I’m sharing this resource page to quickly list recommended kitchen appliances, books and cookbooks, and blogging resources that I use and love.
Disclosure: There are some affiliate links below, and I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post, but these are all products I highly recommend. I won’t put anything on this page that I haven’t verified and/or personally used.
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⏲ Kitchen Favorites
Instant Pot: This has been one of my favorites because I have two different models; A Lux from 2018 and a DUO from 2020, just for the yogurt function and food photography and recipe testing. It makes cooking a breeze, and no supervision is required, plus it tastes fantastic. I am highly recommending investing in one of these.
Panasonic Rice Cooker: Another oldie but goodie, perfect when you don’t have the time to babysit your pot of rice. Add the ingredients to the rice cooker, and it will cook perfectly every time. I have used it to make pancakes, soup, oats, and more.
Hamilton Beach Slow Cooker is one of my favorite kitchen gadgets because you can add all the ingredients you want to cook and sit until ready. They are cheap, great for making stews, or even beans and legumes.
Nutri Ninja Mega Kitchen System: It is a bundle of a high-speed blender and food processor. I bought this bundle when I moved to my apartment almost six years ago, and it still works perfectly, plus the blades are sharp, just like day one. Perfect for smoothies, pureeing soups, even making different kinds of nut butter, and mixing dough. An excellent tool for meal planning.
Nutribullet: It has been with me for more than ten years and has kept strong. I use it for smoothies, sauces; you name it, perfect when I don’t want to dirty the big blender, plus it is not as loud as the other one.
Food Storage Containers: These are a staple in every kitchen if you are a meal prep person. I love that they are so versatile. You could bake in some of them, others you can even freeze in them. The glass ones are preferred because they are stain and odor-resistant. You can also use the food storage containers to marinate meats or even bake your favorite cake in them.
Mason jars: These are simple to use and you can stack them up too. The 8 oz mason jars are perfect for meal prep your overnight oats or your chia seeds pudding, etc. You can get them in different sizes like 4 oz, up to 64 oz. Use the bigger ones to store grains like rice, oats, lentils and make your kitchen look pretty.
Kitchen Scale: I have had one since 2013 when I started my healthy/fitness journey. I used it for portion control. It’s perfect for baking precisely, you can skip using the measuring cups and measure each ingredient by weight.
Measuring cups and spoons set: These are great for following the recipes, and for portion control. I love the Joseph Joseph brand and I got this set of measuring cups and bowls. I love how colorful they are.
Mixing bowls: The glass ones are my favorites, and this set of 3 is what you need. Mix in your batter for cake and cupcakes, or simply marinate your meats in them!
Related: Kitchen Appliances to make your life easier!
📖 Favorite Books & Cookbooks
Cookbooks
These are a couple of my favorite cookbooks, some give you an insight on how to cook. The others are:
- Japanese Cookbook I got in Japan (I enjoy a lot Japanese cuisine).
- Panamanian Cookbook (Unfortunately its only in Spanish).
- Instant Pot Cookbook, it helped me out when I was starting with my Instant Pot.
- A find in a target when I traveled to the US, a Chrissy Tiegen Cookbook.
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking
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T’ACH Cocina Autóctona Panameña (Kindle)
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Cravings: Hungry for More Chrissy Teigen
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Personal Development & Business Related
I generally buy kindle books or hear audiobooks because of space, I live in a small apartment. These are the books that I have read and enjoy, some I have read more than once. The current one is third on the display and it had motivate me to continue my blogging journey!
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The Common Path to Uncommon Success
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Audible Plus: I’m a fan of hearing audiobooks when I’m doing my morning walks, or when I have to commute. I highly recommend Audible since you get a credit for a book when you signup for the premium version.
📸 Photography & Video Gear
Canon EOS 60D: My first DSLR, I bought it from a friend, and it has been the one I have used for photography and my side angle in videos until this day. With it, I practiced and got better at photography.
Canon G7X Mark II: I bought this one when I traveled to Japan, and I wanted to start vlogging. Well, I used it in Japan but it hasn’t begun vlogging yet. I started using it for the top-down shot of my hands in a pans video.
Tripod: I got a simple tripod with a middle bar that can move into a top-down position. So far, it does the job. I want to get another one that makes it simpler to adjust the height. I recommend having clips for easy adjusting. Since I have it set up in one place, it’s easier. I also got an overhead rig and DIYed my overhead setup for my videos.
