Today I am sharing with you guys a few of my key kitchen tools that I never knew I needed until I had them!  And recipes from the blog that utilize each tool too.

Zulay sent me a few of their products to try out and share with my readers, and all these tools I quickly realized quickly became much-needed and much-used when baking and cooking in my kitchen.

LEMON LIME SQUEEZER

This squeezer is essential in squeezing every last drop out of lemons, limes and small oranges!  Love how easy this is to use and that it prevents the seeds from getting into the juice squeezed out.  Cut your lemon or lime in half, insert in the half circle and press down to squeeze all the juice out.  If you are squeezing fruit by hand, then you need this.  SERIOUSLY.

The squeezer is a MUST for making making my Classic Lemon Bars.

And I have used this squeezer when extracting juice from blood oranges for my Orange Cherry Muffins…so there are more uses for this squeezer than just lemon and limes!

MULTI-PURPOSE ZESTER

This zester can be used for a multitude of options.  Of course, for zesting citrus fruits, but it can also be used to grate cinnamon sticks or nutmegs, or use it to grate a whole chocolate bar to shower your dessert with a sprinkling of chocolate shavings!  You use this like a cheese grater (you can grate cheese with it too actually!).  Just remember when zesting citrus fruits, you do not want to get any of the white pith underneath the skin.

Nice and sharp and the length of the zester makes it easy to use.

Have you made my Key Lime Sugar Cookies yet?!  Use this zester to zest the lime and the squeezer for the key lime juice used to make these AMAZING cookies!

Or maybe pie???  Nothing screams summer like my No Bake Lemon Cream Pie!  Fresh squeezed lemon juice and lemon zest are used in this quick and easy no bake pie!

SPLATTER SCREEN

This is one heavy duty splatter screen!  If you are a total clean freak like me, then this is one of those tools that helps keep kitchen messes at a minimum when cooking bacon or anything with grease.  Just place the splatter screen over your pan to prevent grease from spattering everywhere.  And you can also use it as a strainer!!  How awesome is that?!

I find the splatter screen essential when browning ground beef.  For when I make my Classic No Boil Lasagna.

Do you celebrate Taco Tuesday at your house?!  Then you need this!  Besides using it when browning ground beef for tacos, I also use the splatter screen when browning the meat used in my Five Ingredient Enchilada Casserole.

And there ya have it…a few of my kitchen essentials and some of my favorite recipes to use them in!  Click on these links to buy your own Zulay kitchen essentials: Squeezer, Zester and Splatter Screen.

XOXO,

Kelly