How do I handle 23 month old tantrums when the trigger is me not playing with/doing what the child wants?

My daughter will be 2yrs old in 3 weeks. I'm a SAHM so if she had it her way, I'd spend the entire day entertaining her. She's been relatively easy to handle, and explaining things have helped a lot until recently to stop or prevent crying. The last week however has been out of control. I've been able to distract her enough to get the basics done throughout the day, but tantrums often start because I say I can't read/play/etc anymore because it's time to make lunch/dinner/clean/other things. Trust me when I say I involve her in these things. It has taken a lot of patience to let be involved like let her clean the toilet bowl (gives me twice the amount of work since I have to actually clean the bowl, and then clean up the mess she made). Dinner is hard because I'm usually at the end of my patience for the day and when I see her walking up with that dang step ladder, I'm close to losing it. She used to be more observant or calm during these activities but now she's desctructive so I often take the step ladder and put it out of reach with triggers a tantrum.
How do I deal with this? I'm not naturally patient and don't want to screw up my child.