Innovations in kitchen appliances over the years have enabled us to be able to make restaurant-quality meals at a moment’s notice. We can look up a new recipe instantly on our phones, or even order the ingredients needed and have them delivered straight to our door. All that convenience and choice at our fingertips empowers us to cook healthy meals for our families and ourselves, but we need the right accessories in our kitchens. Here are the tools you need to have ready to go that will make healthy cooking quick and easy.
Kitchen Scale
Surprisingly, especially for someone like me who tends to really “wing” my recipes, inaccurate amounts of ingredients makes a big difference in the final product. Next time you decide to try a new recipe, weigh your ingredients with a kitchen scale (this one has a collapsible silicone bowl) instead of measuring the volume with measuring cups. The more accurate the ingredients are by volume, the more accurate (and tasty) your recipe will be! The Vortex kitchen scale has a large dishwasher safe bowl, making it the perfect scale for heavy-duty recipes. Keep one of these in your kitchen to get accustomed to weighing your ingredients instead.
Blender or “Bullet”
Blenders aren’t just for margaritas, even if that is one of our favorite uses. Blenders are actually an easy way to make healthy and fresh soup. Some recipes also call for decadent sauces that a blender can prepare quickly. A Magic Bullet-type blender is perfect if you typically cook for one or two; you can make just the perfect amount, if you make sure to weigh your ingredients first. The Wave is a great scale to use for wet ingredients like these because it’s waterproof (just run it under water to clean it).
Instant Pot
The most common complaint with cooking healthy has nothing to do with the taste of the food—it’s typically about the time required to prepare it. The Instant Pot allows you to cook healthy meals like chicken chili or brown rice in 15 minutes or less. Having one of these in your kitchen gives you no excuse to avoid making a nutritious meal!
Knife Sharpener
No one likes buying new knives every few months, but if you use them as often as you should, your knives will get dull. Make sure you have a knife sharpener in your kitchen so cutting up fresh vegetables is always safe and effortless.
Vegetable Spiralizer
Remember when zucchini noodles was all we were hearing about? There was a reason for that—they offered a quick and healthy alternative to noodles and pasta dishes. “Zoodles” are great, but it turns out you can use a vegetable spiralizer to substitute pretty much any vegetable for pasta. Carrots, butternut squash, cucumbers and sweet potatoes are other common veggies used in the spiralizer. They’re easy to use, and having one on hand allows you to make a low carb meal in a cinch.
Inspired to make some changes to your kitchen? Check out other ways to get healthy with a kitchen scale.