun whisk. Forget boring stainless steel! Yes, that’s a squirrel inside the ones pictured. There’s also a bird and a bunny one available. And a festive rainbow one with no animals, as well as a happy bright red silicone whisk.

 

 

A good cheese grater. Unless you have a good one like this, you hate your cheese grater. It flops all over the place and is super dull (yet still manages to grate a finger on occasion) and it makes a big mess while taking forever to get the job done. You loathe having to pull it out of the kitchen tool drawer. You’d love a nice grater that shreds in varying courseness, and even slices, measures, and stores your cheese!

 

  

Magnetic measuring spoons. I first thought these were genius when I saw that they were double-sided (leaving you with half the spoons to lose in your drawer) — but it gets better. They’re magnetic, and stick together so you don’t lose them at all!

 

 

Measuring cups shaped like cute Russian dolls. Pretty adorable. They are functional as well and have great reviews on Amazon.

 

 

Oil sprayer. Like we would ever use Pam, right?! Well, now we can make our own, with olive oil, and no nasty chemicals or GMOs!

 

 

Pastry chopper/scraper. This is a great tool for making your own bread or other baked goods. It’s designed to “scrape and split bread dough as you work with it on a board,” but can also be used for “crushing, chopping, and even measuring.”

 

 

Cookie cutters. You could stuff a whole bunch of stockings with this big tub of 101 cookie cutters. There are some great holiday-themed ones available as well.

 

Well there you have it! It’s time to start stuffing. Are you an experienced Santa for real food folk? What else would you add to this list? 

{disclaimer: I realize this post looks like a giant advertisement for Amazon. But these are genuinely things I think people would love to have as gifts, and if you decide to snag any of them through my links, the tiny commission I will get helps to pay for prizes for you. Like the two copies of Nourishing Traditions I’m giving away to two winners this weekend!}

[Image credit: sercasey on Flickr}

{This post is linked to Monday Mania at The Healthy Home Economist!}