I’ve mentioned various times in the blog posts that we love doing things as a family – cooking is one of them. I have friends who say they simply can’t stand to have anyone else around them in the kitchen when they’re doing the food prep or stirring in the pans, but to us, that’s where all the magic happens with our meals.

When we join efforts together as a family, we’re able to pour our love into our food, and let me tell you the result is truly delicious! Also, as a mum, seeing my boys feeling happy about helping out around the kitchen and housework, in general, is truly heart-warming because it gives me a sense of peace they’re going to grow into responsible individuals who would later on share the chores with their partners.

Still, having in mind our food prep and cooking areas aren’t as spacious as we need them to be, we have to be as creative as we can when we all work together. For instance, this means knowing when we shouldn’t get in each other’s way and getting useful cooking accessories designed to make cooking easier and all the more fun. Two accessories, in particular, I’ve found to make a lot of difference.

Chopping Boards

Though we have enough countertops for chopping the ingredients, sometimes when both my husband and I are working on the same stage of the meals, we need all the space we can get and that’s where my sink chopping board proves to be essential. Even though I wasn’t that keen on buying it, and it was Ethan’s idea to get one, I now affirm I like it more than my regular board because of the many benefits it’s so far provided us with.

Saves Up Countertop Space

In a smaller kitchen, you come to value space a lot, and there are times when you need the countertops for storage rather than chopping. Using kitchen sink accessories like the board allows me to keep all of my countertops free for storage of ingredients, pans, pots, cookbooks and whatnot as I do the chopping over the sink.

What I also like is that such additions help me preserve my precious granite countertops from any accidental knife scratches, spills and any other damages. As a natural stone, I prefer granite over quartz, but it can be quite challenging to maintain it because it’s porous, and it’s even worse when it comes to fixing damages.

Saves up Time

When you’ve got a bigger family to feed or you’re preparing some party and you can’t keep the guests waiting, you need to save up as much time as you can when doing the food prep and cooking. Well, this is exactly what cooking accessories in the example of sink boards do – not only do I get to cut and chop up on the spot, I also get to wash up all the veggies at the same time, without having to do so one by one. Then once I’m finished, it’s just as easy to do the cleaning up afterwards; the mess stays in the sink, not outside of it.

Options Aplenty

Since there are different types of sink boards available in the stores, you don’t have to choose one made from wood, as you’ve also got options like plastic if you prefer them for meat cutting, for instance. In case you don’t need one to cover up the whole of the sink, or you’ve got a smaller sink, to begin with, that’s what the half board design is for.

Strainer Bowl

I like to think of myself as handy in the kitchen, but truth be told, I’ve done some mishaps, one of them being spilling freshly cooked pasta all over the sink, ending up throwing it all in the trash. Thank God for the kitchen accessories shops offer!

The sink strainer bowl proved to be much more useful than I thought it would; of course, at first I tried it out with draining pasta and as you can guess there have been no spills ever since! Now we can cook pasta without the worry we’d end up dining sandwiches instead. Also, same as with the board, I get to wash up various fruits and veggies at the same time, cutting down on the food prep time considerably.

To be even more productive when at the kitchen, I got one of the half boards too which I get to use secured over the strainer bowl which is over the sink. Multitasking hasn’t always been my forte but with the help of these handy cooking accessories, I’m happy to say I’m getting really good at it.

Sometimes, when the boys are busy playing and I’m taking care of the cooking by myself, while the pasta is draining and the sauce is cooking on the stove, I like to cut some cheese and grate it. When you’ve got the board over the bowl, you can do that simultaneously – just the way I like it.