As Morgan Freeman says in Bruce Almighty, “a mother who works 2 shifts a day, still finds time to take her son to a football match, that’s a miracle”. It’s really a miracle that women can handle multiple tasks beautifully.
For all the multitasking super mom’s, here are 30 ‘Must-Haves” for your kitchen which can make your day easier.

Recipes and knowledge book: A good recipes book which contains recipes ranging from baby, infant and toddlers would be very useful. With a good book in hand, making healthy and tasty dishes would become very easy. Recipe books can be a very good source for you to take the right food according to the situation. Few recommended books are Top 100 Baby Purees By Annabel Karmel, The Wholesome Baby Food Guide:by Maggie Meade

Kitchen “Must Haves” for Super Mom’s

Crockery and utensils are very much essential for a good kitchen. It’s not about the sheer number of utensils that you have in your kitchen, but the most useful ones are that matter.

Crockery for kids: A family with children knows this very well. It can be risky to use chinaware crockery in a home full of kids. Anything can go wrong and the platters or serving bowls would shatter making a bang. Instead, use non-breakable crockery as much as possible, until your kids are of certain age where they can understand that running around in kitchen can cost hundreds of dollars.

Dried fruits: Dried fruits such as raisins, plums, prunes, figs,dried apricots, etc. These are extremely nutritious foods that you can ever imagine. Not all of them are required. Stock them at your convenience and make sure to have your breakfast with a bowl of all dried fruits mixed.

Nuts: almonds, cashews, pistachios, walnuts, brazil nuts, hazelnuts, chestnuts, etc. Nuts are also one of the most nutritive food sources. During ancient times only kings and filthy rich bureaucrats could afford them. But, today we can buy most of them. So, try having as many types of nuts as possible.

Fresh fruits: While dried fruits and nuts are great for breakfast, fresh fruits can be great evening snack. Eat variety of fruits including apples, papaya, banana, orange, , apricot, plums, blueberries, dates, strawberries, mango, kiwis and lot more. If possible, try a new fruit (which is safe for you) and you can also try number of fruits in the form of fruit salad.

Vegetables: Nowadays, you can find number of vegetables ranging from carrots, beets, potato, sweet potato,bottle gourd, green peas, beans, cucumbers, etc and lot more. You can either make fresh salads with these vegetables or can cook them in the most interesting ways. Add your favourite spices to make them much more interesting than they are.

Herbs and Spices: Herbs and Spices are another healthy way to get vitamins and minerals. Add generous amounts of herbs  to your salads, condiments, sausages, etc to make them nutritious and tasty. Few essential and commonly used  herbs include fennel, cinnamon, ginger, garlic and lemon balm.  Kitchen spices don’t just add taste to our food but have medicinal and healing power as well. Few spices that mon’s cant do without include basil, cardamom, cumin, cloves, coriander, mustard seed, rosemary, thymes, etc.

Milk: Milk is an essential food item that most of us have early in the morning. Milk contains essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, proteins, minerals, vitamins and fat though low fat milk is preferred nowadays from health point of view. Do not feed cow milk or goat milk to children below the age of 1 year.

Yogurt: Yogurt is a secondary product of milk. It is prepared by bacterial fermentation and coagulation of the milk. The bacteria that ferments milk into yogurt is a probiotic or friendly bacteria. Consuming yogurt keeps your digestive system healthy.

Cheese: Cheese is another product prepared from milk. Cheese contains the milk protein casein which is solidified in the process. Many types of cheese such as cheddar cheese, swiss cheese, brie cheese, etc are widely available today. Be careful with cheese made from unpasteurized milk.

Cottage cheese: Cottage or homemade cheese is considered as the best way to prepare cheese as recipes are freely available now. Cottage cheese, when prepared at home, can last longer, fresher and taste better. Commercial cheese has a lot of salt to protect it from spoiling. On the other hand, you might not add so much of salt and hence, it is good for you and your family’s health.

