Cooking at home can be an excellent way to eat healthier, but ensuring your kitchen has all the tools it needs can make all the difference.
No matter your goals — be they cutting down sugar intake, increasing vegetable consumption or exploring vegan cuisine — these gadgets will be invaluable in reaching them. Plus, they make great additions for anyone who enjoys cooking!
Digital Scale
Anyone who needs to manage their portions – weight loss or just cutting down on junk food – needs a digital kitchen scale. Digital scales measure ingredients by weight rather than volume, providing more accurate readings that remove guesswork from measuring. Plus, using one is much faster than pouring ingredients directly into a measuring cup!
When choosing a kitchen scale, look for one with an easy-to-read display and a taring function (which automatically zeroes it back out after adding something), weight limit capability and measurement units such as grams, ounces or pounds. Many also come equipped with backlight or auto-off functions to reduce battery consumption and save battery life.
Some scales have extra features to simplify cooking, like barcode scanners and recipe adjustment capabilities. Others work with smart home devices or voice assistants for hands-free scale control. For those sharing their scale with family or roommates, multi-user profiles allow everyone to maintain their profile.
Kitchen scales also come equipped with features that help minimize mess and cleanup, such as being able to place a bowl or plate directly on top, press “tare”, and add ingredients one at a time – an especially convenient feature when making baked goods or complex meals, eliminating multiple measuring cups or dishes in the process.
Digital Thermometer
Food thermometers are essential for creating nutritious meals at home. Helping cook meats and other food at their ideal internal temperatures ensures they are safe to consume without risking foodborne illness. They’re also useful in quickly diagnosing fevers – and most come equipped with user-friendly functions!
These oven thermometers are designed to be left in your oven while cooking and feature a digital display with temperature settings and an inserted probe directly into food. Perfect for roasts and turkeys and checking liquid temperatures like boiling water, these timers also include an indicator to inform you when your dish should be removed from the heat source.
These thermometers are intended to be used only once and read within five to ten seconds after being inserted in the food’s centre. Commonly referred to as pop-up or disposable thermometers, these thermometers often have specific designs tailored for certain food items like hamburgers and turkey.
Instant-read thermometers tend to be more costly, but they have the advantage of staying inside food while it cooks, making them particularly helpful when used for larger items like turkeys and roasts. These thermometers offer more precise readings; some models can notify you when your food reaches its target temperature. Some models feature temperature detection features to provide more accurate readings when checking fever in infants or adults, and they feature backlit colour-coded displays showing normal, mild, and high temperatures, making them easy to use even in low light conditions and easily silenced without disrupting sleepers. Plus, many even come equipped with convenient storage cases!
Rice Cooker
Kitchen gadgets can help make healthy home cooking simpler and save both time and energy in the kitchen, saving both energy and time. While many kitchen gadgets may seem overrated, certain key tools are essential in meal prep and healthier eating. These basic tools make the kitchen experience much more functional and enjoyable!
Rice cookers are more than a one-trick pony: they’re an invaluable kitchen tool, capable of crafting everything from beans and stews to cakes and breads. Some even feature steamer baskets for easily steaming vegetables, tofu, or fish! Plus, having one in your kitchen can save time when making big batches of cooked grains ahead of time to be added to salads and other dishes throughout the week.
A high-quality food processor is one essential kitchen tool that simplifies meal prep. These tools can be invaluable when creating nut butter and spreads and chopping herbs and other ingredients quickly and thoroughly. For optimal performance, look for models with stainless steel bowls; these types of surfaces tend to be less reactive while maintaining the nutritional benefits of food.
If you love smoothies, a powerful blender in the kitchen is necessary. Be sure to select one with durable construction that’s easy to maintain and versatile enough for multiple smoothie recipes, with an ergonomic lid designed to make pouring the finished product into glasses or bowls effortless.
Installing kitchen gadgets that make creating nutritious, delicious meals easier is a surefire way to increase home cooking and eating healthily. But be wary of overspending on equipment you won’t use as often – invest instead in essential pieces that make life simpler when cooking at home!
DrinkMate OmniFizz
The Drinkmate OmniFizz makes carbonating any beverage easy, from water and juices to iced tea and coffee or energy drinks. As one of the USA’s most versatile home carbonation devices, mixologists and bartenders love it for revitalizing flat mixers such as soda or beer!
This machine looks and functions similarly to SodaStream, with an adjustable small footprint and similar functionality. The main difference lies in the collar/fizz infuser that features slow and fast pressure release tabs; this enables carbonating more viscous liquids (such as juice with pulp) without fear of the carbonation system exploding into Mentos and Coke style explosions of carbonation, while at the same time helping avoid messy spillage when slowly releasing pressure rather than all at once.
Carbonating any liquid, this machine excels at producing sparkling water. Simply fill up a bottle, mix some water and the beverage of choice, and press the carbonation button – simple yet delectable! Carbonation can be applied to fruit juices, tea or coffee beverages, energy drinks, wine, and cocktails!
Simply ensure your machine uses BPA-free bottles that can withstand dishwasher use and maintain them regularly to avoid blockages and pulpy juices that may clog your infuser, voiding your warranty.
Drinkmate OmniFizz stands apart from SodaStream by being manually operated without compressors or pumps, helping reduce plastic usage while cutting wasteful, unnecessary plastic usage and carbon emissions.
At any gas station, you can purchase and refill a stainless steel cylinder easily and economically – much cheaper than buying and disposing of disposable plastic bottles! Plus, its long lifespan means this investment will likely save money as time goes on.
The ‘PARTY PACK BUNDLE’ includes the Drinkmate OmniFizz, two 60L CO2 Cylinders (each capable of carbonating 120L of your favourite drinks!), one 1-litre BPA-free carbonating bottle, and one Fizz Infuser. Plus, a prepaid return label and exchange box are included – making exchange easier than ever!