13 best kitchen gadgets for meal preparation

CNN
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If you're new to meal prep as a lifestyle, making sure you have the right meal prep containers is an important starting point. But once you get hooked on meal prep, you'll want to take it to the next level with kitchen gadgets and small appliances that make the task a little easier and a little more exciting.

We spoke to meal prep experts Alison Spungin, a nutrition coach and certified personal trainer, and Talia Collen, a meal prep expert and founder of Workweek Lunch, to learn more about meal prep. We asked him about his essential tools.

Before investing in kitchen appliances that cost money and take up valuable space in your kitchen, make sure you are happy with the basics. A good knife, a cutting board that suits you, and a colander set for draining and rinsing canned goods, herbs, herbs, etc. vegetables.

Every meal prep expert we spoke to emphasized the importance of a good knife for meal preparation. If your knives are junk, plan from the beginning to invest in a basic knife set, like this set of 6 colorful knives from Cuisinart.

Heavy plastic or wooden cutting boards are fine in the kitchen, but when it comes to meal prep, it's also worth having a set of lightweight, flexible cutting mats on hand. When chopping lots of different things at once, being able to quickly shuffle between multiple cutting boards without having to stop and wash them in between slicing tomatoes or chopping basil is a game changer.

Prepworks Steel Colander ($12.99; amazon.com)

Small tasks like opening a can of beans, draining them, washing them, and adding them to a salad or grain bowl can save you time and energy when you need to throw together a quick lunch or dinner. Investing in a nesting colander set allows you to drain and wash multiple types of food at once without interrupting cleaning during preparation.

If your training or weight loss goals address meal prep, a food scale is an invaluable tool. Spungin, who uses meal prep to enhance his strength training efforts, says, “I love electronic food scales because they help me measure portions for weekly meals and recipes.” .

Spungin loves using specialized tools to mix up her meal prep and keep things from getting boring. “He loves the veggie spiralizer, which turns zucchini, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and other root vegetables into a noodle-like texture. Pair these low-carb noodles with regular noodles for even more bang for your buck. I am.”

Vegetable peelers fall into the “basic” category, but having a set that can do more than peel potatoes will take your meal prep even further. This set includes a straight peeler, a large peeler for julienne and slicing, and a julienne peeler for detailed work.

A basic truth about meal prep is that things can get boring quickly. But microplanes can literally add some passion to boring meals. Use this tool to grate lemon, lime, and orange zest to add flavor to dishes, dressings, and sauces. Quickly grate hard cheeses like Parmesan over salads, soups, and pasta. Or, it's also useful for easily grating ingredients that add big flavor, like garlic or ginger, for use in a variety of dishes.

Both Koren and Spungin recommend investing in a mini food processor to add more options to your meal prep routine. Spungin uses her Mini Food Processor to make her homemade hummus, pesto, and salsa, and Koren uses her Mini Food Processor for sauces and spreads.

“Immersion blenders are great; they take up very little space and are great for making soups and sauces,” says Spungin. If you're short on space in your kitchen, look for an immersion blender with a chopping jar attachment to replace a standalone mini food processor.

Although most meal prep experts will steer you away from single-task gadgets, there are times when very specialized gadgets are better suited for your kitchen. These are some of the best and most original single tasks we've found.

The simple act of chopping a salad can make a world of difference in consuming and enjoying your vegetables. However, chopping individual items can be very tedious and a very tedious task. The solution to this problem is the salad chopper, which allows you to cut items all at once while still in the bowl.

Another common problem with meal prep and chopping is that chopping herbs is the worst. If you often get frustrated when chopping basil, parsley, coriander and other fresh herbs, but don't want to forget the wonderful flavor they add to your food, herb scissors will be your savior.

According to the experts we spoke to, changing up your dressings and sauces is key to avoiding getting stuck in a meal planning rut. Instead of buying store-bought salad dressings, which are often expensive and unhealthy, get into the habit of making your own. This dressing and sauce keeper makes things easier by marking the measurements on the outside of the bottle so you can quickly mix the ingredients inside the container.

If zipper bags are your food storage container of choice, you probably know that filling them can be quite a hassle, especially for liquid foods like chili or stews. These bag-like holders solve that problem, allowing you to create a kind of packaging assembly line that easily transports food from pots to storage containers.