I’m glad to hear that so many of you have been enjoying these gift guides! I love recommending great products to you. I mean, I get to do that with clothes all the time, but there are so many non-clothing products that Benson and I love that I get excited to share with you during the holidays! If you want to see other gift guides, go HERE.
Today’s gift guide is a random collection of things we love. We were given a lot of these gifts as a couple, but we have gifted them to singles and couples alike. Almost everything from last year’s list is repeated this year (because like I’ve said before, once we find good stuff we don’t need to replace them often and continue to use them through years!) I’ve added a few other things this year though!
Links to Shop:
1. Sous Vide // 2. Santoku Knife // 3. Chef’s Knife // 4. Instant Pot
5. Electric Kettle // 6. Water Bottle // 7. Pint Glass // 8. Wine Tumbler // 9. Massager
10. Air Mattress // 11. Throw Blanket // 12. Blender
13. Personalized Door Mats // 14. Personalized Cutting Boards
15. Diffuser // 16. Storage Containers
REVIEWS OF ITEMS
1. Sous Vide – All my cousins love this. If you haven’t heard of sous vide, it’s basically a way of cooking that is incredibly EASY, but PRECISE. You put that stick in a pot of water, and the stick heats the water to whatever temp you set it and maintains the water that exact temperature, no matter how long you leave it in there. You put food + any optional herbs and marinade into a ziplock or vacuum sealed bag, place it all in the water, and it will cook your food as if it’s in a water oven. However, unlike a normal oven where if you leave food in there too long it’ll overcook, sous vide magically maintains the food at the same temperature! There’s also a WiFi version so that you can set it up in the morning, leave the house, then turn it on through your phone while you’re away.
2 & 3. Whustoff Knives – We’ve had these since we got married and absolutely love them. Multiple friends who’ve cooked at our house are always super impressed with how well these knives cut and end up getting their own, albeit the price tag, because they’re that great to work with. Option 3 is cheaper but Option 2 is the one I’d choose if we could only have one.
4. Instant Pot – One of my foodie cousins gave this to us last Christmas, and since then we’ve used it to make some of the most tender meat. We’ve also used it to cook rice quickly when we forget to turn use our rice cooker. I will say it is not instant, but you can cook some really good food for way less time than a slow cooker. Also, you can sautee items right in the pot, so if you brown meats before slow cooking, with an instant pot you don’t have to use a separate pot or pan to sautee before throwing it into the slow cooker. The Instant Pot lets you do that all in one, so you have less dishes to do. You should read more about it in the reviews HERE because the collective knowledge there does it way better justice than I could do!
5. Electric Kettle – Got this last year after our kettle of 10+ years died. The design is super sleek design, and you can boil water at different temperatures, which means my water always comes out the perfect temp for me to drink right away. I never have to wait for it to cool down enough anymore. 😀 And it keeps the water hot up to 30 min after!
6. Water Bottle – If you’ve followed my gift guides this year and last, you might be sick of seeing this! But I mean it when I say I can’t talk about it enough! Available in several sizes, tons of colors, and with several different lid types (straw, screw top, button opening, etc.) Keeps your water cold up to 24 hours and warm up to 6!
7 & 8. Pint Glass and Wine Tumbler – We got the pint glass for Benson a year (or two??) ago and though it’s meant for beer, he has loooooved that it keeps his water hot for long periods of time. These are really fun gifts to give our friends to enjoy beer and wine at picnics and barbecues on really hot days.
9. Massager – I talked about this in the Men’s Gift Guide, but I’m putting it here again because this is really a favorite of both Benson and mine! In the men’s guide I said we’ve given it to 3 guys already who loooove it, but we’ve actually given it to 2 women as well who also love it!
10. Air Mattress– We use this when guests come over, and it’s pretty sturdy. It has an electric motor to inflate by itself. What I really like is the headboard. I’ve slept on air mattresses without the headboard, and unless pushed against a wall, pillows creep off the edge. With the headboard, you don’t have to be pushed against a wall–you can put this in the middle of a room–and pillows will stay in place.
11. Throw Blanket – This makes a super easy gift if you don’t know what to get someone. It’s sooo soft and fuzzy and comes in a ton of colors. No one will be sorry if they receive this gift! 😀
12. Hand Blender – We received this as a gift many Christmases ago. Honestly, it sat in our cupboard for a while–until we needed to make butternut squash soup. (A recipe from my “fancy cooking” cousin.) Rather than blending the squash in a mixer, little by little at time then having to transfer it, we could blend all the squash right in the big pot with this hand blender. After that, we were like, “Whoa, this thing is really handy!” It also does a ton of other things, like chops, grinds vegetables and garlic, whisks, etc. You can read about all its awesomeness HERE.
13. Personalized Door Mats – We don’t have these yet, but I thought of them because we need doormat. The one we have now was the one that the previous owner of our previous house had. We just brought it with us when we moved, haha! There are tons of options on Etsy, but this shop not only has personalized names, it also has funny ones. See them HERE.
14. Personalized Cutting Board – These are pretty darn affordable but make great gifts. My mom is the hardest person ever to shop for (but who’s mom isn’t? ;P). Years ago I got her a personalized cutting board, and she still uses it to this day! There are some with the name in the middle that is better for displaying food, but there are some where the engraving goes on the top or bottom to make ample room for cutting. (The latter is the kind I got my mom.) You can see TONS of varieties HERE.
15. Essential Oil Diffuser Humidifier – We’re not hugely into essential oils, but whenever Addie is sick she coughs so hard that she throws up in her sleep. That’s when we bust out the oils and humidifier! We started with the doTERRA diffuser because of our friend, but we like this one WAY more. It’s bigger and lasts MUCH longer (like around 10 hours!). It can change to 7 different colors. Oh, and it’s only around $25! (Amazon keeps changing the price every time I look at it, haha!)
16. Oxo Storage Containers – Perhaps we are weirdos, but we LOVE these containers! Okay, we are weirdos, but 600 other people gave these 4.6 stars! 😀 We’ve had these containers for years and use them to store snacks, cereal, baking goods, etc., though you can also use them to store knick knacks. They’re a bit pricey, but they look great and seal really well!
MORE GIFT GUIDES
If you’re in need of more gift ideas, check out my latest ones below:
- Gifts for Her: My favorite things
- Gifts for Him: My husbands favorites
- Gifts for the Traveler (for Men and Women): Our favorite and most used travel items
- Cozy Gifts