SD Card: You need a faster SD card and a bigger capacity when you do videos. I love the Sandisk brand. I have had a couple for quite some time now. Look for quick SD cards that read higher than 170MBs, and you should be okay with video. These will also work for photography too.
External Hard drive: I use a simple external hard drive to store my photos and video footage to not slow down my computer. You can buy a solid-state external hard drive and edit it directly, which is a game-changer, but these are a little more expensive than the regular ones. You can always move it to your computer, edit, and then back the files to the hard drive.
Neewer Led Video Light: I started photographing using natural light, which I love and enjoy but noticed that sometimes I wasn’t available to work in the sun hours and needed to use artificial light to work at night. It’s also fantastic for video since you have a constant light source.
Canon 50 mm f/1.4 Lens: My DSLR came with this one, and it works fantastic. If you are starting, I highly recommend it.
Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro: If you want to take those sexy closeups of food, you can get your hands on a macro lens. I got the 60 mm since my DSLR is a cropped sensor. It would give me the same focal length as the 100 mm macro lens. You can get up and close and get those beautiful shots that make your food delicious.
Boya Microphone: A cheap microphone that does the work. I bought it to start doing voiceovers and eventually use it for making youtube videos (fingers crossed 2021 is the year).
Photography backdrops / Surfaces: You need a place to shoot your photos or videos. I started with a marble contact paper pasted to a 2×2 feet board, and it works well. Then I got a desk piece that broke and repurposed it as a backdrop. Lastly, I invested in some Replica surfaces, I bought the smaller ones, but next time I would get the bigger one for more real estate space. You can even use a big tile you can get cheap at your hardware store.
Reflector/ Diffuser: I have a couple of these. They are great for reflecting the light or diffusing the light. You can also use those simple poster boards to reflect light to the scene.
📝 Food Blogging Resources
If you think about starting a food blog or a website, I’m sharing what I currently use to run Nashi Food.
Blog Creation
Bigscoots: If you can afford a little more, you can use Bigscoots, their support service is excellent, and there is no downtime on your site. This is my current hosting company, plus it’s super fast.
Genesis Framework: If you are looking into the actual design of your blog, Genesis seems always to be the most popular. Genesis is used on my blog, and I highly recommend it. It’s free too, but you’ll need a child theme that gives you the look and feel.
Feast Theme: Feast Design is your best choice if you are looking for a beautiful and customizable Genesis Child Theme. I use the Foodie Pro Theme and the Feast plugin on my blog, I highly recommend them.
Keysearch: this is one of the easiest SEO tools I have, plus it is not as expensive as others in the market. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) helps you get found on Google and other search engines.
WP Recipe Maker Plugin: The best recipe card plugin you need for your food blog, it’s lightweight and fully customizable. It has a free and paid version. Both will help your schema and with Google Gods hehe.
Grow by Mediavine Plugin: This is the plugin I use to add the sharing functionality to my blog. It has different places you can share your posts with.
WP Rocket Plugin: If you need to speed up your site, get your hands on the WP Rocket plugin, just from being installed, and you will get excellent results. I highly recommend it.
Convert Pro Plugin: A perfect option for pop-ups or email subscription boxes to share on your blog. Keep in mind that you would need an email service provider to link it to. I use the free version of Mailchimp, which I enjoy using.
Tasty Links Plugin: This plugin helps with link building and is also an easy way to add affiliate links to your blog posts; too, plus it is user-friendly and straightforward to use.
Content Creation
Airtable: A database on steroids, perfect to organize your blog information. I use it to keep track of all of my blog information (blog posts, social media, recurring expenses, etc.) and for personal use as an expense tracker.
Canva Pro: One of the most straightforward tools for graphic design and easy video creation using images and text. It also has a free version if you would like to try it. I use this one for creating some of my blog graphics, Pinterest, and Instagram images.
Photoshop & Lightroom: My go-to photo editing applications for my recipe photos. It allows me to edit on my phone if I need to, which is convenient.
Tailwind: Great Pinterest scheduler option to help you be consistent. I think this. is the key to Pinterest and avoiding being glued to pining manually and giving you time back to enjoy.
Grammarly: I always use Grammarly to verify I don’t have any grammatical errors on my blog posts. Since English is not my first language, it helps a lot. It has a free version and a paid version which gives you more information and suggestions.
iMovie: This is a great video editor program, and it’s free if you are a Mac user.
Camtasia: Another video editing software to film my screen and edit in different sizes. Available for Mac and PC users.