Tofu: Tofu is generally made by coagulating soymilk. Tofu can be a substitute for people with lactose intolerance. It is nutritious as it contains fewer calories and more protein compared to hard cheese. Soy allergies can be aggravated by tofu, so be careful with it.

Pudding: One can find a variety of puddings nowadays. Various ingredients ranging from rice flour, wheat flour and a variety of fruits are added to puddings. Opt for low-fat puddings as the regular ones can contain high-fat content.

Cereal: Cereals are the easiest breakfast one can imagine. The only thing to be careful while buying cereal is to buy only unsweetened cereals with high dietary fiber. Sweetened cereals increase calorie intake drastically.

Peanut butter: Peanut butter is a great way to make your breakfast toasts interesting. Peanut butter is made by grounding peanuts. Get all the goodness of peanuts from peanut butter. It is safer to stay away from peanut butter for those people with peanut allergy.

Whole wheat bread: Whole wheat bread or brown bread is considered to be much better than the usual white bread due to the presence of dietary fiber. Dietary fiber is very essential for good health as it the best laxative and can control diabetes.

Whole grain crackers: Crackers made from a variety of grains can be found in the market today. Some of the ingredients include rice flour, wheat, millet, oat, etc. You can also opt for mixed grain crackers. Mixed grain crackers can be better than others as you get the goodness of 3 or more grains at once.

Rice cakes: Rice cakes are made from rice flour or with boiled rice battered to form a paste to be made into a cake. Rice cakes are very popular all over Asia, ranging from China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Philippines to Japan. You can get these rice cakes depending upon the type of Asians near your place.

Baked chips: Baked chips are a very good alternative to fried chips. Frying potato chips in oil is irrefutably linked to obesity. Instead, one can opt for baked chips which are a healthier option.

Dips: Dips are the best side dishes that go along well with chips. Chips without dips taste boring, regular and most of all dry. You can make low-fat dips with many ingredients such as herbs, vegetables and spices. You can find many recipes in books and online.

Granola bars: Granola bars are one of the best snacks that you can think of, in terms of health and taste. There are many commercial flavors available and you can also make them easily at home.

Bagels: Bagels are good snack during evenings and sometimes a couple of bagels can be had for breakfast as well. You can buy bagels and store them for a very long time. Just make sure to pack them in such a way that there is no air present in the package and refrigerate it.

Pita bread: Pita bread is flat bread which is very popular in the Mediterranean region. Flattened pieces of dough are baked in the earthen or regular oven at high temperatures. The preparation is of pita bread is very similar to pizza and is very healthy and filling.

Unsalted and low-fat popcorn: Popcorn is not just a snack for watching movies. In fact, they are very good source of carbohydrates, protein and minerals. You can have a handful of popcorn during evenings.

Pretzels: Pretzels are traditional European bread preparation often known for their sweet flavor. There is a visual sense of appeal for pretzels due to their symmetric shape. Two types of pretzels namely, soft and hard types are popular nowadays.

Mayonnaise dressings: Mayonnaise is a condiment which can be added to salads. This sauce is made from ingredients such as oil, egg yolk, vinegar or lemon juice and a lot of herbs and spices.

Salsa (sauce): Salsa is one of the most popular sauces from the Mexican cuisine. Generally made from tomatoes, they are very popular today for their wide range of tastes and flavors. One can find sweet, hot, sour and mixed flavors in the market.

Entrees: Entrees or appetizers, as the names suggest are taken before can be made with low-fat burritos, pasta, tomatoes and vegetable sauces. They can be easily made at home and they taste great. One can find many recipes for healthy entrees in various cook books.

Pre-packed vegetables: Nowadays in most grocery stores, one can find pre-packed vegetables. Vegetables such as carrots, beets, potato, broccoli, sweet potato, capsicum, beans, eggplant, cucumber, etc are cleaned, peeled and cut into pieces and packed. One can find individual vegetables as well as mixed vegetables. These are ready to be cooked. If you want to store them, make your shopping trip shorter, get back home and put them in the refrigerator as soon as possible.